CHAPTER EIGHT DINNER DATE
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Dinner Date
Benny pulled up to Gloria’s house and walked to her front porch only half aware of himself.
The sight of Cora’s yellowing bruise had haunted him all week, and worry for her ran through him, like rain through a dry field, pooling in his belly.
Now, with her photo in the paper, she and Lee were bound to attract all manner of evil.
And if she didn’t leave Lee’s place soon, the gossip in the community would be vicious, and there’d be no going back.
When he rang the bell, he was thinking of how they should have left well enough alone, and had a scowl on his face when Mrs Meyers opened the door.
‘Goodness, Benny. You look like you just lost your best friend. Is everything all right?’
‘Sorry, Mrs Meyers.’ He softened his expression. ‘I have a lot on my mind.’
She stroked his cheek in a motherly gesture and pulled him inside. ‘Wait till you see. Mr Meyers has a new toy.’
‘Come on in here, son,’ Mr Meyers boomed from the living room. ‘Let me show you something.’
Benny followed his voice into the living room where the furniture had been rearranged to face a television set. Across from it, Mr Meyers sat grinning, like a kid on Christmas morning.
‘Well, look at that,’ Benny said, taking in the fish-tank screen nearly twice as big as Ed’s.
‘A top of the range RCA.’ Mr Meyers stood and sauntered over to his new television, running his hand over the wood-clad box.
‘It’s like having our own personal movie theater,’ Mrs Meyers said.
Benny looked at it from all sides, not daring to touch it. ‘She’s a beauty.’
‘I watched the Pirates game on her and, I tell you, it’s better than being there.’
‘If that’s true,’ Gloria said, sweeping into the room, ‘it’s only because you had Mother waiting on you hand and foot through the whole thing.’
He swatted away his daughter’s words and said, ‘This year the World Series will be playing in my living room. Who do you pick for the pennant?’
Gloria stepped around the sofa to stand at Benny’s side. ‘I’m ready to go,’ she said, smelling of flowers and sunshine.
‘My money’s on the Pirates,’ Mr Meyers said, speaking over her. ‘Maybe the Yankees.’
Benny smiled at Gloria and took her hand as he answered her father’s question. ‘I have a good feeling about the Dodgers, sir. They have a secret weapon.’
‘You mean Jackie Robinson? Son, he’s the most opposite thing to a secret there is. Even people who don’t know a thing about baseball know about Jackie Robinson.’ He turned to Gloria. ‘You know who that is, don’t you, sweetheart?’
‘Of course,’ she said, rolling her eyes, Cora-style.
‘Well, maybe he’s not a secret weapon,’ Benny laughed, ‘but he’s gonna lead them to the World Series. It’s already a big year for them.’
‘We should get going, Daddy.’ She kissed his cheek. ‘I’ll see you later.’
‘You know, back in my day I had a pretty good arm.’ Mr Meyers motioned a pitcher’s throw.
Benny glanced at Gloria and gave a small, helpless shrug. ‘I didn’t know that, sir.’
‘But I couldn’t run to save my life.’
‘I can see how that’d be a problem,’ he said. Gloria squeezed his fingers. ‘Well, I guess we’ll get out of your hair—’
‘Do you play, Benny?’
‘I … uh … sure. I mean, I could never have gone pro, but I’m not bad. I upped my game playing a friend who had the whole package. An incredible player.’
Mr Meyers perked up. ‘Did he try for the Majors?’
Gloria sighed beside him.
‘No, he …’ Benny caught himself before he blurted out that Lee had played for the Negro League. ‘He never tried for the Majors, but he was better than half their players.’
‘I know what you mean,’ Mr Meyers said. ‘I once knew a guy—’
‘Earl, you are positively hijacking your daughter’s date,’ Mrs Meyers said, from the doorway.
She walked to her husband and slipped her arm around his waist. ‘Let them go.’ She laughed as Gloria mouthed, Thank you.
‘And maybe you’d like to come over to watch the World Series on the television set,’ she said to Benny.
‘Thank you, ma’am. I’d sure love to.’
Gloria pulled closer to his side and wrapped her arm around his. As soon as they’d stepped outside, she whispered, ‘He’s sure warmed up to you. I almost think he likes you more than me.’
‘So, you like me, do you?’ He grinned at her.
She flushed red. ‘You know what I meant. He doesn’t know what to do with a daughter.’ When they got to the car and her back was turned to him, she said, ‘But to answer your question, yes, I do.’
Benny wished he could bottle the lightness he felt when he was with her.
The sense of just being happy to be alive that overpowered him the moment she was by his side.
Speeding up West Shore Drive, it hit him like a puzzle piece slotting into place: he was falling for this girl.
The thought of building a life with her made him happy and hopeful.
He’d meant to take her to a little place on Main Street he’d heard about, but drove past it, wanting to mark this night with something more than a burger and fries.
Ed had mentioned a swanky restaurant he’d been to with Alice for their anniversary. A romantic-type place on the water. He headed up the shore until he saw its lights winking by the pier.
They were seated at a small table in the middle of the room, and a suited waiter recited the specials as he filled their water glasses. Gloria asked the fish of the day, and he handed Benny the wine list, telling him it was grouper and pointing out a few bottles that might pair nicely.
When he left, Gloria glared after him. ‘I’m sick of being overlooked,’ she said.
‘What do you mean?’
She tucked her hair behind her ears with angry energy. ‘My father talks over me and ignores me and I take it because he’s my father, but I’m not taking this from a waiter.’
Benny blinked at her, thoroughly confused. ‘Did the waiter talk over you?’ He hadn’t, Benny was sure, but it didn’t seem the right moment to point that out.
‘I asked about the fish, but he turned to you to answer.’
The gesture hadn’t registered as dismissive, but thinking about it now, of course it was.
He felt surprised to have missed it, being so used to the boxes he’d once been put into and that his friends and family still struggled with.
No wonder so many people thought things were fine the way they were.
They didn’t see the slights any more than he’d noticed the waiter.
‘I’m sorry that keeps happening to you, G. I know how much it bothers me when I’m ignored like that.’
‘When does it happen to you?’
Another question he couldn’t answer truthfully. ‘Not lately, but it used to happen a lot.’
‘When you were younger.’ She nodded in understanding. ‘Young people are overlooked all the time too. It’s like you only count in this world when your voice is deep.’
And your skin is light, Benny thought.
‘My father thinks I’m headstrong.’
He tapped her toe with his foot under the table. ‘So what if you are?’ he said, pleased to have brought a smile back into her eyes. ‘It just means you know what you want, and you’re not afraid to make a little noise to get it.’
Across the restaurant, someone slammed a glass onto a table. Benny and Gloria startled in surprise and glanced over to see a puffed-up man, red-faced and scowling.
‘Don’t, Rick,’ the woman across from him said, trying to shush him.
‘I’m just saying,’ the man’s voice grew louder, as if he was eager for everyone to hear, ‘it’s a whites-only restaurant, so what the hell is he doing in here?’
Benny’s blood froze. He turned to face the man, his palms and pits sweating with a panic he took care not to show. The man glowered at a dark-skinned busboy with thinning gray hair clearing the table next to him, pretending not to hear.
‘What are you doing in here, boy?’ the customer said, raising his voice louder.
The waiter came hurrying over to take control of the situation. ‘Sir, our whites-only designation applies to our guests and the wait staff, but we do have some Negro busboys and dishwashers.’
‘Well, that’s false advertising for one thing. Plus you shouldn’t have him out here next to my table. In plain sight.’
‘Sorry, sir, but we don’t have enough wait staff for waiters to bus tables too.’
‘Well, that’s your problem, isn’t it? And no cause to make a mockery of having a whites-only restaurant.’
All the ruckus brought out the manager, who apologized for making the customer feel uncomfortable and offered desserts on the house.
Benny dragged his attention back to his own table, pinpricks running up his arms, his heartbeat rushing through his ears.
‘Unbelievable,’ Gloria said in a huff, shaking her head.
Benny tensed, bracing for her to agree with the customer or the policy or even the apology.
‘The man was doing his job, for goodness’ sakes,’ she said in a hiss. ‘Who did he think was back there doing the dishes? And that waiter and that manager just encourage people like that. They should have tossed him out for disturbing the rest of us, not rewarded him with cake.’
Benny’s eyes widened as he listened to her and his heart swelled.
‘If every whites-only space was truly whites-only, he’d soon be begging for them to come back. And it would serve him right if they didn’t. The way we treat them is just plain wrong.’
Benny leaned back in his seat and opened his mouth to say something, but the moment seemed to demand more than the clumsy words he could conjure, so his primed mouth hung slack and dumb.
‘I’ve shocked you, haven’t I?’ she said, coloring.
‘Daddy says I’m too opinionated, in addition to being headstrong.
’ She glanced at her hands. ‘I guess you might as well know right off what you’d be getting yourself into with me.
’ She lifted her eyes to give him a steely look, like she was expecting a challenge.
‘I’m afraid I’m not going to change my mind on that point.
I’ve thought long and hard about it and I’m just not. ’
Benny reached over, took her hand and pulled it to his mouth, kissing her fingers, her palm, the back of her hand. She had shocked him all right. In the best possible way. If he’d felt light before, now he was flying, on the wings of the angel Gloria.
When the waiter brought their orders, he set the plates down quickly.
‘Just so you know,’ he said, lowering his voice and directing his concerns to Benny, ‘we heard on the radio that the hurricane headed for Louisiana has changed direction. It’s headed for us now, so we’re closing the restaurant early. ’
‘Do we have time to eat?’ Gloria asked.
‘Of course. But if you’d prefer, we can pack up your dinner to take away with you.’
Benny glanced around, noticing that the previously crowded restaurant was half empty.
They ate quickly, barely tasting their food. After ten minutes the manager came over offering to pack away the remainder of their dinner to take home.
‘It must be moving fast,’ she said, as he scurried away with their plates.
Benny reached for her hand. ‘I’ll get you home. Don’t worry.’
The waiter was back in no time with their leftovers and two pieces of cake wrapped in aluminum foil for good measure. There was only one other couple left, also being hurried to the door.
‘When will it hit?’ Benny asked on his way out.
‘We have a few hours if it stays on course.’ Time enough to get home and get ready.
They stepped outside to the wind whipping at their hair and tearing at their clothes.
Benny took Gloria’s hand and hurried her to his car, bustling her inside.
When he jogged around to the driver’s side and slipped in beside her, she was laughing, peering into her compact mirror.
‘If you knew how long I spent fixing my hair tonight,’ she said, ‘and look at me.’ It stuck up every which way.
‘You look beautiful,’ he said. ‘You always look beautiful.’
He leaned toward her, and she closed her eyes.
Outside, the wind howled, throwing debris across the road and stirring up the bay.
Instead of soft, rolling waves, the water had grown restless, slapping noisily against the rocks on the pier.
He brushed his lips against hers, so soft and supple.
They should get going, he knew, but then Gloria’s lips parted for him and her warm hand rested on his cheek, tugging him closer.
They had hours until the hurricane arrived. They had time for this.