The Silver Lining (11 page)

“Give her some time. Your mom is a lot to deal with. I still remember that night Victoria came in here and started making demands about your scheduling. What did she call me? An arrogant prick? Ha- ha. I thought we were going to throw blows. Meanest woman I have ever met. That was your first day on the job. Do you remember?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, not much has changed with her. She’s still mentally unstable.”

“Oh man, James. I feel for you, brother. I do.” 

“I don’t know. Do I stop chasing Emily? Do I stop trying? When do I just throw the towel in?”

“I can tell you like her, but you sound like you’re on some love shit. Is Mr. King in love?”

“Naw. It’s too early for that. I do like her, though. She’s different.”

“Then you never stop trying until she looks you dead in the eye and tells you to stop. When she says it and means it, you’ll know because there is this empty feeling. I know because it happened to me. My old lady told me she didn’t love me anymore. Apparently she was doing her boss, but that’s not important. Look, when she means it, you’ll feel it. The connection will be gone. That’s when you stop. If you still feel a spark from her, I say keep at it, man.”

I looked at Mike and nodded my head. “You are a very smart man, you know that?”

“I’ve been around longer then you. I know a man in love when I see one.”

“I am a man in like. Don’t start spreading the L word around, just yet. ”

“Keep telling yourself that, you might start to believe it.”

We both started to laugh it off. I needed Mike around me at the moment. Someone to help lift my spirit. Someone to keep me grounded. It would totally make getting through this work shift easier, and it did. The rest of the night was filled with drink order after drink order. It was so busy I didn’t even have time to think about Emily between the customers and Mike’s bad jokes. Money was pouring in tonight. I think I made more tips than I had since I’d been back. At the end of my shift my pockets were full and my feet were swollen. I said a round of goodbyes to the new bartenders and finally Mike. I walked out to my car where it was quiet and dialed Emily. I had prepared nothing to say, but I didn’t care. It rang several times before I reached her voicemail. I hung up and immediately re-dialed her again. Straight to voicemail this time. I hung up and decided to text her.

James
: This is James. Are you ignoring me, Emily?

No response.

James:
???

Emily
: No. I didn’t know that was your number.

James:
Now you do. Save it in your phone
.
We should talk about this morning.

Emily
: Not necessary.

James:
Where are you?

No response.

James:
Hello! Where are you??

Still no response.

Emily:
I’m sleeping. It’s 3 a.m.

James:
I’m coming over.

Emily:
Do not come over. Just let it go. I’m going back to bed.

I didn’t respond back to her, because I was already in route to her place. I was there in no time given how fast I was driving. I parked the car and jumped out, trotting across the grass to her apartment. The cold air nipped at my face as I knocked on her door. I rubbed my hands together in an attempt to warm up. Answer the door. No response. I knocked harder and longer this time. That caught her attention, because she swung open the door.

“I told you not to come over.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“I didn’t listen.”

“I see that. I’m tired, James. What do you want?”

“You.”

“Well, you drove over here for nothing then.” She tilted her head to the side.

“Talk to me. Are you mad about Nikki? She’s an ex-girlfriend. She and my mother are just two crazy ass peas in a pod. They were obviously trying to pull some stunt. I want nothing to do with either of them.”

“It’s none of my business what you do or who you do it with.”

“You still want to play this game?”

“What game?”

“The game where you act like you don’t like me, you know the one where you pretend you don’t want me, so that you can keep that barricade of yours up. You know the one with the big sign, that says I don’t want to fall in love and I don’t want to get hurt again. I get it. I do. You’ve witnessed firsthand the crazy shit I’ve been through and that is just the top layer. You don’t think this scares me? Us. I’m supposed to trust my heart, which right now is having me chase you around like a fool. I’m supposed to give in and trust my instincts that tell me not to let you go. I’m putting myself on the line here too, you know, and I just need you to meet me halfway.”

Emily looked at me for a long time. Too long. It was so long I felt like my nerves were going to explode. The awkward silence started to impact my breathing. I felt my entire mouth dry up.

“Breakfast,” she blurted out.

“I just spilt my heart out and you’re talking about breakfast.”

“James!”

“Are you serious, right now?” I tossed both hands up.

“James!”

“No, what does a man have to do around here. Do I have to skywrite how I feel about you?”

“Would you just shut up for a minute? We’ve never been on a date. I was thinking breakfast is a good start. Tina’s restaurant has great food. I’m busy with family stuff for the next two weeks but my first free weekend is about to come up. Not this Sunday, but next Sunday, okay?”

“Ohhhhh. Yeah. Breakfast is good. I love breakfast.”

She laughed at me. “I’m going back to bed. I’ll meet you up there at 8:00 a.m. if that’s okay.”

“Yeah. Breakfast at Tina’s. 8:00 a.m., got it.”

“Good night, James King.”

“Good night, Ms. Emily Monroe.”

She half grinned at me before shutting the door. I had that stupid excited energy running through my veins, and I may have done a little dance back to the car. Hopefully she didn’t see it. I drove home and hopped into bed. I had a date with a beautiful woman at Tina’s restaurant. Wherever the hell that was. It should be illegal to feel this giddy about someone. God, this girl has wrecked me.

* * *

That long awaited Sunday morning came in no time, especially since I went to bed after 4 a.m. the night before, too excited to sleep. I was showered, shaved and dressed head to toe, looking good. I put the address in my GPS and headed out to the restaurant. I arrived a little early, so I decided to get some fresh air and wait outside Tina’s on a bench. I put my iPod on and listened to music while I waited. It wasn’t long before I spotted Emily’s car pulling up. It was clinking and clanking as she parked. I needed to make that car disappear. It was just awful. She stepped out of the car in tight black Capri pants, and a low cut white tank top. She had these black heels on that made her ass pop out more.

“Good morning,” she said, as she approached me.

“Right back atcha,” I said, as I stood up and drew her in for a quick hug. She smelled good.

I walked over and pulled open the restaurant door for her like a gentleman. She smiled and proceeded to enter. It wasn’t a long wait, within about five to ten minutes, we had a table and the food was ordered. I moved my hand on top of hers, and she didn’t flinch back. She let me touch and caress her. Silence filled the air as we waited to eat, and we had nothing to do now, but talk. I started to speak, but then so did she. Our words jumbled together and we both laughed.

“You go first,” I said.

“Tell me about Nikki, and Zach and anything else I need to know. Tell me everything.”

This is not how I wanted to spend my first date with Emily, by a long shot. Who wants to talk about their ex’s and their past on a date? I certainly didn’t. I figured right about now my facial expression was screaming at her I’m not talking about this, and her facial expression was screaming back Oh yes we are, we are definitely talking about this. I took a deep breath in and prepared myself.

“I will try to compact this hot ass mess of a story as best I can. Um. Nikki and I dated for about three years prior to me being locked up. Her family and my family go way back. Ties to the country club and all that jazz. I was never really into her, but my mother constantly tried to hook us up. I think I eventually just gave in. She was a sweet girl when we first dated, but things started to change once she got into the in crowd. She was hanging around people my mother introduced her to. She started to act different, almost like a mini version of my mom. It grew a wedge between us, but I never left her. I never deserted her.” I paused. “Then there’s Zach, my best friend. Well, ex-best friend. We met in grade school. He comes from old money, but you would never know it by how he acts. As a kid, he was always the trouble maker and oddly that spoke to me. He was different from the snobby kids in my private school. At least he used to be.” I paused again. “It’s crazy what happened. One day Zach tells me he’s been tutoring this kid in the hood. He said he had to go drop off a backpack that the kid left at his house. He asked me to go with him and I said yes. Anyways we get there and walk up to the door, Zach is holding the back pack this whole time. Suddenly I hear sirens and then Zach tosses the backpack into my hands and takes off running. He hopped over a fence and he was gone. Cops slide in, sirens and lights are going off and guns are being pointed at my face. It scared the shit out of me. It turned out Zach left me holding a bag filled with cocaine. I had no idea what was inside. They arrested me on the spot. I spent sixteen months locked up for it.”

“Oh my God, James. That is horrible.” Emily took a sip of her coffee and placed it back down.

“That’s just the tip. What I didn’t know until recently is that when I was locked up, Nikki was pregnant with my child. She ran off and had an abortion, which I think was somehow my mother’s idea.”

“Pregnant! Holy shit!” she shouted. I put my finger to my lip. She looked around at a few of the customers who were now staring at us. She squeezed my hand and turned back to me

“I called Nikki as soon as I got home from prison. Right after you tried to stab me with a knife.” Emily rolled her eyes. “I asked her why she stopped visiting me in jail, and why she rejected all of my calls. I come to find out she was sleeping with Zach while I was away. It’s like one thing after another.” I paused. “I don’t even care anymore. They can have each other. They are more twisted and crazy then I thought they were, so now they can be crazy together. Oh yeah, and to really top things off, Zach showed up at my work not too long ago, trying to buy me off. He had all this cash and a sorry ass apology to go with it. The conversation between us turned into an argument that led to me hitting him a few times. Mike rushed in and threw Zach out, it was wild.”

“You got into a fight? Are you crazy? Do you want to go back to jail?”

“No. I tried to remain calm, but I couldn’t do it. I served time for his drug deal. It’s just not right.”

“Why didn’t you just tell the police the truth?”

“They questioned. They asked. They wanted the supplier. I had nothing for them. They wanted the name of the other guy who took off, and guess what? I never ratted. I never said his name. Not once.”

I felt Emily rub the top of my hand. She was looking at me like she wanted to hear more.

“Anyways the other day was beyond my control. I had no idea my mother was coming over, let alone bringing Nikki. I asked her prior to stay away from me. I think she concocted some dumb plan to get you fired up and it worked. You said you went over her house looking for me that night, right?”

Emily nodded.

“She assumed you’d find my place then. It’s clear she feels threatened by you.”

“Threatened? I have nothing for her to even be threatened about.”

“It’s all about face for her. Her rep is on the line. You have me, and to her that’s enough.”

“Do I?”

“If you want me, that is.” I bit my lip.

She remained silent, but her eyes held doubt. Is this where she makes a run for it? I can’t do this again if she does. I leaned back and stretched out my spine.

“I like you, James, but I don’t want to rush this thing we have. It’s different.”

The bubble gum chewing waitress came over and set our food down. She smiled and looked at us.

“How long have you two been a couple? You guys are cute together.”

I glanced down at my cell phone. “Um, roughly about twenty minutes, now.”

The waitress looked confused, so she just smiled and walked away. Emily tapped my hand.

“Real funny, James.”

“What? What would you call us? Couple sounds good to me. Do you have a better term?”

“I don’t know. Friends getting to know each other better.”

“I’ve been inside you. I think we are past that stage.”

“James! Shhh. People can hear you, besides we barely know one another.”

“What’s your favorite color?” I blurted out. I could do this interview in my sleep. She stated she wanted to get to know each other, right? She made a valid point that we didn’t know basic things about the other person, that we should, and to her that was important.