What We Learned Along the Way (6 page)

“No, I’m good. Actually, I need to get ready
to go.” he said from the sofa.

“What? Why? The night is still young. Is
something wrong?”

“No. They want me back at work. You know how
busy it is on the weekends,” he said as he walked into the kitchen
to face her.

“Aww, do you have to go? We’re having such a
great time. Just stay a little bit longer, please,” she pleaded,
looking into his eyes.

“Can’t. gotta go,” he said, looking away. “If
we’re going to be getting married, I’m going to need to work more
shifts” he told her.

“Well, if you put it that way,” she said in a
sweet voice with a smile. After he left, she put her hand in her
pocket. The napkin wasn’t there. “I could have sworn I put it in
here.” She checked her other pocket, which was also empty. It
turned up between the seat cushions on the sofa. “How’d you get
down there?” she asked the crumpled up napkin. She looked at it for
a second and then threw it away. Isaiah was really nice, but she
knew she loved Rashad

Ever since the night at Aliya’s apartment,
Jaime hadn’t been the same. She usually loved spending time talking
and laughing with her parents, but lately she’d been keeping to
herself.

“Jaime, what’s wrong? You’re so quiet,” her
mother asked her as she walked through the living room.

“Nothing,” Jaime said without even slowing
her pace. She was halfway upstairs when she stopped on a step and
turned around. “No, something is wrong. I’m sick of you all
treating me like a kid. I’m a grown woman who can take care of
herself and,” she paused and took a big gulp. “I’m getting my own
apartment,” she said as fast as she could. She couldn’t believe she
had just talked to her parents like that. It was scary and exciting
at the same time. She stood there on the stair, just waiting for
her father to leap up out of his seat and strangle her with one
hand. They were very strict and never accepted any type of back
talk.

To her surprise, though, neither of them did
anything. They just stared at her in disbelief. They all looked at
each other in shock. Jaime couldn’t take the tension in the room.
She went back down the stairs and walked out the front door, being
sure to slam it on the way out for effect. She didn’t know where
she was going exactly, but she thought it appropriate to make a
dramatic exit after finally standing up to her parents after so
long. She felt so proud of herself. She couldn’t wait to tell
Aliya. She knew she would be the proudest of her. It was around 9
pm, so she figured Aliya was working at Starr.

The old Jaime wouldn’t have been caught dead
in Starr by herself, but this new Jaime caught a cab there. After
going a few times with the girls, she realized that Starr actually
wasn’t as bad as she thought. She had always assumed that places
like that were full of drunken men and half naked women, and even
though she had seen some of those, the majority of the crowd seemed
pretty tame and sophisticated, nothing at all like she
expected.

Jaime wasn’t prepared for the huge crowd at
Starr. There were so many people. It looked more like a club than a
restaurant. Jaime didn’t know that on the weekends, Starr actually
became a club, which would explain why the tables had been moved
and a DJ booth was sitting off to the side. After fighting the
crowd for a few minutes, she finally made it up to the bar. She
looked around and didn’t see Aliya anywhere. She felt someone grab
her hand from behind. She prayed that it was Aliya, because if it
wasn’t, someone was going to have a big problem.

She turned around and saw Rashad. “I thought
that was you,” he said. “We don’t get too many women in here that
dress that way.”

“You know you shouldn’t grab a woman’s hand
if she hasn’t asked you to,” she said with an attitude, snatching
her hand away.

“Whoa, calm down. I’m sorry. It’s just really
loud in here. I didn’t know any other way to get your attention.
What are you doing here, anyway? Something tells me this isn’t your
usual crowd.”

“Oh, it’s not. I’m looking for Aliya. I have
some great news to tell her,” Jaime said excitedly.

“I don’t know if she’s in yet, but she should
be here. You can wait in the back if you’re not that comfortable
out here.” The Starr she had been to a few days ago would have been
fine, but this Starr, full of loud music and alcohol, was a bit
much. She followed Rashad to the back and sat down in the break
room.

“Sorry I can’t keep you company. It’s pretty
busy out there,” Rashad said, happy to have an excuse to get away.
Jaime was confused.

“I see it’s busy, but you’re a chef and you
don’t seem to be serving food right now. What is there for you to
do?”

Rashad laughed. “It’s All-You-Can-Eat Wing
Night. Somebody’s gotta cook that chicken,” he said as he walked
back into the kitchen.

Jaime looked around and assessed the room. It
was pretty plain. It had a sofa, some chairs, a table, a TV and a
refrigerator. She opened the refrigerator, but was disappointed to
see nothing but an opened Sprite and what appeared to be somebody’s
old salad. She was pretty hungry. In her haste to leave her house,
she had forgotten to grab something to eat. She wondered if it
would be too much to ask Rashad for some of those all-you-can-eat
wings. She tried to resist, and made it about 15 minutes, but the
smell was getting to her.

“Rashad,” she said quietly as she peeked her
head around the corner. There was a lot of commotion, so he didn’t
hear her. “Rashad,” she called again, this time with a little more
bass in her voice. He turned around to see what she wanted. “Sorry
to bother you, but could I have something to eat?” She tried to
sound nice.

“No problem,” he said. “Hope you like
chicken.” He put four wings on a plate and threw on a few fries,
too.

“Thank you so much. You don’t know how hungry
I am,” she said. She didn’t waste any time eating her wings. They
were gone in a few minutes.

“Why, don’t you look at that,” Rashad said.
“The holy girl can throw down on some wings. Who knew?” he laughed.
Jaime was offended by his comment and started to get upset, but
Rashad didn’t let her.

“Relax, it was a joke. You don’t have to
curse me out. You know, it’s okay to laugh sometimes. It won’t
hurt. I promise. Plus, you know you want some more wings, and if
you curse me out, I won’t give them to you,” he said with a smile.
Jaime laughed, and it felt good. She spent so much time being
serious that she rarely let down her guard.

“Hey, by the way, have you heard from Aliya?”
she asked. She had been waiting for nearly 30 minutes.

“Oh, that’s right,” he said. “It’s been so
busy, I forgot to tell you she’s not coming in. Something about a
bad argument with her father.”

“Not coming in? I came all the way down here
for nothing then,” Jaime complained. She was in a good mood and
didn’t want to ruin it, so she tried to find the silver lining.
“Well, at least I had some good food,” she said. “It’s getting a
little late. I should be calling my cab now.” She got up and walked
towards the pay phone.

“It is pretty late. It may not be safe for
you to catch a cab alone. If you want to wait around, I can take
you home when I get off.” Jaime was quiet for a second. She didn’t
feel right being alone in a car with her best friend’s fiancé. At
the same time, she didn’t want to take a cab alone at night, and it
was pretty expensive. She didn’t even know if she had enough cash
on her.

“I get off in another hour or so, but, it’s
your decision. I just thought I’d try to help.”

“Actually a ride home would be nice,” she
said. “Now, I’ve just got to find something to do for the next
hour.”

“There’s always work to do in kitchen, if
you’re down, but I know manual labor isn’t really your style.”

“And how do you know that?” she asked.

“I don’t really. You just look too proper to
be working in a kitchen,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I’m actually a pretty good cook, for your
information. What do you need done?” she asked, eager to do
something other than sit in the break room.

“Oh, I’ve got the cooking under control, but
you can hit those dishes over there.” He pointed to the sink over
in the corner.

She had washed dishes before, but no amount
of dishes she had ever washed had prepared her for the pile of
dishes she was looking at. She looked at Rashad and then back at
the dishes. “Get me an apron,” she said. Rashad was surprised and
didn’t expect someone like Jaime to roll up her sleeves and wash
dishes at a restaurant. He thought it was pretty cool.

Aliya had always been a happy, energetic
person, but for the past few weeks, she had been happier and even
more energetic than usual. Everyone noticed.

“What’s cooking, good looking,” she said to
Rashad as she bopped into the front door of Starr one morning,
dancing as if there were music playing that apparently only she
heard.

“What’s gotten into you?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing. I’m just enjoying life. Is that
a problem?” she asked as she brushed invisible lint from his
shoulder.

“I know what’s got you so happy,” Rashad
said. “It’s that man I’ve been seeing you with. What’s his name? Du
Bois isn’t it?” he said with a laugh.

“Very funny. His name is Langston, and don’t
hate on my renaissance man,” she said.

“I’m not hating. Hey, I should be thanking
him. Ever since he came around, you’ve actually been showing up to
work on time.”

Aliya laughed. She and Langston had only
known each other for a few weeks, but it felt like she had known
him forever. He was so different from all the other guys she had
dated. Aliya was very beautiful, but she had horrible taste in men.
She always managed to date the worst guys.

She dated players that would only call her
“private” and refused give her their house numbers, and ballers
with as many cars and they had women. She dated baby’s daddies that
were always running scared from women wanting child support, and
pseudo-intellectuals that wore glasses with plain glass in the
frames. She dated wannabe Africans that wore dashikis and fat
Africa medallions, and drug dealers that forever had her dropping
off and picking up packages. She dated married men that were
looking for an escape from their home problems, and White men who
were looking to fulfill their secret, Black goddess fantasies.

She could never seem to find a real man, only
poorly constructed stereotypes of the kind she had no business
talking to in the first place. Everybody she had ever dated wanted
something from her, but not Langston. He was successful, but didn’t
feel the need to show it off. He was intelligent, but never
promoted himself at other’s expense. He was funny, but knew how to
be serious and handle business when necessary. He was so sweet and
gentle with her, but still assertive when he had to be. She
couldn’t have found a better man if she had built him from the
ground up.

A few weeks had gone by since they met, and
not once had he made any sexual advances toward her. Other than
some heart-felt hugs and a few harmless kisses, he always kept a
respectable distance without seeming uninterested. She wasn’t used
to that, but she liked it. It was nice to go to dinner and be able
to order whatever she wanted without having to worry about paying
for it later. She loved accepting flowers from him and other little
gifts that she knew he sent with no ulterior motives. She just felt
so relaxed with him, like she didn’t have to be the sex kitten that
so many men assumed she was upon meeting her.

Even though they hadn’t made anything
official, she knew she didn’t want to date anyone else. She wasn’t
thinking about marriage or anything like that—after all, she was
only 20—but she didn’t mind the idea of having a steady boyfriend.
She was just too scared to bring it up. She didn’t want to scare
him off by bring it up too soon. She asked Rashad and some of the
other male staff for some advice.

“Let’s say you had been talking to a woman
for a few weeks and she brought up the topic of being in a
committed relationship. Would that scare you?”

“Hold on,” Terry said. “Stop the presses. I
know Ms. I-date-a-different-man-every-night isn’t trying to settle
down.” They all laughed.

“Come on, guys. This is serious. I need your
help,” she pleaded. They could tell from the look on her face she
wasn’t joking, so they stopped laughing and got serious.

“Personally, yo, I’m not tryna get serious
with no chick I just met. Feel me? Shorties out here will try to
play you, yo.” Michael had moved from New York to Texas more than
five years ago, but his New York accent only seemed to get stronger
as the years passed.

“Yea, a few weeks is a little early for me,
but I guess it depends on how much I connect with her,” Lawrence
added.

“Well, you already know what I’m going to
say,” Rashad chimed in. “Muslims don’t do all that dating without
knowing it’s going somewhere. So, I don’t think it’s too early. If
it was me, I might even ask what took you so long?”

Aliya thought it odd that Rashad was doing
all this talking about her relationship when he still hadn’t
officially proposed to Mariam. She wanted to say something, but she
wasn’t about to change the subject. She had her own problems to
worry about.

After talking to the guys, Aliya was still
confused. Should she follow Rashad’s advice and do it now, or
listen to Michael and Lawrence and put it off a little longer? She
decided to call Mariam and get her opinion.

“Mariam, I need some advice. I tried talking
to the guys at work about it, but they didn’t help too much.”

“I’ll do what I can. What’s on your mind?”
Mariam asked.

“You remember that guy, Langston, I told you
about? We’ve been talking for a little while and I think I want us
to be in a committed relationship, but I’m scared it might not be
the right time. What should I do?”