Harlem
THE INSPECTION – FOUR DAYS LATER
That was what I loved about late mornings.
There were seldom people at the coffee shop, no more than a handful.
Of the few that were there, they were seated at tables and focused on their laptops.
I knew that at least two of them were aspiring authors and three were students. I wasn’t sure about the others.
“Hey, Syndee.”
“Yeah. Uhm, let me ask you something. Have you ever been in here when the lady across the street places her order? She orders the same thing that I do.”
“You mean Tegan?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes, I’ve filled her order before.”
“Has she been in today?”
A smile lightened Syndee’s beautiful dark features. She was a freshman in college, and she was one of the most upbeat staff members The Roasted Sip had. She always had a warm welcome for everyone and a friendly word to send them on their way.
“She hasn’t been in here today. Are we interested in Miss Tegan?” she asked with a teasing grin.
I chuckled and scratched the back of my neck before I rested my hands on my hips. “Uh, well, I’m just trying to welcome her to the community.”
“Mm-hmm. Well, that’s very nice of you, Harlem.”
“I haven’t seen her in a few days, and I was just wondering if she’d came in here.”
“Nope, not today.”
I knew that she was nearing her launch day, and I had experience in that area. This was an extremely busy time for her, and she probably seldom had the time to go to the restroom, let alone enough time to take a break and do something as simple as eat or drink a coffee.
Usually when I got in each morning, she was already across the street at her shop. I was certain that she had also picked up her orders each morning, but maybe she hadn’t.
“Can you double my order for me?” I asked.
“Of course I can,” Syndee replied with a cheerful smile. “Why don’t you just ask her out for a coffee date? No harm, no foul, right?”
“Yeah, but I’m genuinely just trying to help her feel welcome.”
Syndee turned back to the counter, rested her elbows on top of it, and smiled at me. She rested her chin in her upturned palms, and her beautiful dimples were on display for the world to see.
“If you’re interested in the woman, then just say that. There’s nothing wrong if you are. I’ve never taken you as a guy who beats around the bush about anything. You’ve always been straightforward, Harlem. Be that for her; you might find that it intrigues her.”
Syndee stood, winked, and returned to filling my order. I leaned over the counter and asked, “Syndee, when did you become so wise?”
She laughed and replied, “I’m the baby of several older brothers and sisters. I simply learn from their mistakes.” She shrugged her shoulders.
We made more small talk until she finished filling my order and handed me the bag.
“Thanks, Syndee.”
“Remember, just be you,” she called after me.
I chuckled and shook my head as I bumped the door open with my hip. “Okay.” I held a drink tray in one hand and two bags with apple turnovers inside.
I moved down the sidewalk to my barbershop, and juggled the tray and bags with one hand so that I could pull the barbershop door open with my other.
“What’s up, New York?” Monte greeted as I breezed through the door.
They would often call me that from time to time because not only was my name Harlem, my father’s hometown, but also because I was born there and lived there the first five years of my life.
My father relocated to Cherokee Springs, Georgia, to start his own practice, making a ton more money with a much lower cost of living.
We would return to New York from time to time to visit his family, but we never moved back there. We all loved the milder winters, the beaches, and the affordable living that we could gain down South, not to mention more land for less bucks.
“Can’t call it, Money,” I replied to Monte, calling him the nickname that I had dubbed him with.
“Is that second coffee for me?” Alicia asked, bobbing her head to the drink tray as I set my coffee and bag at my station.
“Unless you like peanut butter macchiato with caramel and pineapple drizzle and whipped cream,” I replied.
“You know that nobody likes that shit but you,” Raque declared.
“Someone else likes it,” I replied with a teasing wink and a smirk as I headed to the door again.
“Wait a minute. Where you going with that?” Josiah asked.
“To give it to its rightful owner,” I replied.
“Niggaaaa! That’s you?” Josiah asked, bobbing his head in the direction of Tegan’s shop.
“I knew it! I told y’all it would only be a matter of time before he made his move,” Raque declared, laughing as she shook her head and applied base around a client’s edges.
“Come on, New York. Say it ain’t so? You moving in on my woman?” Monte whined.
“Nigga, you don’t have a woman; and if you did, I’m certain it wouldn’t be her. Besides, I’m not moving in on anyone, just doing a kind deed.”
“Ms. Buns might be that ‘good woman’ that you’re looking for after all,” Mia observed.
I chuckled, lowered my head, and walked out of the shop with Tegan’s order in hand.
I jogged across the street and checked the front door.
It was locked, and although they had builder’s paper over the windows, I could see through a tiny rip in the paper.
There were several people moving around and working inside.
I headed to the rear of the shop in hopes that the back door would be open.
I was certain the contractors were having to go in and out while they were working.
Just as I approached the back door, a couple of contractors stepped outside and propped the door open while they went to grab some items from their work van.
I used that as my opportunity to slip inside.
As I rounded the corner, I heard someone arguing, so I stayed out of sight so that I could observe.
Tegan was beautiful; there was no other way to describe her.
Her wild mass of coppery-red hair hung in long curls around her face, her shoulders, and down her back.
Fire sparked from upturned, bright eyes the color of cognac and framed by extremely long, natural lashes.
Although she listened to the man attentively, anger and disagreement radiated from those full, downturned lips and the nostrils of her short, Nubian nose flared with indignation.
Freckles dotted almost every visible portion of her rich, chestnut-brown skin, and they were especially clustered around her nose and those high cheekbones. She lifted one thick eyebrow as he said something, and I realized that was her warning that she was about to check him.
She was beautiful, feisty, and passionate, but so alluring and sweet at the same time. I wondered how all those emotions, all those feelings could be packed into a tiny frame that couldn’t be any more than five feet and five inches, and maybe 130 or 135 pounds, max.
Her sexy body held her curves well, and I couldn’t help but lick my lips as my eyes scanned over every part of her beautiful body.
“This is so unfair. It’s like you want to see me fail. You’re employed by the city to protect the citizens and the business owners,” Tegan argued in her soft voice.
I took in the man who she was speaking with, Evan Thomas, a nerdy, glasses-wearing, wanna-be-cool environmental health specialist.
“I am on your side, Ms. Ingram.”
“No, you’re not. Not when you weren’t supposed to be here for another four days. Please come back on the date it was originally scheduled, and I’m certain that everything will be completed in that time.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Ingram. My schedule is packed, and I had to get you in while I could.”
“When can you come back?”
“Not for another three weeks.”
“But my launch is next week.”
“Sorry about your luck. You’re not ready, and I can’t pass you.”
Evan and I went to high school together, and he’d always run behind me and some of the other guys.
He had continued to follow me all these years later whenever he saw me.
He commented on all my social media posts, and he dropped in the shop as often as he could.
I looked out for him and was cool with him whenever I could be, unless he was doing too much in the moment.
He was doing too much in the moment. I stepped from behind a wall where they hadn’t been able to see me.
“Aye, Ev. Let me holler at you for a sec.”
Evan smiled when he saw me, and replied, “Harlem, my man! What are you doing here?”
“I’m just dropping by to bring my friend here some breakfast to get her day going right. She’s a vital part of the community, and we’re excited to have her here.”
Tegan’s angry frown turned into a confused one when she spotted me, and then it turned into a wary smile when she spotted the bag and the coffee cup in my hand.
“Here you go, beautiful. I hope this makes your morning just a little bit brighter.”
I didn’t wait for her to say anything. I just bobbed my head toward the wall I had been hiding behind, and Evan followed.
“What’s the issue? Why can’t she get her permit today?”
I listened as he rambled on about some bullshit items about shelving units not being properly secured against the wall, handwashing signs for employees weren’t posted, empty soap and paper towel dispensers, and the counters having debris on them.
I mugged the shit out of that nigga like I wanted to rip his glasses off his face, stomp them under my boot, and rip his head off.
He cringed underneath my glare.
“Man, that’s petty shit. Not worth the time to keep her from getting her permit and serving the community.”
Evan shrugged. “Well, she could wait three weeks.”
“That ain’t gon’ work, G. Between you and me, we both know all this can be handled in a matter of hours. I can see if there were some real hazardous issues going on or some situation that could create health issues, but it’s not.”
“I’m just doing my job. If I pass her and something goes wrong, it could not only open her up to lawsuits, but the county as well. I could lose my job,” Evan replied with another shrug.
“Nigga, ain’t shit in here that serious that’s gonna lead to a lawsuit or the loss of your job. What’s it gonna take to make this right?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You and me about to have beef over this shit. If you don’t hurry up and figure out how we can squash it, I can assure you that it won’t end well for you, Evan.”
Evan lowered his head as I pulled out my wallet.
“Well, I could mention that I didn’t have time to stop by here today.”
I removed two stacks and handed them to him.
“You do whatever you need to do; but I’m telling you, she needs to pass the inspection today.
If she doesn’t, there’s gonna be a lot of problems rising for the county, and I don’t know how they’re gonna take to your name being the one constantly floated before them.
Do you understand that?” I asked, gripping his shoulder tightly and mugging him.
“Yeah. That’s clear,” he answered, buckling under the pressure of my hand on his shoulder. He nodded and shoved his glasses up his nose again.
That Poindexter-ass nigga always wanted to be cool and with the “in-crowd” in school. He hadn’t changed one bit, which was how I knew I could pay his ass off.
He turned and headed back to where Tegan was standing just out of sight and pulled out his iPad.
I listened absently as he explained that she had passed inspection, and that she just needed to finalize her business license now that she had procured all her permits.
He told her that he would be back in two weeks to make sure the minor details had been attended to.
I narrowed my eyes at him while Tegan replied, “Two weeks? But I thought you said you didn’t have an opening for three weeks.”
The minute that nigga started stammering, I stepped in. “It doesn’t matter. The only thing that does is that you can move forward with the plans for your launch party. You know everyone around here is excited about your shop.”
“I uhm, . . . I have another appointment,” Evan declared nervously as his gaze shot between the two of us.
“What was that all about?” Tegan asked after Evan left.
“What?”
“You pulling him to the side, talking to him, me getting passed when he’d clearly tried to fail me before? Why are you here?” she asked with her arms crossed and watching me intently with suspicion.
“We’re trying to change this area around.
The last thing that we want is Evan’s goofy, overeager ass trying to make it impossible for good businesspeople with good intentions to come into our community and help us to build it stronger and attract more positive attention and jobs.
That clown-ass nigga is quicker to do things for his white constituents than he is for his own people. ”
“So, you what—intervened and threatened him? Offered a bribe?”
I smirked as I slowly assessed her pretty little ass from head to toe. Today she wore a pair of tight black leather pants, a blue cropped sweater, and some blue stiletto boots with black tips.
I could tell that she was a girly girl who took damn good care of herself. That was something that I appreciated in a woman.
“You always do that?”
“Do what?” she asked, smirking at me with renewed interest.
“Judge a nigga before you get to know him? You just judge the cover and don’t open the book? Can’t even give me chapter one before you summarize that the rest of that shit ain’t no good, one-star it, and you’re certain it’ll end with a cliffhanger.”
She giggled the prettiest little sound that reached straight in my chest and yoked up a nigga’s heart. “I take it that you enjoy reading.”
“They didn’t tell you about me? Girl, I love to read a little sumpin’ sumpin’.”
“Mm. So then you know that my assessment might not be that far-fetched.”
I smirked. “Meet me for coffee tomorrow morning at nine at The Roasted Sip.”
“Why would I do that?” she asked, crossing her arms and looking perturbed.
“So that you can determine how accurate your assessment might or might not be.”
“How about you tell me?”
“I will . . . over coffee,” I suggested.
“I’m standing here now. Besides, I don’t date people I just met, especially when they’re business owners, and we have shared interests in the businesses and community around us.”
“Who said anything about a date?” I countered.
“Then what is it?”
“Two people who are getting to know each other better. Maybe consider me the lead of the welcoming committee.”
She giggled, despite herself. “I don’t see a committee. There’s just you and me. Sounds suspiciously like a date to me, Harlem.”
I shrugged as I backed up toward the back door. “Call it what you want, just don’t call it off.” I winked, and she giggled again as I disappeared through the back door.
I jogged back across the street, hoping and praying that she would show up for the coffee date. I loved her energy, and I wanted to get to know her better, beyond just business.