To Catch a Hawk

CHAPTER ONE

You need a man. That was all she’d been hearing for months. That’s why you’re so bitchy lately. You need yourself a man!

She gave up. Her baby brother just knew he had the answer to her problems. She broke up with Tariq nearly six months ago, but her brother was certain the root of all her worries traced back to that latest break up.

And that a man replacing a man was the only answer for it.

Which was ridiculous to Janita on its face.

The last thing she needed was another broke down brother looking for what he could squeeze out of her too.

But just to shut up her own brother, and also to satisfy her own curiosity, she agreed to go on this blind date with some guy he knew.

She looked at the time on her phone again.

Her date was late. Twelve minutes late to be exact.

Which wasn’t enough time for her to get up and leave, but it was enough time to let her know this was a big mistake.

Why was she even bothering with this nonsense?

She didn’t have time for this. She had a business to run!

But when he walked into that restaurant in jeans so baggy that they nearly dragged the floor, and with a big, thick gaudy gold chain around his thin neck, she almost wanted to get up and run.

And his age. He looked younger than her baby brother!

This was the man DeVontay thought was what she needed? Him?

He wore a suit coat with his baggy jeans, which was probably what Von told him to wear to impress her.

But she wasn’t impressed at all. She was pissed.

But not with her date. She was pissed with her baby brother!

On what day of the week did he think she would want herself a hip-hop wannabe like him?

But that was how they rolled in Brackenridge, Tennessee: Backwards.

But she didn’t trip. She didn’t make a scene. Her parents taught her to never judge a book by its cover. So she smiled as he approached her booth and tried to be polite. She was still willing to give him a chance.

“You must be Nita,” he said with his hand extended and with a smile that revealed a rack of gold teeth across the front of his mouth.

But because his gold was yellow-gold, it didn’t look right at all to her.

More like yellow teeth. But she knew that rack was considered the style and she needed to get with the program.

She was also taught that people were always going to be who they were. She couldn’t fault this brother for being who he was. But she could fault her brother for not knowing who she was and hooking her up with a guy who was so unlike her type that it beggared belief.

“I’m Janita, yes,” she said as she shook his extended hand. “You must be Cork?”

“The one and only.”

“Please have a seat.”

He was grinning as he sat down. She didn’t know why, but by the way he was staring at her she assumed it was because she was older than he had expected her to be, and that might have meant some kind of feather in his cap.

Did he see her as sugar mama material? Or a cougar with a bank account that could get him where he wanted to be?

She didn’t know. But whatever it was she knew it wasn’t going to bode well for her.

After the waiter took his drink order, and he still had that grin on his face, she couldn’t help herself. “How old are you?” she asked him.

“I’m twenty-one. Me and your little brother DeVontay right around the same age. How old are you?”

“Older than you.”

His grin really increased. “I ain’t mad at that!” But then he leaned toward her, his voice lowered. “But can I be completely honest with you?”

She had just adjusted her straw and was about to take another sip of her drink. But she sat the glass back down. “Please do.”

He grinned again. “I like my ladies thicker.”

She understood what he said, but she didn’t understand the context. “Excuse me?”

“I’m just sayin’. I mean, you pretty. You got a real pretty face. But I like my bitches with more meat on their bones. Know what I’m saying?”

“Your bitches?”

“You know! Like them chicks that be on that show they call My Six-Hundred-Pound Life or whatever it’s called. Now them ladies is what I call fine!”

Janita could not believe she was hearing this. He was skinny as a rod, but he wanted some massive-sized woman that couldn’t fit through a door? “You like six-hundred-pound women? Is that what you’re saying?”

“They can be a little smaller though. Like five or five-fifty. I’m okay with that. They ain’t all got to be six hundred. But they can’t be too small. I don’t like’em too small.”

Janita didn’t know what to say to that. “Uh-hun.”

“But you?” He was looking her up and down, but shaking his head disapprovingly. “Von didn’t tell me you was teeny-weeny.”

Janita knew she was not teeny-weeny. She was a slender girl, alright, but she was not skinny by any measure. She had real curves.

But he wanted him a “fine” woman in the five-hundred-to-six-hundred-pound range. And this was the guy her beloved baby brother thought would be a great match for her! She was going to kick Von’s ass when she saw him again.

But she saw all she needed to see of this blind date.

“Anywho,” she said as she began grabbing up her clutch purse, her shades, and her phone.

“Since I’m not in your preferred weight class, or anywhere near it,” she added with emphasis, “I’m not going to waste your time.

” She began sliding across her booth seat to get up.

“Well damn.” He seemed surprised. “You leaving?”

“I don’t want to waste your time nor mine.”

“But . . . You don’t wanna eat? Damn girl. We can at least eat.”

“No, I really need to go. I’m good.”

“Before you leave though,” he said just as she was about to stand up.

She stopped all movement and gave him her attention. He at least deserved that much from her. “Yes?”

“Von says you’re somebody that’s going places. That true?”

“Yes. I’m going home.”

He grinned that yellow-gold teeth grin again. “But for real though,” he said. Then he began licking his lips as if he thought that made him look sexy. “I need a favor, lil’ mama.”

There it was. That dreaded favor. Every guy she dated was under the false impression that because she was a go-getter, or because she was still young and owned a business, she was some rich chick with money to spare.

But what they never seemed to realize was that running a small business was a daily hustle just to keep the lights on.

It was a grind. It was hard work on top of hard work that she didn’t mind doing, but it was no walk in the park.

And all this extra money wasn’t in the bargain either. “What kind of favor?” she asked him.

“I got this idea for my own business for real for real. And guess what it’s gonna be called?”

She didn’t respond. She just stared at him.

“It’ll be called Business,” he said with his hands spread apart as if he was parting the Red Sea.

“Ain’t that clever? I’m calling it Business,” he went on, “because that’s what I stand on, you feel me?

I stand on business. But I need a lil’ some’um some’um on the capital side to get it off the ground.

An investment of say a couple grand or something like that?

Or even more if you wanna give it,” he said with another one of his lip-licks and grins as he glanced down at what she assumed was his penis.

As if his boney ass could do anything for her. She got up.

She didn’t even dignify his ask with a response. She just left.

When she got outside and got into the Infiniti QX80 she used for her private transportation as well as for her business, she leaned her head back with tears in her eyes.

She could blame her brother all she wanted, but the real reason she showed up for this blind date was because she was hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe this one would be different.

That she’d finally find a man that wanted her for her, and was willing to grind with her.

Not some joker that needed her to help a brother out with his rent.

Or to hook a brother up with light bill money.

Or to invest in some unspecified business venture that even Stevie Wonder could see would be like taking money and flushing it down a toilet.

But it was yet another date to nowhere. He was not her knight and never would be.

He was more of the same. He was just like all the others who didn’t want her at all, but wanted what they could get from her.

They wanted to use and abuse her until she was used and abused up.

She’d been there, done that and wasn’t going back down that road again. Not ever.

She had resolve. But resolve didn’t conquer her loneliness. But she was tired of wasting her time anyway. She pressed the Start button, wiped her tears away, and took her man-less ass back to work.