43. Azalea
43
Azalea
When the announcer called her name, Tori walked across the stage with her head to the sky. I shed a few tears, especially when I caught a glimpse of her family cheering her on.
This was what my job was all about. I hadn’t known her long, but I knew how much it meant to her to finally have her GED, and now she had it. I clapped and cheered like she was my own.
She found me in the crowd after the graduation ceremony and asked me to pose for a picture. I was honored, smiling proudly as her mom snapped us from several angles.
“I’m so proud of you,” I told her. “And thank you for letting me be part of your day.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe you came.”
“Of course I came! You’ve been working hard for this, Tori. I wanted to celebrate your win. And this is just the first one. I’ll be there for the rest of them, too, if you’ll have me.”
We both cried when she grabbed me in a hug.
Most of my tears were tears were tears of joy. Some were of relief. I felt so fortunate.
I almost lost this.
“Hey, Mommy.”
My sister grunted into the phone. “Hey, TT.”
“Are you free for me to take you to lunch?”
“Not unless you wanna get barfed on.”
“Still?”
“Yes, bitch! Still!”
“Okay, calm down.” I laughed at her. I didn’t mean to, but she was so funny when she was like this. “Where’s my brother?”
“Who gives a shit? He’s the one who did this to me.”
I burst out laughing again. “Good grief. Seven more months of this foolishness.”
“Whatever. I’ve thrown up three times already today. I’m so over this shit.”
“Be nice. I don’t want my niece or nephew to come out all ornery like you.”
“It’s a girl.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. That’s what I want.”
“What does Pat want?”
“Who cares?”
“Mina.”
“I better get a good push present. Matter of fact, that’s your job for the next seven months. You’re my campaign manager. You’re gonna lobby that nigga to get me something good. A BMW. A bigger diamond. A trip to Mykonos. A mansion. Something!”
“I’ll do what I can, you nut.”
“I’m serious, Azi. This isn’t fair.”
“Mm hm, well, neither is life, but we all have to live it. Hang in there, Bookie. And tell Pat I said hey.”
“You’ll probably see him before I do.”
“How do you figure?”
She was quiet for a moment. “Ummmm…no reason.”
“No, there’s a reason. What do you know?”
“Nothing. Just that he was hanging out with felonbae today.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Confused, I cycled through our phone conversations and text messages from today. Isaac never mentioned anything about Patrick.
“Okay. Well, I don’t know,” she said quickly.
“What are they doing?”
“I DON’T KNOW. Whatever men do when they hang out. Be next to each other and not talk? Iono.”
“You’re hiding something.”
“Look, just trust me,” she said, her voice softening. “I don’t wanna spoil it.”
“We have secrets now? Since when are you loyal to felon—I mean Isaac.”
She snickered. “Maybe I like him now.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you want me to like him?”
“Of course, but why?”
“Um…gotta go. Throw up is imminent. Bye-eee!”
I hate her.
Something was going on, and I didn’t like this one bit. The nerve of them to have secrets without me.
I pulled up just as Patrick was walking out of my front door. I gathered up my things as fast as I could, moving so fast, I dropped my water tumbler on the ground.
Pat ran over and stopped me from lying on the ground to grab it from underneath my car.
“I got it, sis. Hang on.” His long arm stretched until he grabbed the handle. He stood and handed it to me. “Alright, I’m headed home to the baby monster."
“Yeah, about that. You’re gonna need to go hard on her push present, because—“
“I already know. It’s in the works.”
“Okay, good.” I looked him over for evidence. “What were y’all in there doing?”
Pat smiled. “Hangin’ out.”
“Yeah, I heard.”
His face fell. “That girl cannot hold water.”
“She didn’t say why, though.”
“Oh. Cool. Yeah, there was a game on.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true!” he said, laughing. “Just…go inside. Everything is fine. Okay?”
“Whatever.” I stomped away from him, half serious, half playful. “I don’t like these secrets Pat!”
He waved that away and got in his truck.
Inside, Isaac sat on the couch all relaxed and sly like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
“Hey, baby. How was the graduation?”
“What are you up to?”
“Hello to you, too.”
“Hello. What are you up to?”
He stood and grabbed my stuff out of my hands, setting everything on the kitchen table.
“A tiny surprise.”
I looked around. “Where are my babies?”
He took my hand. “Follow me.”
He led me to my office, of all places, where I got the surprise of my life.
“Oh my God!”
“It’s not exactly like the ones on your board. It’s kinda like a mix of all of them.”
I stared at the dog castle as tears filled my eyes. “What did you do? How did you know?”
“You had mentioned that Pinterest site, so I went on there. I found yours instantly—by the way, you really gotta move smarter on the internet, babe. You can’t be using your real name.”
I ran my hand over the grooves in the wood, stunned by the detail. The roof, shingles, shutters, everything was delicately carved.
“You made this?”
He beamed. “Yeah. I had help, though. I took this woodworking class at Home Depot, and I printed the blueprints off this website. And Pat had to help me load it and bring it over here in his truck. But yeah, I did the rest.”
“Isaac.” I shook my head, still in shock. And then to see my babies inside sitting on a tiny chaise lounge. It was too much.
I burst into tears.
“Aww, baby. Those are happy tears, right?”
“Yeeeeeesss,” I sobbed. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“And them,” he said, gesturing to Pinky and Brownie.
“Thank you so much,” I whispered. “You are so amazing.”
“I know.” He laughed. “Doing this for you, it makes me happy. Seeing you happy, that’s all I need.”
There was no music, but he held me, and we rocked back and forth in a slow dance until he kissed the top of my head.
“I have one more thing to show you, and then I have to go to work.”
I smiled at him. “You got another job?”
“Something like that. I’ve been working on…well, I’ve been drawing. I started doing contract work here and there. It’s easy to get your stuff out there on the internet. Then Sunday hooked me up with a gig for a book publisher. Hand drawn covers are the trend now, apparently, and they pay pretty good.”
I stepped back and crossed my arms in front of me.
“I wanna be ecstatic for you, but I’m kinda pissed that you didn’t tell me.”
He laughed. “My bad. I didn’t wanna jinx it.”
“What does that even mean?”
He sighed. “I’ve never really been responsible to somebody else before. At least, not as a grown man.”
“You’re not responsible to me.”
“I am. In my head, I am. You might not get this, but I feel like the only thing worse than failing again is letting you down. So, I’ve been doing my shit, keeping it close, and then I pop out with it. Just in case.”
His wet eyes shocked me. “Baby, I’ve disappointed everybody who’s ever known me. I can’t do that to you. I love you too much.”
“Isaac…” I trailed off when the tear spilled over and rolled down his cheek. Just one. I touched it with my thumb, brushed it away, and then my own tears erupted again.
“We’re a fucking mess,” he said, laughing as he pulled me back into him. “Get it together, Zay. I have to go, for real.”
“Okay. I think they’re okay in there,” I said about my babies.
“You think?” he said sarcastically.
“I think if you keep this up, they’re gonna be even more spoiled than they already were.”
“So will you.” He took my hand and led me down the hall. “Baby, I don’t have much right now, but everything I have belongs to you. I promise you that.”
“Money, maybe, but you have a lot of heart.”
“For you, yes I do.” He pointed to my bedroom wall. “I think I fucked this up a little at the bottom, but—“
“Stop. Isaac. Oh my God!”
It was the tree branch bookshelf from my Pinterest board. The one I’d been wanting but couldn’t afford.
“You made this, too? How long did it take?”
“It took longer than the house, believe it or not. Almost two months.”
I looked at it, then him, then back and forth with my mouth hanging open.
“Isaac Lamar Jackson. I mean, there’s no way I’m not sucking dick tonight. Just telling you now.”
He burst out laughing. “We ain’t gotta wait.”
“I thought you had to work.”
“Shit, I can be late.” His hands went to his belt buckle. “I work for myself, so…”
“Period.”
I went to my knees and swatted his hands away. “I hope you know I love you, too.”
He nodded. “I felt it.”
“Good.” I set his dick free from his jeans and sucked it into my mouth, giving him something else he could feel.