Chapter 43 Geneva
Geneva
When Deeka called that night, I picked up the phone, said hello, then said, “Hold on,” before I yelled for Eric, even though I could hear Deeka saying, “No, no, ’Neva, I want to talk to you!”
After that, I spent the whole week avoiding him. I even called in sick a few days so that I wouldn’t run into him at the diner.
But that had backfired on me when Deeka walked in there and asked Darlene point-blank where I was, and, as Darlene relayed it to me, when she asked, “Who the hell wants to know?” Deeka said, “Her man, that’s who!”
“Giiiirrrrrl, I knew you were robbing the cradle!” Darlene screamed into the phone when she called to tell me what had gone down.
So now I knew my business was all in the street. Darlene was like the Daily News ! I was down and out. I mean, really depressed; not having Deeka around was like having a gray cloud over me. I couldn’t believe that I had grown so used to him in such a short time.
Not even Charlie and her corny jokes and mispronounced words could drag a smile from me, and it was so bad, Eric, who hardly ever noticed anything, noticed.
“Ma, what’s got you looking so down lately?”
I was curled up in my bed, watching television but not watching television, you know?
I just shrugged my shoulders and muttered, “Nothing.”
Eric sat down on the side of the bed and patted my arm. “You know, whatever it is, you can tell me. Maybe I can help.”
I looked up and gave him a sad smile. I wished I could tell him, but I knew in my heart of hearts that my nineteen-year-old son would not understand my having an affair with his manager, his boy .
“Oh, baby,” I moaned, “Mama’s just tired is all.”
“Just tired?”
“Yeah, just tired,” I repeated, and turned my eyes back to the television.
“Well, I guess you would be. You and Crystal and Chevy been running the streets pretty hard lately,” he laughed.
They’d been my excuse for my nights out with Deeka.
My luck had been good. Crystal was distracted with who knew what, and Chevy, for the first time in her life, was bogged down with work, so neither of them called me as much as they usually did.
And I never said exactly who I was out with.
All I ever told Eric was that I was out with the girls and he automatically assumed it was Crystal and Chevy.
“Yeah, that must be it,” I yawned.
“Well, maybe you’re getting a little too old for that,” Eric innocently commented, but the damage was done. There was that word again. Old.