13.
“Kasim?” Ms. Gardner says as she opens the door. “I would ask you what you’re doing here, but I already know.”
“Is she here?” I ask, because since Giada left my house yesterday, we haven’t said a word to each other since. I haven’t seen her, kissed her lips, or made love to her, and that’s highly unacceptable. I called, she didn’t answer. I texted, she didn’t read my messages.
“No, she’s not. Where is she?”
“I’m not sure, but while I’m here, I need to talk to you. May I?”
“Sure,” she says, stepping aside so I can enter.
I step inside and see boxes all over the place then remember that Giada is using the money I gave her to buy her mom a house. She deserves one after all her years of hard work, but what about what Giada deserves?
“Have a seat,” she says.
“Nah. I’m good right here.”
“I’ll cut to the chase. You did something to me—to me and Giada—that we’re trying to repair.”
“I know.”
“I love her.”
“I know you do, but you were children at the time, Kasim.”
“Yeah, we were. Two years ago, though, we weren’t. I gave you my number. I told you to pass it Giada…to tell her I said hi . You didn’t give it to her, did you?”
She sighs heavily and says, “No, I did not.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because—”
“Don’t give me nothing but the truth, Ms. Gardner. Please. Just tell me.”
“Because I don’t want my daughter to be with the man whose parents I used to work for—cleaning their house, mopping their floors and scrubbing their toilets.
Giada will be just fine being with someone around here—someone like us who she can relate to.
We don’t live in affluent neighborhoods—places where only people who make seven figures can afford.
We don’t come from money ‘round here. We work hard for everything we got, and even after all that, we still fall short! Still can’t afford to pay the rent in full, asking the landlord for an extension only so they can charge a fifty-dollar late fee on top of the regular price that you couldn’t afford to pay in the first place.
What you know about that, Kasim? Hunh? What you know about going grocery shopping and having the cashier take stuff off after she done rung it up because you ain’t got enough money to pay for it?
What you know about sending a child to school with holes in her shoes because your last check was only enough to pay the bills?
And answer this for me—how many nights did your family run out of food, because at my house, we ran out every Thursday and it was just two of us. ”
The gut punch she delivered knocked the air clean out of me.
There were days they had to go without food – days Giada didn’t have anything to eat.
Tightness builds in my chest as I attempt to choke this down.
She should’ve told me. I would’ve made a way.
I could’ve done something. How do you help when you don’t know anything’s wrong?
Ms. Gardner angrily swipes the tears away from her face and says, “I prefer for Giada to be with someone like us—a man who knows the struggle. A man who builds her up and makes her see her full potential—not one who hands her everything on the same silver platter from which he was fed from. She doesn’t need to be with you. ”
She’s angry. Bitter. She’s upset with me because of the circumstances I was born into. My parents were rich. I can’t help that.
I say, “I feel your pain. I do, but there’s nothing you can tell me that’ll keep me away from your daughter and, quite frankly, I don’t care how you feel about us or who you think she should be with. The truth of the matter is, Giada was the best part of me, and you took her away with your lies.”
“You’re from two different worlds.”
Two different worlds…
Now, I see where Giada got the nonsense she told me yesterday. Her mother’s been implanting these nuggets in her mind, making her question our union.
I snap and say, “I don’t care if she was from Jupiter! She’s mine. Why should status dictate who I can love? Who she can love?”
“Because in this world, that’s just the way it is.”
“Screw this world! I love her. You shouldn’t stand in the way of people who love each other. Respectfully, it’s not your place to tell your daughter who she can and can’t be with. It’s not.”
“I just wanted the best for her.”
“You’re looking at him. I am the best for her!
Ain’t nobody taking her away from me. I don’t know what happened to you in the past that was so detrimental, you push that on your daughter, trying to keep her down.
What kind of mother does that to her child?
The man who hurt you must’ve really did a number on you, and on behalf of all the good men in the world, I’m sorry you found one of the bad ones, but that’s not who I am.
I’m a man who waited fourteen years for your daughter because I love her.
The man who didn’t touch any other woman because I knew one day, circumstances would bring Giada back into my life.
In case you didn’t hear me before, I’ll say it again. I love her.”
She drops her head and weeps.
I hate that she’s in tears, but it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who singlehandedly ruined your life.
She clears her throat and says, “I know you love her.”
“Then stop whatever you’re doing to drive us apart…
just stop. Let Giada live in peace because I’m not going anywhere, and I can’t help who I am and what I have.
I have the means to take care of her for the rest of her life.
She doesn’t have to lift a finger to do anything unless she wants to.
Is that the life you don’t want her to have because it’s one you didn’t have? ”
“It’s not reality.”
“It is reality. It’s my reality. Fifty-two million and counting. That’s my net worth, and none of it means a thing without her. Stop trying to sabotage us.”
I turn to walk away.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’ll leave you two alone from here on out.”
“See to it that you do.”