Chapter 14 Geneva
Geneva
After I’d eased myself down onto the bench in front of my building, I opened up the latest issue of Vogue magazine and began lazily flipping through the pages.
Charlie was being entertained by a group of seven- and eight-year-olds as they tried to teach her how to jump rope.
Neville had called me earlier in the day to say that he would be by around six to see me. It was a quarter to, so I lit my cigarette and glared down at the skinny models on the glossy pages of the magazine.
With every turn of a page I could swear I heard the words Fat, Fat, Fat floating up from the pictures. It was all I could do not to press the lit tip of my cigarette down into the pretty little faces of the models.
“Stop hating, Geneva,” I said out loud before taking a long puff from my Newport.
Looking over at the group of children, I could see Charlie’s knock-knees banging together with every leap she took.
“Yeahhhhhh!” I screamed as she jumped five full times before her little feet finally become entangled in the rope.
Charlie beamed and came rushing toward me. “Did you see me, Mommy, huh, did you?” she screamed excitedly.
“Oh, yes, and you were great!” I said, grabbing her little cheeks.
“I’m going to do it again!” she squealed, and dashed back to the group.
“Okay,” I encouraged with a smile, before taking another puff of my cigarette and turning my attention back to the magazine.
“Hello, Ms.Holliday.” A silky voice floated down to me. I looked up, but the sun blinded me, and I brought one hand up to block its rays.
It was Deeka.
I had fought hard to put that scene from the other night out of my mind. And I was so glad that he hadn’t been back to the diner since then. But now here he was, not more than a foot away from me.
“Hey,” I said in a small voice, before dropping my eyes back down to the magazine.
“May I?” I heard him say, and saw that his hand was indicating the empty space beside me.
I just shrugged my shoulders.
He stared across the courtyard for a while and then turned to face me. “I have to assume that that’s your little one there,” he said, pointing at Charlie.
I looked over and then nodded my head.
“She’s a beautiful girl. She looks just like you.”
I chanced a glance at him. Did he think I was beautiful?
“Thank you,” I mumbled.
“What is she—about five?”
“Three.”
“Wow, she’s tall,” he said, surprised, his head swinging back in Charlie’s direction for a moment.
“Yeah, she is,” I said, lifting my head to admire my beautiful child.
“Um, Ms.Holliday, I really feel bad about the other night and wanted to apologize again.”
Oh, God, he had to go there!
“It’s okay, really,” I mumbled, and flipped a page.
“Well, I’d really like to make it up to you. Maybe take you out to dinner.”
What?
My eyes flew up and fastened onto his face. I couldn’t have heard right.
“Dinner?” I asked stupidly, then waited for this young, fine thing to give me an awkward look, laugh, and say “Who said anything about dinner?”
But instead what sailed out of his mouth was “Yeah, dinner.”
“Errrrrrrrrrriiicc!” Charlie suddenly screamed, and both Deeka and I looked up to see Eric swinging Charlie through the air.
I found myself sliding an inch away from Deeka, and I could swear that he did the same from me, so that by the time Eric got close to us, there was a respectable distance between us.
“Hey, Ma,” Eric greeted me, and then to Deeka, “Hey, man.” Deeka stood and they shook hands and bumped shoulders as Charlie stood between them, her head pivoting back and forth on her neck like a wind-up doll.
“Get out of their business, Charlie, and go on back and play,” I yelled at her, but she ignored me until I added, “Or we’ll go inside.” And with that she skipped off back to her friends.
“Fresh ass,” I mumbled, and then tried hard not stare at Deeka, who seemed to be trying hard not to do the same to me.