The Corner II (10 page)

Lisa smiled. “He spent the night again. Damn, I’ll be glad when I can meet someone so I can lie against a warm body. I don’t even know what that feels like,” she complained.

“As good as you’re looking, it won’t be long before some dude snatches your ass up. And I’m not fixing your plate. You’ve been out long enough, baby the catering stops,” Shay joked as she tightened the string to her baby blue silk robe.

Lisa began to fix her plate. She put some of everything on it and daydreamed, Shay noticed.

“What you thinking about?”

Snapped out of her daze, Lisa responded, “Oh nothing. Uh, I mean work.”

Shay rubbed a piece of the toast in the maple syrup. She chomped down on it then said, “I know you, girl. When Terrance came over here to see you and bring you that car, teeth and that dimple was all up in his face. Mike noticed that shit, too. T and you are my fam and his ass got a woman, but he still got love for you so that’s why he hooked you up with the ride and is going to get that apartment for you. We’re all from the block. Hell, he sends Peaches money every month. Our boy is real. But his heart is with Brittney so let’s be happy for him.”

“I am,” Lisa said as she sat on the stool with her plate in her hand. She was digging in on the food before it got cold. “It was just good to see him. Believe me, I’m over him. But really though, what sista do you know has the name Brittney. That’s white as all get out.”

“I know girl, I think she’s mixed?”

They laughed and gave each other five.

Shay continued, “But seriously, girlfriend is cool.”

Lisa looked at her friend and turned up her nose. “Cool. What you been hanging out with her?”

“Just a couple of times. Mike and I hung out with them. Went to a play and a dinner party they had.”

“I guess.”

“You’re tripping.”

Realizing that she
was
tripping a little she decided that she’d get Terrance out of her mind. At least in the sexual way even though that was going to be hard seeing as how he was the only man she’d made love to while she was incarcerated. That is by imagination when she decided to get herself off.

Lisa and Shay finished eating breakfast while they kicked it. Lisa then noticed the time and knew she’d better get to work. She downed a glass of apple juice then headed out of the door for her first day on the job. She got in her new Nissan Altima that Terrance had purchased for her. When he came over a couple of nights ago with the gift, she got so wet that she thought she was going to have to go change—just seeing him made her quiver. She wondered if it was because she hadn’t seen any good-looking men in a while or was it because she still had feelings for him?  Either way he moved her. She eased her way into the silver car and turned the ignition. The car purred, she put it in gear and she was on her way—the start of the new Lisa. No more showing up when you wanted since the owner of the joint was your boyfriend. And that’s the way it was when she was the secretary/accountant/lover of Slim’s strip club. That was the past and the new Lisa was humble and just happy to have her life back.

“Go ahead and take a break,” Mr. Goldstein told Lisa who was filling out some paperwork.

“I’m okay. I packed a lunch so I’ll eat a little later after I finish this,” she said as she fingered a stack of papers that were on her desk.

Mr. Goldstein told her that he was going to be out of the office for a couple of hours for a lunch date and that she could reach him on his cell. He left the office and Lisa watched as the Cadillac DTS cruised out of the lot. Lisa went to the back of the office to retrieve her lunch. She was hungry but didn’t tell Goldstein because she was trying to let him see the hard worker in her. She sat at her desk and ate a chicken sandwich and a cup of yogurt. She heard the door open and she wiped her mouth as she looked up. She damn near choked on the bite of sandwich she was swallowing. The man standing in front of her in the Fed Ex uniform was sexy as hell. She couldn’t believe how good he looked especially in the delivery short outfit. He walked toward her with a white cardboard envelope.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted her. His voice was smooth. Eyes were alert. Teeth were white. Hair was closely cropped and lined as if it were done with a straight razor. He was about six feet tall and skin was a dark shade of brown. “A package for Goldstein and Associates.”

“Oh, I can sign for it,” Lisa eagerly stated.

He handed her the clipboard and pen. He tore off her copy and handed it to her. “You must be new.”

“Yeah, just started. You can tell?” she asked wondering was it that obvious.

“Yep, this is my route and I have never seen you in here before.”  He put his hand to the side of his mouth gesturing that he only wanted Lisa to hear. “And you are sooo much better looking than the woman they had in here before.” 

He gave Lisa a smile that said a thousand words. She knew that he could see the nervousness on her face. She had to do something and did the easiest thing there was to do.

“My name is Lisa,” she said as she stood so she could extend her hand to him. And as they shook she knew that he liked what he saw. The pantsuit fit her toned, body well.

“My name is Devin Anderson.” They broke their handshake. “So Lisa, you must be new in town.”

Lisa hesitated. She definitely didn’t want to tell him that she had just been released from Federal Prison. So she thought of saying the next best thing. “Well I’m originally from here, but have been out of town for the past year and a half but now I’m back in the windy city.”

“That’s good. I mean there aren’t too many cities better than the Chi, so welcome back.”  He slowly walked backwards towards the door. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around. Or should I say hope to see you around.”

Lisa smiled. “Okay, have a good day, Devin.”

“You too.”

She watched as he walked back to the white FedEx van.

Eyes glued on his ass.
He had to have played some kind of sports
she thought as she admired his tight body. He got into his van and drove off. She made a mental note to ask him out the next time he delivered a package to the office. She kind of wished she had asked him while he was standing in front of her but didn’t want to come off as desperate. He said that the office was on his route so she knew he’d be back. She picked up the phone and dialed Shay. She just had to tell her about the man she had just met. Being locked up around nothing but females made her hunger even more for the opposite sex and she was ready for dinner, movies, plays, walks in the park and hanging at relatives house’s on holidays. That’s what she wanted, and that’s what she was determined to get.

*     *     *

Another package finally made its way to Goldstein’s law office. It took about five days—five days too many. UPS had made deliveries, but Lisa was craving for the boy in the blue uniform, not the brown. Once Devin made his way back she didn’t have to make her move—he beat her to the punch. He asked her out for lunch on Saturday and she gladly accepted, seeing as how most weekends she did nothing but hang with Shay and her boyfriend and she was tired of being a third wheel.

The weekend came and Lisa thumbed through the closet looking for something to wear. Shay was sitting on the bed enjoying every minute of it. She was glad to see her friend so excited about going out on a date even if it was just lunch. Devin had offered to pick her up, but she decided against it. For one, she had just met him, and two, it was Shay’s home and she didn’t think it would be right to give someone who was technically still a stranger her address, so they were meeting at the Grande Lux Café.

“What about this?” Lisa asked as she turned toward Shay holding a peach colored summer dress she’d purchased at Macy’s.

Shay shook her head.

“Why don’t you just wear those jeans and that multi colored halter top that you paid a grip for?” Shay stepped into the walk-in closet and grabbed a pair of Ciusppe Zanotti basket weave wedges and told her, “Here, these will set it all off.”

Lisa laid the items on the bed and looked them over. Shay noticed her look. “Girl, don’t be acting all brand new over going out. Hell, it was a time when you could pick out some clothes, shower, whip your hair up and be dressed in less than thirty. You haven’t been gone that long! And speaking of hair, who hooked you up?”

“My girl at
On Point
beauty salon on Stoney Island. And I know it hasn’t been that long, I just want to have a nice time.”

Shay smiled and nodded. “Ah, I know what it is. You’re feelin’ homeboy ain’t you?”

Lisa made a yeah-right face saying, “I just met him and it’s something to do besides tagging along with you and Mike. I don’t mean anything by it and I appreciate all that you have done, but when I’m with you guys I feel like a third wheel.”

“Well, you’re not a third wheel, you’re my girl. And besides, you move in your apartment next week so you’ll have plenty of space and opportunity to seduce ol’ boy. What’s his name again? Devin right?”

“Yeah, now can you step so I can get ready?”

“Bitch!”

“Ho!”

“Yeah, but I’m a good one.”

They both laughed as Shay left so Lisa could get ready for her first date in almost two years.

Welcome Home Son

T
he black GMC Denali was clean. It was a cloudy day but the humidity was high. Frank sat behind the wheel and Lucky in the passenger’s seat. They didn’t talk much as they sat. They had done a lot of talking five days ago when they drove up Interstate 94 and while they stayed at their hotel. After the couple of visits Lucky had with Anthony, he would come back to the hotel and tell Frank about Ant. Lucky and Frank would go out to dinner and it would be the same. How his son was big and strong and how he looked more like his mother. Anthony was very muscular and Lucky was thin, but strong also, and his limp was gone, compliments of the hip surgery he’d had several months ago.

“So what you gonna do when he ask you again. ’Cause you know he’s gonna ask,” Frank questioned his boss.

Frank was talking about Lucky’s son getting down with the crew. Anthony was twenty-eight with no skills; legal ones that is, broke and had been incarcerated for ten years. He had asked his dad to put him on, to let him be part of his thing. Lucky lied and said that he had to run it by Slim and that let Anthony know that Slim was running things. Even though it was Slim’s empire, he trusted Lucky’s judgment. Growing up Lucky taught him a lot, especially when Slim’s uncle who was Slim’s idol and mentor, was killed back in the day. Lucky didn’t want his son to be in the lifestyle that he’d lived all his life. He considered himself to be his name—
lucky
. To have not done any significant amount of time in prison and to have not been killed meant a lot. His son already had to
lay it down
for a stretch and usually when a man does a nice bid at an early age it meant one of two things. He learned a lot to keep himself from behind the bars again, or he ends up wildin’ out. Becoming a live wire and that led you to death or back in jail.

“Just from the two visits I can tell that my son is pretty head strong like his mother, rest her soul.”  Anthony had told his father about his mother’s death and how he’d been living with his friend, Smiley, until he got incarcerated.

Frank loosened his tie saying, “Damn, I still can’t believe Gloria’s dead. I wish the two of y’all could have worked things out.”

Lucky shrugged his shoulders, “Man, she did what she thought was best. I don’t like the fact that she took my son from me and I missed all those years of his life, but we were into a lot of shit. Me handling shit in Cabrini Green and you up in Robert Taylor.”

“At one time, the two roughest projects in Chicago,” the dark skinned, bald headed Frank said while breaking into a grin as he reminisced.

Lucky’s brow furrowed when he looked at his partner, “Shiiit, at one time the roughest in the country.”

“True that.”

“Shit it was after that bank robbery when you got caught and her last living brother got killed by that fake ass security guard who was trying to be a hero over insured money—”

Frank’s eyes tightened and the toothpick in his mouth dangled as he stared out the window as his mind was taken back down memory lane to the downtown Harris Bank in Chicago. “I shoulda killed that fucker and Walt would still be here today.”

“Shit happens. You here, he’s not. Life’s course.”

The guards walked Anthony to the outside gate. Frank noticed, telling Lucky, “Your boy.”

Lucky, who was also in a suit and Gators stepped out of the truck and that was the first thing Anthony saw, the expensive wine colored shoes hitting the pavement. Anthony was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a dull white t-shirt. He was carrying a small box. He had left most of his belongings to Baby G and others, only keeping pictures and letters and a couple of newspaper clippings.