Chapter 28 Geneva #4
The space held ten square tables that each seated four. There were a few people standing along the walls, holding plastic cups filled with wine, and the scent of chicken and waffles being cooked somewhere in the back part of the basement wafted through the air.
“This is a cool spot, right?” Deeka said as he pulled a chair out for me. I was a little hesitant to sit down. The chair looked a bit fragile, and all I needed was for the legs to give way and me to end up on the floor.
“What’s wrong?” Deeka asked when I remained standing.
“Oh, nothing,” I said as I gently eased my behind down onto the edge of the chair, shifting most of my weight forward.
“Hey, D!” shouted a buxom woman who looked very much like the actress S.
Epatha Merkerson. She was dressed in a black sequined tube dress.
I immediately knew that Crystal would say that that wasn’t a dress for me, and Chevy would just call it ghettofied.
But I liked it, and this woman who I would find out was Ruby was just as big as I was and looked fabulous!
“Hey, Ms.Ruby!” Deeka said, standing up and greeting her with a bear hug.
“Where have you been hiding your fine self?” Ruby said, rolling her eyes up and down Deeka’s body like a steamroller.
“Oh, working, you know.”
“Uh-huh. Working what, though?” Ruby said, imitating Mae West.
“This is my friend, Geneva,” Deeka said, ignoring Ruby’s flirting.
“Hi.”
“Hi?” Ruby mocked me. “You better get on up here and give Mama Ruby a big ol’ hug!”
“Oh, um, I—”
“That’s the problem with black folks; we don’t know how to show one another any love!” she roared, and pulled me into her. Our supersized breasts collided; the impact was not pleasant.
Pulling back, she wailed, “Ooooh, you a big ol’ gal, ain’t ya!” Ruby laughed as she slapped me on the ass with one hand and then tweaked my cheek with the other. “Corn-fed southern girl, huh?”
“I was actually born—”
“Shoot, good thing you ain’t fall into this skinny-white-girl shit that all these chirren is fallin’ into. Starving themselves and walking around here looking like them poor chirren in Africa; hip bones sticking out so far, if you rub against them you’ll cut yourself, I swear!”
Ruby was talking so rapidly, it was clear that neither Deeka nor I was going to get a word in, so we just stood politely by and let her ramble.
“I ain’t never been on no goddamn diet! Not me, I’ma still eat my swine and my carbs!
You know what I’m saying, girl?” she said, poking me on my shoulder.
“I say I’ma keep putting butter on my bread and sugar in my collard greens.
I’m gonna keep on doing what I been doing, ’cause it makes me happy and keeps me healthy, no matter what dem white people at the FBI say. ”
“FDA,” Deeka mumbled.
“Whoever!” Ruby said, and started to say something else, when a young boy sidled up beside her and whispered something in her ear.
“Lord Jesus, can’t I leave you all to do the right thing at all?” she bellowed, and started off behind the young man without even a goodbye.
Deeka and I just stared at each other for a moment. I felt like I’d just been through a hurricane.
“I know, I know,” Deeka said, shaking his head. “Ruby can be a bit much.”
***
A plate of waffles and three Coronas later, I couldn’t seem to remember how it was Deeka had moved from sitting across the table from me to sitting right beside me.
But he was there, and his hand was thrown across the back of my chair as he bopped his head to the music in between whispering sweet nothings in my ear.
“You’re so beautiful, Geneva,” he murmured.
“Thank you,” I uttered, realizing that I had become too comfortable with the whole scene, completely forgetting about my big ass and the scrawny chair I was seated in.
Slowly, I tried to straighten my back so that I could move my weight to the edge of the chair again, but Deeka’s hand was suddenly pressing down on my shoulder.
“When you gonna stop trying to get away from me, Geneva?”
What was I supposed to say? Yeah, I like the fact that you’re whispering in my ear, because I haven’t had a man do that to me in some time, but I need to sit up and lean forward because I think this chair is going to break?
“I’m not running,” I squeaked as I eased myself erect. “It’s just that I’m, uhm, getting a little tired, and besides it’s so late. I need to get home.”
“Oh, okay,” Deeka said, still pressing his hand down on my shoulder. “We’ll go after this set. But I’m still waiting on an answer.”
“An answer to what?” I said, turning to him. His face was so close to mine that our lips almost brushed. I jerked my head back in surprise, and then I blushed.
Deeka smiled slyly. “I asked if you thought you were beautiful.”
Well, I knew I wasn’t a dog; I just didn’t feel beautiful all the time. I sighed. “Well, I think I’m beautiful tonight,” I whispered, and was instantly struck by my honesty.
“Just tonight?” Deeka said, his eyes widening with surprise.
“Well, the new clothes, the makeup, and the hairstyle helped.” I grinned. “But I’m sure the first time you saw me at the diner, beauty wasn’t what came to mind.”
Deeka leaned back, a look of amazement on his face. “That’s not true, Geneva. I saw beauty the first, second, and twentieth time I walked into that diner and laid eyes on you. You’re beautiful to me all the time.”
That was the most wonderful thing a man had ever said to me while we were sitting up and fully clothed!
We just stared at each other for a while, and then his hands were on my face pulling me to him.
I didn’t even try to resist, and before I could take a breath, his lips were pressed against mine and every fantasy I’d ever had about him exploded in the pit of my stomach.
The heat was on as our tongues explored each other’s mouths.
We kissed like we were hungry for each other, and if Ruby hadn’t come along and interrupted us, I swear we would have ended up on the table dry-humping each other!
We continued our “exploration” outside. Deeka had me pressed up against the car, and our hands crawled all over each other’s bodies. We looked like two lovestruck teenagers. Or at least lust -struck!
Finally, when I thought I couldn’t take much more for fear of giving myself over to him right then and there, I pushed him off me and asked, “What do you want from me?”
Deeka looked deep into my eyes and answered, “I want you. All of you.”
“This has got to be some type of joke,” I said, digging into my purse for my cigarettes. I hadn’t had one in hours, and truthfully, hadn’t thought about having one until that moment. “You must be crazy,” I said as I popped the Newport into my mouth and lit it.
“I’ve been called worse,” he said, taking a step toward me. I took two steps away from him.
“I’m almost old enough to be your mother,” I said, blowing a plume of smoke over his head. “And I smoke. Men don’t like women who smoke. And I can tell by your body that you’re probably a health nut.”
“Oh, God!” Deeka screamed as he threw his hands up into the air. “What do I have to say or do to make you believe that this is real?”
He walked in circles for a minute, apparently having a conversation with himself before walking over to me, putting both hands on my shoulders, and saying, “I don’t care about your age, age is just a number, and you’ll stop smoking when you’re ready to, I know that.
I will say that you should stop sooner than later, because I want to have you around for a long, long time. ”
I looked around for the movie cameras; surely I was being “punk’d” by Ashton Kutcher!
“Give me a chance, Geneva, please.”
“I—I just don’t know,” I mumbled. Deeka bit down hard on his bottom lip and turned his head toward the moonlit sky. I swear I saw a tear in his eye.
I took a deep breath, flicked my cigarette down to the pavement, and moved toward him. “Deeka?”
Deeka looked down at me, and I examined his face, his eyes, the soft curve of his bottom lip for some flaw, some tic that would tell me this was all some cruel joke. But there was nothing. Not a trace of insincerity.
Besides, I’d been involved with a number of different men who hadn’t ever begged and pleaded for my company the way Deeka just had. As ludicrous as it all seemed, I had to admit that somewhere deep inside of me it felt right.
“Okay,” I said.