Right Beside You, page 8
“Will do. How’s Grandma Lucy?”
“Same old, same old. Oh! Thank you for the Christmas card. I received it today. I’ll be sending mine in the next couple of weeks. You take care and tell the family I said hello.”
Clyde had left a voice mail message to remind me that I’d promised to go out with him this coming weekend. I immediately dialed his number and he answered halfway through the first ring. “I was just about to call you again, Fel,” he chirped. “Where do you want to eat Friday night before we go to the movies?”
“Anywhere except Popeye’s like the last two times we went out.”
“I’m sorry to hear that because I have a coupon for eight pieces of chicken. Well, we can go to Red Lobster if you don’t mind footing the bill. I just realized this evening that I’d received my last unemployment check last week. I had to spend all but eight dollars of it to get the brakes on my truck fixed. You would have to pay for the movies, too.”
“I’m sorry, Clyde. My finances are pretty tight right now. Why don’t we hold off going out for a little while?”
“Okay. I can still come over Friday night and keep you company. You make a mean bowl of popcorn. If you cook enough, we won’t have to eat nothing else that night. That’d be a nice way to start off the weekend.”
I laughed. “I don’t think I’ll be in the mood for a popcorn dinner. I have a better idea. We have a class going on through Friday and we always order extra food for the attendees’ lunch. If you want to come to my office around one p.m., we can grab a plate and go sit in my office. That would be a nice way to start off the weekend too.”
“That sounds like too much trouble. But I ain’t got no ten or twelve dollars to park in one of them lots, and I don’t do buses. Um, remember that woman I told you I met at the mall?” Clyde didn’t give me time to answer. “She invited me to her house this coming Friday night. I told her I’d get back to her, but I didn’t tell her I’d already made plans with you. Anyway, she wants to cook dinner for me. Since me and you won’t be getting together, I guess I’ll take her up on it.”
“Clyde, do whatever you want to do. I have plenty to do to keep myself busy.”
It saddened me a little to know that my position with Clyde was not so secure anymore. He was peculiar but he was fun and a great diversion to keep my mind off the many nights I spent alone. In the past, when he didn’t have money to take me out, I didn’t have a problem paying or with him coming over and sharing a bowl of popcorn while we watched TV. A few other men I occasionally dated hadn’t contacted me in weeks. And when I attempted to contact them, they never returned my calls. My newest admirers included a mechanic almost young enough to be my son and a retired engineer old enough to be my father. It was hard to believe that this was what my life had come to.
* * *
Whenever I invited Grandma Lucy out to eat, each time I suggested an upscale restaurant. However, she almost always chose Denny’s, so that’s where I took her this evening. Right after a server took our order for burgers and fries, Grandma Lucy started shifting in her seat and patting the sides of her head. She had a lot of wrinkles and skin tags on her face and she was slightly overweight. But she was still attractive. Even in the black cape she had on over a flowered housedress this evening.
“Please sit still and quit fussing with your hair,” I advised. Grandma Lucy stopped wiggling but she kept patting her hair.
“I wish I had left this wig-hat at home. It’s itching,” she complained. Why my grandmother wore a “wig-hat” in the first place was a mystery to me. Her long, thick gray hair was much more attractive. Then she started grinding her teeth. “I wish I had left these darn things at home.” Before I could stop her, she removed her upper and lower dentures and set them on the napkin next to her plate.
“People are staring,” I said in a low voice as I looked around. I could feel my face burning with embarrassment.
“So what? My teeth ain’t bothering nobody.” Grandma Lucy sniffled and narrowed her eyes as she gazed at me. “Now let’s talk about something else.” She paused, and then a wide smile crossed her face. “I declare, you are so pretty. You look like I did when I was your age. So tell me, did anybody ask you out this week?”
“Not yet.” I knew that if I told her about Clyde’s request to come over and eat popcorn with me Friday night, it would lead to more comments I didn’t want to hear.
“Well, I got a feeling you might have a message from a man waiting on you when you get home.”
I did have a message from a man when I got home. Daddy had called to remind me to go pay his property taxes.
CHAPTER 15
RICHARD
“Daddy, I hope you have a good day,” Carol told me as we prepared to leave for the day this morning. She was sitting on the couch, pulling on her Ugg boots.
“I’m sure I will. I’m having lunch with a very special lady today.” I snatched my overcoat off the rack by the front door and had to force myself not to show how giddy I was.
“Regina?” Marva asked as she entered the living room already bundled up and ready to go.
“I said a very special lady.” All three of us laughed. “You girls remember Felicia, one of the ladies I work with? We went to her Christmas Eve party last year.”
“That party was fun!” Marva gushed. “Felicia hugged us, but she didn’t give us any presents. She’s real cool, though. We see her a lot all over the place. When we visited Grandma and Grandpa Labor Day weekend, we bumped into Felicia at Olive Garden. We had to wait for a table and when she came in after us by herself, we all stood together by the wall. Grandma and Grandpa must really like her because they got all over her right away—and you know how picky they can be.”
“I didn’t know they knew her well enough to ‘get all over her,’ ” I said.
Carol gave me an exasperated look as she wrapped her muffler around her neck. “Daddy, you and your memory. They met Felicia at Mama’s funeral. She helped serve food when we came home from the church. And did you know that she came to the house a couple of days later to help Grandma and Aunt Minnie pack up Mom’s stuff that we didn’t want to keep? She even took it to Goodwill because they were too sad to do it.”
“I don’t remember,” I muttered. Margaret’s passing had been so traumatic for me, I no longer remembered some of the things that occurred during that period. I did recall Felicia being among the mourners at the church and later at my house, but everything else was a blur.
“Grandpa told Felicia that she and the friend she was waiting on could sit with us if they wanted to. But she said she’d rather not because she had some personal things she needed to discuss with her friend,” Carol went on. “Grandpa got excited when Felicia told him that her brother was a big important private investigator in Atlanta. And he and Grandma were real impressed when she told us how she’d talked her parents into taking the six-month trip around the world they’d planned, instead of canceling it to stay home and take care of Felicia’s mom’s mother. When the Olive Garden hostess came to escort us to our table, Grandma and Grandpa hugged Felicia and told her she’s welcome to come visit them anytime she wants. As we were walking away, I saw a man come in the door and kiss her on the cheek. I guess he was her boyfriend.”
“He looked like Steve Harvey did when he still had hair,” Marva added.
“That had to be Clyde, the son of one of our coworkers. He and Felicia have been seeing each other for a long time.” The next sentence slid out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying. “They’re just friends, though,” I said stiffly.
“She’s so nice,” Carol said.
“And pretty,” Marva tossed in.
“She sure is. She often asks about you both. Carol, you should have seen how big her eyes got when I told her you’re going to be a lawyer.” I paused and turned to Marva and said, “And that you’re going to be a judge.”
“What did she say?” Marva wanted to know.
“She said I was lucky to have such ambitious kids,” I answered, puffing out my chest. “And that she hopes to have kids like you two someday.”
“Then she is a ‘very special lady,’” Carol said, giving me a mysterious wink. I pretended like I didn’t see it.
Felicia was much more than a “very special lady.” I promised myself I wouldn’t act giddy, or say anything stupid or offensive at lunch today. I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship. Just knowing that my picky in-laws had said so many nice things about her made my head swell. “Okay, queens. Let’s shake a leg.” I snapped my fingers and nodded toward the door. “I don’t want to miss my bus.”
To my surprise, Felicia never boarded the bus this morning. When I walked into my office, and before I removed my coat, I called her number and got her voice mail. I left a message and without giving it much thought, I gave her lead clerk a call. I was pleased to hear that Felicia had some business to take care of and that she would be in today.
Pam popped into my office at exactly eleven a.m. “Richard, I need to talk to you.” There was a deadpan expression on her face and her voice sounded very serious. There was no telling what she had up her sleeve. She closed the door before I could respond. I had moved the chair that usually sat in front of my desk to the side of the room. I’d placed a huge stack of files on it, hoping it would discourage visitors from sitting down and staying too long. Pam casually set the files on top of my file cabinet, dragged the chair to the front of my desk, and dropped down. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Will this take long? I’m very busy,” I said firmly.
“I don’t need much time.”
“What’s going on? Does this have anything to do with technical support or a reprographics issue?” I cleared my throat and narrowed my eyes. “Or is this personnel-related?” Disturbing thoughts suddenly entered my mind. Had I unknowingly done something against company policy? Was I about to lose my job? I immediately dismissed those thoughts. Pam was a secretary. If I had done something inappropriate or was about to get laid off or fired, she wouldn’t be the one to tell me.
“This has nothing to do with a personnel issue,” she confirmed. “My computer is working fine and all of my copy issues are up-to-date. But there’s a lot of work on my desk, so I’ll get right to the point so we can both get back to work.” She cleared her throat and gazed at me for a few seconds before continuing. “I heard the company is considering you for a position in Indianapolis. A promotion.”
“It’s tempting. But relocating to another state would be a big step; not just for me, but for my girls. We’d have to make a lot of adjustments.”
“Do you know anybody in Indianapolis?”
“Not a soul. Pam, I’m curious and confused. Where is this conversation going?”
“I didn’t want to be too blunt. But the more I think about this, the more I want to—” She stopped talking and glanced toward the door. When she turned back around, she looked so hopeless I didn’t know what to think.
“Can you wrap this up in the next couple of minutes?” I asked as I checked my watch.
“Felicia is in love with you,” she blurted out. If Pam had told me she was going to wrestle a grizzly bear, I couldn’t have been more stunned.
I narrowed my eyes and leaned forward. “What did you say?”
“Felicia is in love with you,” she repeated. She folded her arms and gave me a guarded look.
I had to force myself not to laugh. “She dates your son and other men. She has no romantic interest in me.”
“Oh yes she does! My son, though I love him to death, is just a filler.”
“Excuse me?”
“Clyde and the other men she’s been dating for the past few years are just filling in because she can’t be with the man she really loves. And that’s you.”
“Now, Pam. I know you’re a caring person. But this is over the top—even for you. What makes you think Felicia is in love with me?”
“She told me.”
I sat up straighter and stared at Pam in slack-jawed amazement. “Excuse me?” I said again.
“I was just as surprised as you. The bottom line is, she’s been in love with you for a long time. She was having such a hard time keeping it to herself, she finally broke down and told me.”
“And she told you to tell me?”
“Nope. She didn’t tell me not to tell you, though.”
I scratched the side of my head. “I don’t know what to say. I never expected to hear something like this.”
“I didn’t either.” Pam stood up and gave me a smug look. “Well, now you know.”
“Thanks for sharing with me. But I’d rather hear it from Felicia.”
“Don’t hold your breath. I don’t think she’ll ever tell you herself.”
“Well, if she told you, why wouldn’t she tell me?”
Pam shrugged and started backing toward the door. “Beats me. Anyway, I said what I came to say. Now I need to get back to my office because there is so much work on my desk.”
I had a hard time focusing on my work after Pam left. Ten minutes later, Carol called. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Hello, queen.”
“I’m on my way to my math class so I have to talk fast. Ki Ki Randolph is having a slumber party next Friday. Can we go?”
“We’ll talk about that when I get home.”
“Daddy, why do we need to talk about it? She lives right next door.”
“I need to talk to her mother first. I’m glad you called. I forgot to take the laundry out of the dryer last night. When you get home, take care of it.”
“When are you going to talk to Ki Ki’s mother? She wants to know how many girls she’ll need to buy snacks for.”
“I’ll call her or go over and see her when I get home.”
“She’ll like that,” Carol snickered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Daddy, you know that lady has been crushing on you ever since they moved next door. She’s a widow so you and she have something in common. And don’t you think she’s pretty?”
“She’s a very pretty woman—”
Carol cut me off. “Ooo! Ooo! I can’t wait to tell her you said that—”
And then I cut her off. “You behave yourself. I have something in common with a lot of pretty women. End of discussion.” I sniffed and added, “You be sure and take those lamb chops out of the freezer like I told you this morning so they can defrost in time for dinner. And don’t forget that laundry.”
Carol taunted me with a sharp laugh. “Okay, Daddy. I love you.”
“Love you back, Your Majesty.”
There was only one pretty woman on my mind these days.
CHAPTER 16
FELICIA
Iate a light breakfast Wednesday morning before I drove to the tax collector’s office to pay my folks’ property taxes. After that, I brought my car back home and took a later bus to the office. I arrived a few minutes before eleven a.m.
I stopped in the doorway of my clerks’ cubicle and cleared my throat to get their attention. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sandy quickly minimize whatever was on her computer screen. Marybeth was on her telephone, giggling like a schoolgirl. She suddenly hung up without saying a word and gave me a sheepish look. Ramona fiddled with a manila folder to hide the Brides magazine she’d been leafing through. I shook my head and wagged my finger at them. We all laughed. As long as my clerks’ antics didn’t impact their work performance and they were fairly discreet, I would continue to let them get away with some of the same tricks I’d pulled when I worked as a clerk back in the day.
“Good morning, ladies,” I greeted. “Is everything under control?”
“It’s all good,” Marybeth said with a sniff and a red face. “All the attendees showed up on time and the trainer complimented us on how well we’d set up the classroom.”
“Good! Anything else?” I asked.
“That hot Richard Grimes in tech support called me when he couldn’t reach you. He was checking to see if you were coming in today,” Sandy told me.
“Okay. I’ll give his hot self a call,” I replied. All three clerks snickered.
Before I could get back to Richard, he called again. I answered on the second ring. “Hi, Richard. Are we still on for lunch today?”
“Absolutely. Noon?”
“Noon is fine. But like I told you before, I don’t mind going to the cafeteria.”
“If we do go there, I’m sure at least one of our coworkers will invite themselves to sit down at our table.”
“That wouldn’t bother me.”
“Normally, it wouldn’t bother me either. But having somebody present who is not involved with the holiday plans would be disruptive. We can get together some other time, some other place.”
“No, I’d like to get as much done on this as possible today. How about grabbing something from the cafeteria and meeting in my office, or yours.”
“I have a better idea and it’ll be my treat. Have you been to that new French bistro that just opened a few blocks from here?”
“I love that place. Pam and I went the day they opened last month. I know it’s close by. But because the weather is so bad today, walking a couple of blocks would seem like a couple of miles.”
“We’ll take a taxi. I’ll meet you in the lobby at noon.”
I agreed, but with hesitation. “Oh. Okay.”
Pam must have been lying in wait because before I could even return the telephone back into its cradle, she entered my office. “What’s up?” she asked with raised eyebrows.
“I just got off the phone with Richard. He’s treating me to lunch today at Andre’s Bistro.”
“Humph! He’s going to spend a pretty penny in that place. I wish I could go too.”
“Well, if you really want to, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. You’re supposed to help me finalize the plans for our Christmas lunch anyway. I can call him back and let him know you want to come.”
“Girl, go on without me. There is so much work on my desk, I couldn’t leave until around twelve thirty.” Pam paused and stared at me with a smirk on her face. “Besides, I have a feeling you’d really rather be alone with him and vice versa.”
