Center Courtship (7 page)

Before I had a chance to say anything, I noticed Richard was emptying the gas from Bart into Little José. “Thank you, I should be going, too. I've caused enough drama for one evening. Thank you for keeping me company.”

“Not a problem, where is your phone?” he asked.

“In the truck, why?” I asked as I went to retrieve it from the cab.

“Let me give you my number, I want you to call when you get home. I can tell you're frazzled. I'd hate for something to happen to you. If you just want to text, that's fine as well.” He handed back my phone after calling himself so I'd have his number in my call history.

A quick honk behind me let us know that Elsu and Saraya were pulling out of the driveway. Richard and I waved to them as they left and I hopped into Little José. He turned over just like he should now that he'd been fed. I rolled down the window. “Thank you again, Richard, I really appreciate all your help. This has been a day and a half!”

He watched me until I pulled out of the driveway. I started down the road and found the strength to finally relax. Little José had that ability. If I could find some magician who could cast a spell and make him human, I'd do it in a second. Always reliable, always comforting, never insulting.

I pulled into my parking spot at my apartment building over an hour later. It was nearing midnight. After thinking back on the day I had, I was ready for a shower and bed.

The Rogers Apartment Building was an old brick four-story structure with seven apartments on each level. Since my brother owned it, I got a discount on the rent. He entrusted me to be the building's key-keeper.

I rode the elevator to the third floor and walked down the wing to my unit. As soon as I put my key in the lock, my neighbor's door opened and an unfamiliar man stepped cautiously out, looked at me, smiled and made a dash for the elevator. I knew the walk of shame when I saw it. My neighbor, Colette, was the closest thing I had to a best friend. Had it been any other day, I would have gone to check on her, but I was just too tired.

The next morning, I stretched out and opened my eyes to find my cat, Diesel staring at me. He eyed me curiously and then meowed loudly and head butted me. He was hungry. So was I for that matter.

After feeding him, and having a bowl of Cap'n Crunch, I got dressed and sat down at my computer to check on the news. There was a knock at the door. “Mae! Are you home?” Colette was here for our weekly Sunday morning coffee and gabfest.

“No one here by that name!” I shouted. I heard her key in the lock and she came in.

“Where were you last night? I looked out at ten and Little José wasn't in his spot.” Colette sat down in her regular chair at my dinette after pouring herself a cup of coffee. She was a buxom black woman with natural hair that clung tight to her head, the tips were a mix of red and blonde highlights. She was dressed in one of her many blouses with a plunging neckline.

“I'm surprised you noticed where I was. I saw a young man leaving your apartment when I came home last night, I figured you had been busy.”

“Oh, him. He was just a toy I brought home from The Alibi.” She shot back a swallow of coffee. “I met my brother there and that guy decided he wanted to get a piece of this.”

I laughed as she rubbed her hands down her full figured body. “You're going to run out of toys if you're not careful Colette.”

“I have a feeling once the basketball fans start pouring in after games, I'm going to have a whole new toy box to pull from.”

“Just be careful, Colette,” I reached across and touched her hand.

“So, where were you?”

“Oh, Colette, you are going to be jealous.” Just as I started to open my mouth to tell my story, my cell phone rang. I looked at the number but didn't recognize it. I almost let it go to voice mail but decided to give the telemarketer a piece of my mind for bothering me on a Sunday morning. “Hello?”

“Mae? This is Richard, I just wanted to make sure you made it home safe.”

“Richard! I am so sorry. I got home and crashed.” Colette's eyebrow raised at the mention of a man's name.

“Oh, good, I was just worried. Elsu wanted to know if Brandon was still in the hospital. He wanted to send a care package.”

“You know what? I don't know. It's still a little early. I was going to wait a few more minutes before I called up there. I hate to disturb them but let me call his mom and I'll text you and let you know. And tell Elsu I said that was very kind of him.” Colette nearly dropped her coffee mug at the mention of Elsu's name. I hung up the phone and looked at Colette as I pulled up my sister-in-law's number.

“Whoa, hold on there, partner. Back the train way up!” Her eyes were huge. “Did you say Elsu? Elsu Benjamin?”

“Why does everyone say that? How many Elsu's do
you
know?” I asked.

“Shit, honey, that boy is one fine piece of man meat!”

I smiled at her. I held my phone to my ear and listened to the ring. “Mae?” said Gina.

“Hey, how's Brandon?”

“He seems to be ok, but they want to keep him here for another day or two just to be safe. How was yesterday?”

I told her the story of my Elsu adventure and was entertained as I watched Colette's face.

“Elsu wanted to send over a care package and his uncle asked if Brandon was still in the hospital, so I'll let him know you're there,” I said.

“We're here, Brandon would love that!”

“Give him a hug and kiss from me and the guys at work. I'll be up to visit him in a bit.”

I hung up and looked at Colette while trying to hold in a giggle as I watched her nearly burst with excitement.

“Ok first, is Brandon ok? What happened? And second, you met Elsu!?”

“Well first, Brandon is ok. He was hit by a car when he was outside playing with Mitchell and pushed Mitchell out of the way of an oncoming car when their ball rolled into the street. And second, yes, Gina asked me to go in Brandon's place to meet him.” I grabbed my phone and pulled up the pictures from the night before. “I need to get these videos off here before my phone bursts from too much crap stored on it, but here are the pictures.”

As Colette swiped through the images, her eyes got bigger and bigger. I thought at one point they were going to pop out of her head. “Wait a minute! Is that?” she looked at me and at the phone again. “Casper, Saul, Brent and Peter!” she pointed at each man with her outstretched red-manicured finger as she started bouncing up and down with excitement.

I shrugged. “Yeah, I think that's what they said their names were.”

“Honey, what do you mean you
think
? I know, baby girl. I am so jealous!!” She started to hand back my phone, but took it back and sent herself the picture of all five men in one shot.

“Do not, I repeat, do NOT share that with anyone electronically, do you understand?”

“Did they tell you you couldn't?” she asked.

“Well, no, but I don't want to get in trouble. The two guys that came around with us were none-too thrilled that I wasn't Brandon. They thought I was there to get the layout of the house or something. Like I was going to go back later and steal something.”

“Oh man! You're killing me! I want to send it to my sister and brother.”

“You do, and I won't be friends with you anymore!”

She eyed me crossly then sighed. “Fine! Can I
show
them?”

“Yes, just don't send it to anyone or post it on Facebook or wherever else you put your pictures.”

Colette took another sip of her coffee and relaxed back in her chair. She eyed me again. “Ok, what aren't you telling me?”

I can't hide anything from her. Not telling her would take more effort than just telling her. “Do you remember Bart?”

Colette's face turned to ice. The only thing moving on her was the slow rise and fall of her chest.

“Well, the guy who dropped off the gas for me was Bart.” I hadn't mentioned this to Gina because I felt she had enough to worry about.

“HOLY SHIT!” She sat forward in her seat as if being closer to me would make her anger ease.

“Yeah, he was about as pleasant as always, called me some names in front of everyone, let everyone know I'm a virgin, then Elsu came to save the day and kicked him off his property. Told him he was no longer doing business with him.”

Colette's face suddenly changed from that of anger to a huge smile. She lightly thumped her fist on her chest with one hand and fanned her face dramatically with the other. I almost thought she was going to cry. “How romantic is that?” she swooned.

“WHAT? It wasn't romantic. It was a gentlemanly gesture, it was him being nice. There was no romance. He has a girlfriend, and she was there, by the way.”

“Saraya?”

“Yep,” I said as I took Colette's empty coffee cup and mine to the sink.

“What was she like? She seems so sweet in interviews.”

I looked over my shoulder at her as I tucked the mugs into the dishwasher. “If that's what you think, then I won't burst your bubble.” I closed the dishwasher and looked at the clock on the wall. “Colette, I love you, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, but you want to go see Brandon and you want me to leave,” she said as she stood up then looked at me curiously. “You told Gina someone took Little José for a joyride. Who did that?”

“I'll give you three guesses and two of those don't count,” I said as I grabbed my coat off the rack by the door.

Her brow furrowed and she crinkled her nose as if she could smell something foul. “Christopher?”

“Yup, he's the only one who has a key and he won't return it. He's just lucky it didn't get damaged.” Christopher was my younger brother. He and my sister Candice were twins. Max and I referred to them as our mother's children.

I was suddenly reminded of something awful and I smacked my forehead. “The thong I found under the seat was laying on the middle hump on the floor in the cab. Elsu looked in the cab after I found it.”

Colette stared for a second and burst out laughing. “Oh my, honey. He's probably got some thoughts going on in that head of his now.”

“Ugh. I'm either a girl with a panty fetish, a girl who wears pink thongs, or I'm the lesbian Bart said I was. So many possibilities.” I shook my head.

“Hey, if he's like any other guy who looks in Little José, he wasn't looking at the floor. They're always looking at the dash.”

“I sure hope so. But it doesn't really matter. I'm never going to see him again.”

I hopped into Little José and headed toward Akron. I eyed the pink thong that still sat on my floorboard. While sitting at a red light I quickly snapped a picture and sent it to Christopher. G
IVE ME BACK MY KEY, OR THIS GOES ONLINE
!

My phone rang shortly after. “Christopher, you are an ass!” I yelled at my phone that I had put on speaker.

“Mae, you weren't using him, and I had a date!”

“The tank was full! Where did you go?”

“We went to see a concert at the casino up in Cleveland.”

“Last I checked, mom bought you a car a year ago,” I said, as I merged into traffic on Interstate 77.

“I didn't have gas. I was going to fill him up last night but you weren't home.”

“You didn't think I might go out? And besides, you had all day to come get him at the shop.” I was steaming but knew arguing with him would lead to only one thing; a phone call from my mom.

“Where were you anyway?”

“I was doing a favor for Gina. Do you know Brandon is in the hospital?”

“Is that what she wanted? Ugh! Gina called me like five times yesterday, but I didn't want to be bothered by her whiny voice.”

“You are unbelievable!” I looked down and saw I was going 80 in a 55 zone and briefly panicked!

“Sorry I didn't listen. That is awful. Why is he in the hospital?”

“I guess you should call Max or your sister-in-law and find out! I want my key, Chris! It better be under my door at the apartment when I get back!”

“I'll see what I can do.” There was a click and I knew I'd be getting a call from our mom. I had made one of the two golden children mad. She wouldn't stand for that.

Once at the hospital I ran into the gift shop and found a large balloon with a basketball on it that had
“I hope you bounce back soon”
on it.

“These are popular today,” said the cashier.

“It's getting to be that season,” I smiled at her.

Gina had texted me the room number and I boarded the elevator. I saw my reflection in the mirrored doors. I wore tattered jeans that were threadbare in spots, and a red Grandpa's Chop Shop shirt. My drawers at home resembled those of the cartoon characters whose wardrobe consisted of all the same outfits. The t-shirts, however, came in many different colors, so at least I had options. I had pulled my hair back into a ponytail and I noticed I had left lumps around my crown. My tennis shoes were about to fall apart, but they were comfortable.

When I got off, there were three large men in suits standing near the entrance to the ward Brandon was in. I didn't pay them much mind and started to walk that way. One of the men stood in front of me. “I'm sorry, ma'am, but you'll have to wait a moment, there is a security issue happening right now.”

“Security issue? I just want to see my nephew. What's going on? Is everyone ok?”

“Everyone is fine ma'am,” he motioned to some chairs beside him. “You can have a seat and we'll let you know when you can go back.”

I could have argued, but these men looked like they had more muscle in their little fingers than I had in my whole body so I decided to take a seat. I pulled out my phone and called Gina but it went unanswered. This made me nervous.

“If I ask you guys if it's about a specific patient, can you tell me that?” I asked worriedly.