When All Hell Breaks Loose (26 page)

“Really?” Mom says, interested.

“Yeah, he would walk her to class and carry her books. I don’t know why she didn’t like him. Shreese has always been particular.”

“What about you?” Mom asks.

“Me? I’m choosy, but not too choosy.”

“What made you decide on Adrian, then?”

“She was fun. From the time I met her, she was adventurous and full of energy. I like that in a woman.”

“So your other women weren’t like that?” Mom asks.

“Cheryl was,” Pops interrupts. “Cheryl Coleman was a nice girl.”

“Pops, Cheryl was a fatal attraction.”

“She was not. That girl had her head on straight, she had a good education, and she loved children.”

“There you go with that again.” I laugh. “When are you going to give it up?”

Louise looks at both of us. “Give what up?”

“Pops is on this grandchildren kick. He can’t wait for me or Reese to have kids so he can be a granddaddy.”

Mom looks over at Pops. “Oh really?”

“Gregory, I’m getting old. I ain’t going to tell you no more. Shit, at the rate you two are going, I’ll be dust before it happens anyway. Besides, what’s wrong with wanting a grandchild?”

“Adolphus, children cost money,” Louise says.

“This boy makes enough money. Gregory makes too much money, if you ask me.”

“Pops, it’s more to it than that,” I say.

“Greg, it’s no use. Adolphus will just have to get over it.”

“Aw woman,” Pops says as he bites his apple. “Greg is just being selfish.”

We all laugh at Pops.

He can be a real character sometimes. He got on this whole grandchildren issue after I turned twenty-six. We were leaving a restaurant, and this old man and a small child walked out ahead of us. Ever since then, Pops has been wanting grandkids. But I’m not having it. I know I’m not ready. Hell, I’ve been through too much to bring a kid into the world. Although once I’m married it won’t be a problem. Adrian will be a good mother, and I know our children will have a good foundation to be raised on. Solid as a rock.

I end up taking a nap on the couch, and when I wake up, Mom and Pops are locked up in the bedroom again. This time, I can hear the bed squeaking and it gives me butterflies that make me want to sneak up to the door and listen to my parents getting busy. Instead, I grab my keys and leave without saying a word.

I
call Tim from Adrian’s place. She hasn’t made it home yet, and I’m cooking dinner for her tonight. We’re having baked smothered chicken served with corn, hot rolls, and string beans. Mom gave me the recipe and so far, everything is going okay. Tim and Carla are leaving tomorrow for Baltimore and I want to holla at him before he leaves.

A female voice answers. “Hello?”

“Is Tim there?”

“Sure, hold on.”

“Yeah. It’s Tim.”

“Since when do you let a woman answer your phone?”

“Oh, that was just Carla. She can answer my phone anytime.”

“Sounds like you’re on lockdown, if you ask me.”

“Greg, I’m still the same Tim. Mack Daddy Supreme!”

Carla laughs in the background and I can hear her say, “You are so funny.”

I laugh on the phone. “Still the same Tim, huh?”

Tim sucks his teeth. “Man, she’s tripping. Anyway, what’s up?”

“I was just calling to chat with you before your trip to Baltimore.”

“We’re leaving in the morning. We won’t be back until Tuesday.”

“Tuesday? I thought this was a weekend excursion.”

“Well, Carla hasn’t seen her family since she moved here, so we’re going to spend a day in D.C.”

“You know what meeting the family means, don’t you?”

“Come on, Greg. This whole trip is innocent. Honestly, Carla and I have a lot of fun together. She’s the ideal woman, but I have to maintain my player status, bro. I will always be a player. Always.” Tim puts me on hold, and seconds later he comes back. “Say, Greg, can I call you back?”

“Nigga, whatever. Carla has your ass hemmed up tight.” I laugh. “Yeah, you can call me back later. I’m at Adrian’s.”

“Look who’s talking about being whipped, Mr. I’m-in-the-kitchen,” he teases.

“I’ll talk to you later, Tim.”

“Yo, Greg?”

“What’s up?

“Remember. I’m tha man!” Tim leaves me hanging. I shake my head and hang up on my end. Just as I do, Adrian walks through the door. She looks tired.

“Long day, baby?”

“Yes. My sisters came to the shop today.”

“How are they doing?”

“Tired and trifling. Both of them” is Adrian’s response.

She goes upstairs and changes into a pink lounging outfit, then comes into the kitchen where I am.

“Whatever you’re cooking, it smells good.”

“It’s smothered chicken.”

“I didn’t know you had cooking skills.” She smiles.

“My mom gave me the recipe, and I decided it was time to surprise you with a li’l somethin’ somethin’.”

“Well, bring it on then, big daddy.” Adrian giggles.

“So, how did it go with your sisters?”

She exhales a deep breath. “They came up to the shop today to get their hair done. Angel wanted her hair cut like mine. As soon as I cut
it, she started bitching that I took too much off the top. She always does that.”

“Does what?”

“Comes to the shop to get her hair done, and then after it’s finished, she complains.”

“What about Alanya?”

“Alanya never knows what the fuck she wants done, and she brought those bad-ass kids in the shop with her. I don’t know why she doesn’t make Daniel keep them when she has to get her hair done.”

“She and Daniel still together?”

“Off and on. All I know is, if both of my sisters never step foot in my shop again it would be fine with me.”

I give Adrian a hug.

At first she’s stiff in my arms; then she loosens up.

“Greg, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come home and bring all this down on you.”

“No, it’s okay,” I say, holding her. “That’s what I’m here for. The good times and the not-so-good.”

“Thanks. I wish Carla were here so I could talk to her.”

“You can’t talk to me?” I ask.

“Well … Carla knows my sisters a lot better than you do. It’s just easier to talk about them with her.” Adrian looks away. “It’s a girl thing.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t believe she’s been going out with Tim. That was the shocker.”

“I guess we both rubbed off on her.” I laugh. “Made her get back into the dating scene.”

“I guess we did,” Adrian says quietly.

The timer on the stove rings and I rush to take the rolls out of the oven. Adrian finishes setting the table while I make our plates.

When we finish dinner, I’m ready to take Adrian upstairs and make love to her. I’m always like that after a good meal. Most brothers are. That’s the best way to end a night and get some good, old-fashioned sleep. And the best way to start the morning off is having
sex, too. Adrian is usually down with sex after a good meal, but tonight she falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow. To be honest, I think she’s just not in the mood. She’s been out of it lately. Here I am, lying in bed, ready to serve my woman penis on a gold platter, and she’s asleep! Women don’t know what they’re missing half the time. They just don’t know.

T
his is the first Saturday in a long time that I’ve had to be at work. Adrian woke up this morning ready for some action. At first I tried to play it off because I wanted some last night, but beggars can’t be choosers and when she placed her wet crotch on my back and kissed me on my neck, I had to go ahead and make her happy. I know a whole lot of brothers who go through shit like this on a daily basis, so I’m lucky not to have to. What she got from me this morning still wasn’t half as good as what she could have received last night.

She left for the salon early because she wanted to fit additional customers in to make some extra money.

Tim and Phil are already at the office when I get there. Their cars are parked side by side. The few people who are present look tired. Everyone’s dressed in blue jeans, sneakers, and T-shirts. A few folks have their children with them.

On the way to my office, I see Phil in one of the meeting rooms with other members of the finance department. I don’t see Simone. She’s head of the department and I assumed she would be present. Phil nods, and I wave back as I pass by.

My office has a totally different feel to it on a Saturday. It’s quiet and I don’t have a million messages on my phone waiting to be answered like I have during the workweek. Data Tech is moving into the beginning of another fiscal year and everybody has end-of-the-year reports to do. My biggest plan is to have the database division partially virtual by the summer. That way, when we’re not working on presentation demonstrations, we can all communicate via laptops, cellular phones, and pagers. It’s long overdue, in my opinion. With all the money the teams helped me bring in last year, I’m sure we will be accommodated. But for right now, I have got to finish my report and get down to the copier room. Eric comes into my office and Jamal is with him. They both have serious looks on their faces. I’m wondering what Jamal is doing here in the first place, since he works from home.

“J, man, what brings you this way?”

“I was on my way to drop some layouts over at the Crescent Center. I saw your car pull in, so I stopped by. Glad I did.”

“Greg, you got a minute?” Eric sits in the chair nearest my desk.

“Sure, Eric. I need a break anyway. What’s up?”

“Man, did you know Simone left?”

“She left the company?”

“Turned in her resignation last week and never came to clean out her desk or nothing.”

“Damn. I guess that scene between her and Phil at D and B’s restaurant forced her to go. What did Phil have to say?”

“Phil is tripping. He’s been talking about it ever since he found out.”

“I saw him in the meeting on my way in. I’ll talk to him about it later.”

“Yeah, they’re trying to get all the reports together. Simone wasn’t the most organized person, from what they tell me.”

“Damn. Pressure is a motha.”

“But get this. Just so happens that LaShawn did dabble with the lesbian vibe,” Jamal says.

“How do you know?”

“One of her classmates works with my girl, Freedom. They all went to high school together.”

“What did the classmate say?”

He shrugs. “She just said that LaShawn dabbled after the relationship with her boyfriend went bad and she came up pregnant. After that, she was involved with another woman for about two years.”

“So she really is gay?”

“No. That relationship went down the drain. LaShawn went into counseling and ever since then, she’s been single and celibate.”

“Damn, that’s crazy.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Our people need to quit running around here doing all this crazy, out-of-nature, off-the-wall behavior. Black people aren’t supposed to be gay, especially the sisters.”

I laugh. “J, you know as well as I do that homosexuality has existed for millions of years. Early Greeks practiced.”

“Yeah, after Greece took over Egypt. Man, wasn’t nothing like that going on in Africa.”

“Then why is it mentioned in the Bible?”

Jamal pauses. “Greg, the Bible has been rewritten a thousand times over. We all know the story of King … I mean Queen James.”

“I read that somewhere,” Eric chimes in. “There were gay people in Africa.”

“Whatever, Eric. Don’t get me started,” Jamal snaps.

“J, man, stop the madness. I’m not saying that being gay is something that should be acceptable, but it’s obviously something not to be ignored. I was looking on the Internet earlier this week. I saw gay ski clubs, credit cards for gay people, restaurants, you name it. I didn’t even know that shit was out there like that.”

“That’s a shame. It doesn’t make sense to me, either. And some of them have the audacity to say they were born that way. How can you be born gay?” Jamal asks.

I shrug.

“See, if these brothers and sisters understood their true nature as the original man and woman, then they wouldn’t want to be doing all that homo-what ever jive.”

“Did you see on one of those talk shows when they were talking about the chemical in the brain that gay people have?” Eric asks.

I laugh. “No, but I saw the fight between a man and a transvestite who had impregnated a woman but was going to take the baby to his male lover.”

Jamal points at us. “Man, you two better quit watching all that dead television. That’s another form of brainwashing that our people have got to get rid of. The only thing I watch is the Discovery Channel, BET, CNN, and reruns of
Good Times
.”

“
Good Times!?!
Man, that was real blaxploitation at its grandest.” I laugh. “How can you try to check us about watching
Jerry Springer
and you’re watching
Good Times
? They never got out of the projects, and that’s something to be pissed about.”

“Man,
Good Times
is classic Negro television,” Jamal argues. “Especially the episode when J.J. painted Ned the Wino as Jesus. That shit was dope!” We’re both laughing when Phil walks in.

“Shit, what did I miss?” he asks.

Jamal sits on the edge of my desk. “This brother is trying to criticize me for watching
Good Times
.”

“Phil, don’t listen to him.” I laugh. “The conversation wasn’t even about all that.”

“Oh. So, what was the conversation about?”

“Simone and LaShawn,” I answer.

“Ain’t that some shit?” Phil asks. “I would have never thought LaShawn Denton has bumped uglies with another woman.”

“She’s young,” I said, speaking in her defense. “She was probably hoodwinked into sleeping with another woman. Maybe she was curious. Some of the people running around here that are gay were tricked into being gay. LaShawn could be a primary example.”

“I don’t know,” Phil says. “From what her old classmate said, LaShawn was a full-fledged member of the Titty Bumpers Club. She didn’t need convincing.”

“Phil, you are one ignorant brother,” Jamal says. “I can’t believe you would say something like that about a perfectly straight sister.”