Chapter 9
Burgers, Grills, and Chills was quiet this time of night.
Everyone was either at Wild Flame or the other various clubs throughout the city, making this an easy night.
In a crowd of people, Ernie got agitated and this just wasn’t the night for added chaos.
Remedy slid out of the truck and opened Ernie’s door while Erys pulled his gun from the spot he stashed it and placed it in the back of his pants.
She noticed how vigilant he was but it wasn’t anything to harp on. He wasn’t anything to harp on. And quite frankly, she didn’t like her thoughts being consumed with possibilities and what ifs. Life had taught her in the harshest way that this wasn’t any fairytale.
“I could use a good ol’ cheesy cheese,” Ernie crooned, rubbing his stomach. “All that regulating, I done worked up an appetite.”
“I bet you have. You know what kind of ass whopping you got to deliver to make them give me all my money back?” Erys spoke up.
“I beat him like he stole something from me. I beat him like I should’ve beat your ass,” Ernie stated, finding a table out the way where he could see everything.
Like father, like son. They stood the same, moved the same and at times when Ernie wasn’t reliant on his cane, they even walked the same. If Remedy didn’t know any better, she would have assumed he’d been an active father for as long as Erys had been alive.
Ignoring his father’s statement, Erys looked over at Remedy. She’d placed herself at a safe distance where she wouldn’t be touched. He was getting too comfortable interrupting the safety of her space. If they were going to take care of Ernie, there needed to be boundaries.
“Boundaries,” she thought with a roll of her eyes. “Stop thinking too deep into this.”
“What do you want to eat?” Erys’ baritone broke through her thoughts.
“Hm?” she asked, looking up at him.
“What do you want to eat?” he repeated.
“Oh I can order it,” she answered and started toward the order window.
A quick grab of her hand, that felt electric, a gentle tug back that didn’t feel like a threat to her being accompanied by the intensity of his glare sent her body into a frenzy.
Butterflies swirling in her stomach, alerting every nerve ending and shocking her brain into reminding her how things like this ended.
Remedy stepped back, closing herself off.
“I just want a Trae Way Chicken Sandie with everything on it and side of the East Side Tots. A bottle of water is fine. Your dad wants the cheesy cheese but his blood pressure is still high so get him a chicken sandwich with cheese, a small West Side Fry and water with lemon.”
Erys nodded, pushing his hands in his pocket. “I’ll get him to the doctor so we can know exactly what’s going on with him.”
Remedy returned his nod.
“Go sit down. I got this.”
With her hands still folded over her chest, she walked back to the table. Sitting by Ernie, she nudged him softly. “You alright?”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “Still mad though. You should’ve told me you were leaving. Had me tearing that shit up looking for you.”
“You were sleeping so good I didn’t want to wake you,” Remedy waited on his cue to tell her exactly what he saw. Whether he was having a moment where he thought she was Cherie or whether he knew he was talking to Remedy.
“That nigga at the club give you all your money?” he asked.
Remedy shook her head. “No.”
It’d been her goal to always keep a level head around him.
If she got upset, he was upset. If someone wronged her and he knew about it, fury would follow.
So keeping the fact that she was down to her last, out of tips, with a lien on her property and no real income for the foreseeable future was stressing her out, but Ernie couldn’t know that in full.
“You need to take me down there so I can beat that muhfucka’s ass and then tell him a thing or too that’ll ruin his life,” Ernie huffed.
“And what’s that?” Remedy asked.
“His grandmother was a hoe. My hoe. I had that bitch sucking and fucking from here to Cresent Valley, and his momma followed right behind her,” Ernie shared, making Remedy laugh softly.
Erys returned to the table with the waters. Remedy nodded in thanks.
“Rem, I bet he got a salad with cauliflower and gluten-free chicken,” Ernie joked.
“Pops, gluten-free chicken doesn’t exist,” Erys spoke, his logic making him miss the joke.
“And neither should egg whites, gotdamn it,” Ernie grumbled back. “Say listen, that Mack nigga at the club has taken her tips the two nights she’s worked there. What you gon’ do about it, you chicken hawk muhfucka?”
Remedy placed her hand over her mouth to muffle the laughter. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“That was a good one wasn’t it?” Ernie asked, laughing.
“You two stand up comedians,” Erys’ muttered with a shake of his head.
“I asked you a question,” Ernie stated, quieting his laughter. “What you doing about her money?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll figure it-”
“It’s handled,” Erys declared, locking eyes with Remedy.
She didn’t like that, she squirmed. “I was going to-”
“It’ll be at the house when we get there,” Erys shared, finalizing the back and forth. “I’ll leave a spare set of keys to my car for you so you can get what you need from the house.”
Remedy looked around their space, anything to avoid those dark, deep set eyes that bore into her with questions she didn’t want to answer and stories she didn’t want to become invested in.
“Order 69!” the man behind the window called.
“Ahh, that was a good year,” Ernie hummed.
Erys swayed his head and stood to grab their order and returned with a tray of food. He handed out their respective orders and was met by a pair of silent stares. “What?”
“Is that it?” Remedy asked, frowning at the chicken breast with a slice of lettuce and tomato.
“Damn, he eats worse than you,” Ernie quipped. “How you got all them muscles and you don’t eat nothing?”
“It’s protein,” Erys replied. “What’s the problem?”
Remedy threw her hands up. “Nothing. I’m minding my business. Our stomachs aren’t connected.”
“Thank God,” Ernie jeered. “We’d be angry and uptight all the time just like him.”
Remedy could feel his eyes on her, taking her in but she wouldn’t oblige him. They ate in silence mostly, Ernie said something every so often but outside of that, Remedy and Erys didn’t exchange anything else.
She didn’t know exactly what point in the ride she’d fallen asleep on Ernie’s shoulder.
Somewhere between leaning on him when he got confused about where he was with the city lights fading in the distance.
The soft stop of the truck alerted her to pull her eyes open.
A stark white garage with two blacked out cars on either side of the truck.
One, a Mercedes and the other, a Maybach.
There had to be another car for her to drive.
Remedy put that out of her mind as she gently woke Ernie up.
His eyes slowly opened and he looked around. “Where are we?”
“My house. I’ll get everything, let me show y’all the rooms,” Erys said, getting out and opening her door and then moving to his dad’s.
Remedy wiggled her tired body out of the truck, counting down the seconds when she could pull her stage outfit off of her body. With Ernie in tow, she followed Erys inside.
“There ain’t enough room in the garage for my Cadillac,” Ernie stated.
“There’s an empty garage on the other side. With enough space for that big ass car, Erys said, turning on the lights as he walked through the house.
Remedy took in the size of the house and the view of the lake in the back of the house from the foyer.
She was back in Cashmere Lakes. She pulled in a deep breath and quietly pushed it out to settle the quake happening inside of her.
Her eyes were back on the cleanliness of the house.
The sharpness of the white walls against the black baseboards and trimming.
Erys started up the black stairs to the second floor.
Ernie climbed them behind his son and Remedy spotted him from behind.
“This is my room,” Erys pointed to the neatly-made room, with not a sight of warmth inside. “Pops, you’re going to be right next to Remedy. Every room has its own bathroom.”
Ernie left the two and shuffled into his room. He took it in and sounded off. “What you said you did down there at Fort Wraith?”
Remedy watched Erys’ jaw tighten. There was definitely a story there. One she was going to avoid at all costs.
“You’re right here,” Erys said, walking into a room that was larger than she thought it would be. “Walk-in closet. Your own balcony. I had my housekeeper put towels in the bathroom. I’ll bring you something to sleep in.”
“Thanks. I’ll get Ernie ready for bed.”
He bowed his head and stepped aside so she could walk past him. Remedy sauntered into the room where Ernie sat on the edge of the bed taking it all in.
“What you thinkin’ about?” Remedy asked, her hand on his shoulder.
Ernie shook his head, quickly swiping a tear from his cheek. “He turned out better than me.”
“You’re proud?”
“More than he’ll ever know.”