Chapter 28 Geneva #3
“Hey, hey, what’s all of this yawning about?” Eric laughed as he approached.
“Tired, boy, what you think?” I smiled and grabbed his hand. “We’re not as young as we used to be.”
“Speak for yourself,” Crystal said in mock defense.
“Hey, man.” Deeka seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Y’all were off da hook!” he said, slapping Eric on the back.
“Did you have any doubt?” Eric said.
“Not one bit, man. In fact, the owner wants to talk to me about booking you on a regular basis, starting in September.”
“A regular gig here!” Eric was astounded. “You shitting me, man, right?”
“Hey, hey, watch that language, boy,” I warned.
“Sorry, Ma.” Eric gave me puppy eyes before returning his attention back to Deeka and saying, “Are you serious, man? I mean, on the real?”
“Dead serious,” Deeka said.
Eric jumped a foot off the floor and then threw his arms around Deeka, embracing him in a great big bear hug. “Man, this is fantastic!”
Eric and the rest of the band members followed Deeka to the back of the restaurant, where the owner sat waiting to congratulate them.
Eric advised me that he would just be a moment, but after fifteen minutes, my eyes were starting to burn and Crystal’s head was rolling on her neck as if she were a heroin addict.
“Let’s get out of here, girl,” I said, gently tapping her hand.
“Huh? What?”
“I said, let’s go. I’m tired.”
Crystal had a dumbfounded look on her face, like she wasn’t sure exactly where it was she was, then the light returned to her eyes. “Yeah, it’s late, let’s go.”
Just as we gathered ourselves to leave, Eric approached. “Sorry”—he touched my shoulder—“it took so long.”
“It’s okay, baby. We’re going to head home. You want to share a cab with us?” I slung my purse over my shoulder and slapped at my numb thighs.
“What’s wrong, Ma?” Eric asked, concern clouding his face.
“Raspberry cocktails is what’s wrong with her,” Crystal laughed as she stepped around us and started toward the door.
“You know I can’t do anything stronger than a Corona,” I said sheepishly, and started off behind Crystal. Eric followed, making his way beside me and grabbing hold of my elbow. “Hey,” I said, snatching my arm from him, “I’m not a gray-haired old woman. I can walk.”
“Okay, Ma, dang.”
“So you coming with us?”
“Nah, I gotta pack up my drums,” he said as he pushed the door open and then stepped back to let Crystal and me pass through.
“Eric, we still on?” I heard a soft voice float from behind us. When I turned around, Julie was standing there.
“Yeah, give me a minute,” Eric said.
“Did you have a good time, Ms.Holliday?” she asked sweetly.
I just nodded my head at her and then gave Eric a sly smile and said, “Drums, huh?”
We stood on the sidewalk among a throng of people who’d filed out of the restaurant.
Some of them milled around, engaged in conversation; others stumbled drunkenly up the street on to their next destination; and those remaining, including Crystal and me, stood near the curb, our hands thrown up in the air desperately trying to hail a cab.
“Can I give you ladies a lift?”
Crystal and I turned around to see Deeka standing there.
“No—” I started, but Crystal cut me off by saying, “Yeah, sure.”
“Okay, let me just go get the truck from the lot and bring it around.”
“You got ’em, Deeka?” Eric asked.
“Don’t worry, dawg, they’re in safe hands,” Deeka said, and patted him twice on the shoulder as he started off down the block.
I watched him until he hit the corner, took it, and disappeared.
“Okay, then,” Eric said, his eyes bouncing between me and Julie, who was engaged in a conversation with one of the waitresses.
“Uh-huh,” I said, and gave Eric a hard stare. “I hope you protecting yourself because—”
“C’mon, Ma, dang,” Eric said. “I’m not a little kid anymore, Ma.” His voice was filled with pleading.
“Okay, okay,” I surrendered, tilting my cheek toward him. Eric leaned in and pecked me on the cheek.
“See ya, Aunt Crystal.”
“Okay, baby, you stay safe.”
“Not too late, okay?” I couldn’t help but add, and Crystal quickly reached over and pinched me on the hip.
“Enough, okay?” she said.
Deeka’s black truck pulled up alongside the curb. Snoop Dogg was spilling loud and raw from the car speakers.
“Hmm, nice ride,” Crystal muttered under her breath.
“They call it a whip now,” I commented as Deeka rounded the front of the truck and opened the passenger-side front door and then the back.
Once inside, Deeka turned the music down to a bearable level and asked, “So, Crystal, where do you live?”
“Just a block away from Geneva. Ninetieth and Central Park West.”
“Buckle up, please,” Deeka said as he expertly maneuvered the truck into the thin line of traffic.
Before Deeka could get the car up to twenty-five miles an hour, Crystal was knocked out. Her head lolling on her neck, and her mouth open as she snored loudly.
Deeka and I both turned around and shot her surprised looks.
“Too many martinis,” I quietly said, embarrassed for her.
“Yeah, I guess,” Deeka laughed.
We rode along in an uncomfortable silence for a while before Deeka turned to me and said, “Um, Crystal’s address sounds familiar to me. What was it again?”
I reeled off Crystal’s address.
“Oh, yeah, yeah, I do know that building!” Deeka said, snapping his fingers.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I used to date this girl who lived there.”
I felt a stab of jealousy.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, Crystal may even know her,” he went on.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said flatly, and turned my head to look out the window.
“Yeah, hmm, Sunny Joseph,” he mused, like he was remembering something tasty.
“Sound like a white girl,” I spat, then laughed to cover the spite in my voice. I was acting like a fool, like this man—man-child, I should say—was mine.
“Yeah, in fact she was,” Deeka laughed. “But that was a long time ago,” he said as he waved his hand through the air, “when I was young and foolish.”
“Really, and what are you now? Old and wise?” I said with a smirk.
“Something like that,” he said, and gave me a sly look.
“Yeah, well, when I was twenty I thought I knew it all too.”
“Well, I’m actually twenty-three. And I do know a lot, but I’ll be the first to admit that I still have some things to learn.”
“You can say that again,” I said, and snapped my fingers twice for effect. I was acting like an ass but couldn’t seem to help myself.
Deeka just laughed and scanned the radio stations from a button on the steering wheel until he found a station playing grown and sexy music—Rick James and Teena Marie doing “Fire and Desire.”
“You like this song?” Deeka asked. We were stopped at a red light, and my eyes were focused straight ahead. I loved that song; it was one of my favorites, and I had to resist croaking along to it.
“Uh-huh,” I murmured without turning to look at him. But I could feel his eyes stroking my cheek.
“Me too,” he said as he stepped on the gas. “It’s one of my all-time favorites.”
I nodded my head, but remained quiet.
“That song reminds me of how I feel about you.”
His words hit me like a ton of bricks, and my head spun around on my neck so quickly I thought I’d have whiplash the next day. First I looked at him and then I turned to see if Crystal was still sleeping.
“Don’t say things like that!” I hissed at him, before pressing my index finger against my lips and giving him the evil eye.
Deeka gave me an incorrigible smile before saying, “Well, it’s the truth.”
I cut my eyes at him and folded my hands across my chest like a vexed two-year-old. “Stop it.”
“Not until you go out with me.”
I turned my head and threw another wary look over my shoulder at Crystal. We were just pulling up to her building. “I’m not going to go out with you.”
Deeka smiled, and then turned around; reaching his arm over, he stretched his hand toward Crystal’s knee. “Let’s see what Crystal thinks about all of this,” he teased.
I hurriedly slapped at his arm. “Stop playing!”
Crystal stirred and her eyes fluttered open. “What’s going on?” she asked, bleary-eyed as she wiped the spittle from the corners of her mouth.
Deeka opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “Just wanted to let you know that we’re at your apartment.”
“Oh, damn, I fell asleep,” she said, still in a daze. “Was I snoring?” she asked sheepishly.
“Nah,” Deeka said. “Not at all.”
“Oh, good.” Crystal gathered herself to leave. “Thanks so much for the lift, Deeka, and it was so nice meeting you,” she said, extending her hand over the front seat.
“Same here.” Deeka took her hand and kissed it. “Can I escort you upstairs, Crystal?”
“No, no, but thank you.” She blushed and then turned to me and said, “Well, what a gentleman he is; they sure don’t make them like that anymore—huh, Geneva?”
I just shrugged my shoulders.
“Okay, then. Let me head on upstairs. Talk to you later, girl,” she threw at me as she hopped out of the truck.
Deeka and I sat in silence, watching Crystal through the plate-glass windows until she disappeared into the elevator.
“So are you hungry, Geneva?”
I turned slanted eyes on him. “No, I’m tired and just want to go home.”
“Aw, c’mon now. I know this great place just a few blocks from here that serves the best chicken and waffles in town.”
Hmm, chicken and waffles.
“I think it’s too late for a meal that heavy,” I said, even though my mouth had started watering at the mention of it. “And I’ve been wa-watching my figure,” I blurted out stupidly.
“I’ve been watching it too, and it looks fine,” Deeka said as he pulled off.
A few blocks ended up being somewhere in the Bronx in the basement of a house. Some illegal after-hours spot named Ruby’s.
A three-piece band played softly while a girl that looked no more than twelve years old belted out an old Dinah Washington tune.
I had to admit, the space was cozy. The brick walls were painted a muted purplish red, and long sheer silver scarves were draped from the ceiling.