Chapter 5 Asante #3
“This is Jhene. We uh, we met at work and we took the drive out here to look at cars and stuff for her and I told her I had an amazing older brother who could maybe come with us and check them out? She’s willing to pay you in baked goods and a really nice dinner?”
“Or just cash,” Jhene added.
“A really nice dinner?” I repeated and looked at Nadira who smiled and blinked at me with fake innocence etched into her expression.
“Come on in and let me get dressed.” I gestured for them to enter and locked the door behind them.
“Come here. Let me holla at you.” I nudged my head toward the hallway and Nadira nodded.
“Okay.”
“You can sit anywhere you want, Jhene. Feel free to check the fridge and help yourself to anything in it.” I gave her a small smile then led my sister back to my bedroom. “What are you doing, Nadira?” I asked as soon as I felt like we were out of earshot.
“Visiting?”
I stared at her and she stared back. I shook my head while I thought carefully about what I wanted to say. I yanked open my closet, walked inside, grabbed a shirt and threw it on.
“You’re mad?” Nadira walked over and leaned against the doorframe.
“I had plans for the day and they didn’t include checking out a car for a woman you’re trying to hook me up with when I made it clear I didn’t need or want to be set up in the first place.”
“Who said anything about setting you up?”
“Nadira,” I hissed her name.
“Okay. Maybe I’m trying to set you up a little bit,” she admitted.
“Did I ask to be set up?”
“You’re all the way out here all alone and all you do is work and-”
I cut her off. “Nadira, that wasn’t a trick question. Did I ask to be set up?”
“No.” She swallowed and stood up straight. “I just-”
I cut her off again. “You’re a mother. You know all about boundaries and wanting people to respect them.
If I wanted you to meddle I wouldn’t have set up a homebase this far away.
I’d call more. I’d fucking visit more,” I snapped.
Then, I paused. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“I love you but I fucking hate when you act like me being younger means I can’t handle my own fucking life. Believe it or not, it’s going fine.”
“Okay.” She swallowed and nodded. “You’re right.
I know that you’re right and I just, I guess,” she paused.
“I don’t guess. I know. I know that I should respect your boundaries and you’re right.
If someone meddled with my baby or my marriage after I set boundaries, I’d be pissed.
You deserve to have your wants respected and I’m sorry, okay? ”
“Okay.” I rubbed my temples. “Alright.” I grabbed some socks and shoes. “And I’m kind of seeing someone,” I added as I slid past her to sit at the foot of my bed.
“You’re seeing someone?” she repeated. “Is it a guy or girl?”
“A guy.”
“Can I meet them while I’m in town? I mean, that’s the plans you had today, right? Hanging out with them?”
“It was before you committed me to being a makeshift ass mechanic.” I slid my socks on.
“Well this is even better. After we help Jhene out, we can hangout and I can meet your mystery man.”
“There’s a reason you haven’t met him.”
“So things aren’t serious?”
“It’s complicated.” I stomped my foot into my first shoe.
“Complicated like?” She stared at me while I put on my second shoe and started to tie the laces up. “Asante,” she said my name tightly. “Please tell me he isn't married or in the closet or something.”
I looked at her but didn’t say anything for a beat then another one.
“I won’t tell you.”
“Asante!” She closed the space between us. “Which one?”
“Partially both and partially neither,” I admitted. “And I don’t need your judgment about this.”
“What does partially mean?”
“His family knows how he gets down but it’s like the military. They just don’t acknowledge it.”
“And partially married?” she baited.
“They believe in arranged marriages and he’s set to enter an arrangement in a few years.”
“So he’s not engaged yet?”
“No, but he will be.”
“So, what is he doing with you?”
“The same thing I’m doing with him, I guess.”
“Which is?”
“Being grown ass men and minding our business.” I climbed up. “Let me have the room.”
Nadira opened her mouth then closed it and nodded.
“Alright.”
She spun around and let herself out of my room, pulling the door shut behind her.
I grabbed my cell phone and called Bishop immediately.
“What’s up?” he answered on the second ring.
“My sister popped up so I’m committed to some dumb shit. I’m going to have to push our date back or reschedule it.”
“Alright. You need anything?”
“Nah. It’s cool.”
“You sure? You sound like you’re not happy about the visit.”
“I’m definitely not jumping for fucking joy about it, honestly.”
“What’s wrong? You need me to run interference?”
“Would you?”
“Yeah. I’d do that for you.”
I smiled knowing that Bishop had already made it clear that he wasn’t necessarily a people person but he would bite the bullet for me.
“I appreciate it but I’m not going to make you go through that.”
“I thought you and Nadira were close.”
“We are, but she brought a friend along.”
“And you don’t fuck with the friend?”
“I don’t know her,” I admitted. “She’s trying to set us up,” I said after a moment.
“Oh.” We sat in silence for a moment. “Well, do you like her so far?”
“Nah and I don’t plan to.” I adjusted how I was sitting, “And uh, I told my sister about you.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I was kind of seeing someone.”
“Yeah? You see me now?” he teased and I could hear the little smile I just knew he was wearing.
“All the time.”
“Except today.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
“You’re good. I hope shit turns around and you have fun with your sister.”
“We’ll see. She uh, she wants to maybe meet you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep.”
“Do you want me to meet her?”
“If you want to.”
“I don’t want to fuck up anything you have going on with your family, Asante, but if you want me to be there, I’ll be there. Just let me know.”
“Alright. I’ll keep you updated.”
“Bet,”
I hung up and hopped up. I grabbed my watch and slid it on then headed out.
Nadira and Jhene were sitting together in my living room, giggling and talking when I walked out.
“Who’s driving?”
“I can drive!” Nadira hopped up. “We already have an appointment to check the car out in person so it shouldn’t even take long.”
“Alright.” I yanked my door open and gestured for them to lead the way. “Let’s do it.”
The three of us filed out and into Nadira’s car. Jhene hopped in the back so I could sit beside my sister and we headed out.
The car dealership they’d picked out was an hour away.
Throughout the drive out, Jhene was nice and respectful.
We talked about the degree she had in criminal justice and my time in the military mostly.
I asked how she and my sister had met and they talked about the pilates class they apparently took together.
When we got to the place where Jhene was supposed to be buying the car, Nadira stayed at the spot while I went with her to test drive the car.
After we returned, I popped the hood and checked everything out.
I asked a few questions that I noticed she hadn’t brought up and haggled down on the price so she saved three grand.
We walked off the lot with a successful deal and I yawned and stretched as we pulled off. Jhene had arranged to pick the car up the following morning to get the title and paperwork taken care of and hand over the cashier’s check she was going to get when the bank opened again.
“See,” Nadira looked at me with a smile. “That wasn’t bad, right?”
“Nah. It was cool.”
“And it didn’t take long,” she added.
“It didn’t,” I admitted.
“And I appreciate you coming out and helping me,” Jhene said.
“No problem. For real. If you need me to hook you up with a real mechanic, let me know.”
“Okay.”
“So now that we’ve got that taken care of, Jhene and I have been seeing a lot of stuff online about this pizza place that apparently has karaoke and trivia. Do you want to come?” she sang. I looked at my watch. “Your friend can come too,” she added. “It’ll be fun.”
I shot her a look. “It’ll be fun, huh?”
“I don’t know why you’re acting like I’m standoffish or something.” Nadira rolled her eyes.
“You’re not standoffish. You just like to put your nose in my business when it doesn’t need to be.”
“And I apologized.”
“You know what they say about when people apologize but don’t change their actions?”
“That it’s manipulation?”
“That’s right and you’re not about to manipulate me so if I hangout with you and invite this man, keep your opinions on him to yourself until you can lay them on me, not him.”
“Okay.” She nodded immediately. “I won’t. I promise.”
“Don’t make me regret this, Nadira.”
“I won’t.” She blinked at me and I gauged her just a little longer before I texted Bishop.