Bad Blood (18 page)

Chapter 34

Rachel

“Y
OU NEED TO BORROW SIXTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS FROM ME
to get your car fixed? That's a mighty big loan, Seth.”

“I know it is, but I hope you'll help me out. I'll pay you back. I don't like to borrow money, but this time I have no choice. I'll sign a promissory note if you want me to.”

“Well, I'll let you have it this time, and if you don't pay me back when you're supposed to, I'll sue you,” I teased. I didn't like to loan money to anybody, especially friends and lovers. But I decided to help Seth this time. “I know how hard you've been struggling to get out of debt and take care of your son. And if your son is going to spend two weeks with us, you'll need a car that you can depend on to get around in, since you refuse to borrow mine that often.” I chuckled. “And you don't have to sign a promissory note.”

Had the situation been in reverse, I knew I could have borrowed money from Seth. He had told me that more than once. At the end of the day, I was glad that I was in a position to help my man. But despite my generous nature, I was a very frugal woman. Yes, I spent money on nice things like my friends, but what they didn't know was that the designer clothes I wore and some of the fancy things in my apartment came from upscale consignment shops, flea markets, Goodwill, and estate sales. After I paid my rent and other bills, most of my monthly pay went into my bank accounts. And thanks to Uncle Albert, I had learned how to invest in the stock market, so I made money that way, too.

I didn't share that information with anybody. Mama had told me never to let the right hand know what the left hand was doing. I saw no reason to let my friends, or even Seth, know how shrewd I was and how much money I had in the bank. One thing I had learned about people was that if they knew you had extra money, they suddenly needed a “loan” for some random financial emergency. Lucy and Patrice made good money, but they were always broke, because they were so extravagant. Paulette and her husband lived high on the hog, too, and had recently filed for bankruptcy, so that told me a lot about them. None of my friends had ever asked me for a loan, and I didn't want them to start. But they borrowed money from everybody else they knew. Seth often borrowed money from his family members and a few of his friends. This was the first time he'd asked me for a loan, and I didn't hesitate, because it was for a good cause.

The more I saw Seth, the more I loved him. Our relationship could not have been better. I was convinced that we were going to have a relationship for a very long time.

 

I called home on a regular basis. During almost every conversation, Mama and Aunt Hattie made wild predictions about how Uncle Albert was going to catch something from one of his gay boyfriends and end up dead. Then they bombarded me with news about funerals, their health issues, and a few comments about Ernest and Janet, which were usually repeats of their previous conversations. They also wanted me to keep them in the loop about my personal life, and I was happy to oblige them. I was hopelessly in love with Seth, and I couldn't stop thinking about him or talking about him to anybody who was willing to listen.

Every time I mentioned Seth to Mama and Aunt Hattie, I told them a little more about how good he was to me and for me.

“Seth is the best thing that's ever happened to me. He's handsome, funny, and smart. And he's ambitious. He's the kind of man I hope to marry someday,” I told Mama, clutching the telephone with both hands. Aunt Hattie was listening on the extension, something she often did when she was present during Mama's telephone conversations with me. Just as I had expected, they put in their two cents' worth—more like two dollars' worth, I should say—and warned me not to act a fool with him, the way I had with Jeffrey.

“Uh-huh. I don't care what this Seth do to you, you better not do nothing that'll make him set the law on you,” Mama warned. “Them jails in California is like Hades compared to the ones back here. They always showing that on the Discovery Channel. And I ain't going to beg around to borrow money to bail you out of jail like I done that other time. You got a bad temper, like your daddy's mama had.”

“You don't have to worry about me getting arrested again,” I insisted. “I haven't lost my temper since I moved out here, and I've had more than one reason to do so! Besides, I love Seth. I'd never do anything to hurt him.”

Aunt Hattie jumped in with both feet. “Girl, love ain't nothing but a four-letter word. Women your age don't know menfolk like me and your mama's generation. You see all the headaches men done caused us? We worked hard to keep our men happy, and what did it get us? Your daddy had to have another woman on the side and got hisself killed for doing it. After that
thang
I married died, I heard all kinds of rumors about women he was involved with. Stay single and have just a casual friend every once in a while. Come laundry day, you ain't got to wash nobody's funky, piss-stained drawers but your own. Besides that, you need to be focusing on another four-letter word. W-o-r-k.”

“I have a job, Aunt Hattie. A good job,” I said with a sigh.

“I ain't talking about
your
job! Didn't you say this new Romeo you done hooked up with is only working in a cannery, lifting boxes of canned goods and whatnot?”

“He is. And he's taking a business course a couple of nights a week.”

Aunt Hattie gasped. “Do you mean to tell me you done got involved with a man that ain't even out of school yet?”

I was glad I hadn't mentioned that the class Seth was taking now was a six-week on-line course on his laptop in the comfort of my apartment. “Well, he didn't finish high school when he was supposed to, but he got his GED. He's going to open his own ad agency eventually. He'd already taken a few courses before I met him, and this new one will benefit him even more.”

“Bah! Eventually, my foot. That's a word folks use when they don't know which way is up. In the meantime, you better ‘eventually' watch your step with this man. For him to be from such an uptown family like you claim, he don't sound too . . . uh . . . reliable to me.”

“Aunt Hattie, don't worry about me and Seth,” I said. “When you meet him, you'll see why I'm so crazy about him.”

I always expected my mama and my meddlesome aunt to say something off the wall when it involved my love life. But my girls were my support system, and so far all I had received from them was positive feedback when it came to Seth.

Until now.

“Do you think it's a good idea to start lending money to a man you've known for such a short time?” Lucy asked during our latest after-work get-together.

It was casual Friday, and we were all dressed accordingly. I had worn my favorite running shoes and a light green sweat suit to work that day. The booth we occupied was near the front entrance at Dino's, one of our favorite Italian restaurants. It was a small, dimly lit place near downtown Berkeley. The fireplace in the middle of the main floor, the wine bottles dangling from the ceiling, and one of the best menus in town attracted a lot of people. As usual, Dino's was crowded with college students, the business crowd, and families that included cranky babies and cranky elders. My crew and I had finished off a large pepperoni pizza, and we were working on our third bottle of Chianti.

“If I trust him enough to let him move in with me, why wouldn't I lend him money?” I wanted to know. I looked from Lucy's face to Paulette's cute, heart-shaped face. Her dark brown skin was so smooth and flawless, it was hard to believe she was almost thirty. She was the most sensible one of the four of us most of the time. “Paulette, what's wrong with me lending Seth sixteen hundred bucks?”

“Nothing,” she replied with a shrug and a skeptical look on her face. “But I can't think of any man who could get sixteen hundred bucks out of
me
unless he stole it. . . .”

“Aww,” I said, giving her a dismissive wave. Then I turned to Patrice. As a flight attendant for a major airline, she traveled all over the country and dated all kinds of men. She was more worldly than the rest of us. She was twenty-nine and had never been married, but she had been in several serious relationships. “Patrice, you have more experience with men than me, and you used to live next door to Seth when you were growing up. You probably know him better than the rest of us put together. Would you lend money to him if he were your man?”

Patrice sighed, and a mysterious smile crossed her nut-brown face. “I had a crush on Seth all through my teens, but he was never attracted to tall girls like me.”

“You didn't answer my question.”

She smiled again. “I've
never
lent money to
any
man before, and I probably never will. It's a recipe for disaster. Does that answer your question?” Patrice replied, emphasizing each word.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Lucy. “Whatever. Regardless of what you hens think, I'm going to do all I can to make my relationship with Seth work. I can't wait to meet his son. Any man who wants his woman to get to know his son can't be too bad.”

Lucy exhaled and ran her fingers though her freshly curled hair. Then she folded her arms and said, “Rachel, all I ask is that you be careful with Seth. I know I introduced him to you, because I thought you two would be good for each other. I don't know about all that now. Maybe I should not have pushed you into meeting him. I didn't twist your arm, though. You could have told me to mind my own business, and I would have left it at that. But you didn't. At the end of the day, you get what you settle for.”

“Meaning what?”

“Seth's daddy and his brother Damon have mistresses,” Paulette blurted.

Lucy gasped and whirled around so fast to face Paulette, one of her curls hit her in the eye. She gave Paulette the most threatening look I'd ever seen. “Girl, I told you not to go blabbing everything I tell you! Now I guess everybody you know knows what I told you about the Garrett men.”

“I know all about them, but Paulette didn't tell me,” Patrice said with a smug look on her face. “I've seen old man Garrett with his girlfriend several times a year on flights to Vegas and Reno that I've worked. The woman Damon is involved with goes to the same beauty shop I go to, and she likes to share her business. I am sure his wife has heard about his affair by now, but she probably doesn't care anymore. Most women married to prominent men want to stay married to them, even if they have to share them with other women.”

“So what? What's that got to do with Seth?” I wanted to know. “If one of you busybodies is trying to tell me that Seth is already cheating on me, stay out of my business!”

Everybody got quiet. All I could hear was chatter and the clinking of silverware coming from the tables and booths around us.

“Nobody said anything about Seth running around on you,” Lucy said in a tentative tone of voice. “I don't think he's the type to cheat. I think he really loves you.” She touched my shoulder and gave me a tender look, and that made me feel somewhat better, because a few moments earlier, I had been thinking about bolting out of that restaurant. “He could hurt you in other ways, girlfriend.”

Lucy's last statement sent me back into my defensive mode. “Well, when and if that happens, that's my business.” I snorted.

“Now, since you three witches are so deep into my business, y'all can pay the bill!”

“I think we need another bottle of wine,” Patrice said, adding a hollow laugh.

Lucy and Paulette laughed, too, but I didn't. To me, Seth was the most serious thing in my life, so I had nothing to laugh about. However, my friends' concerns had settled in the back of my head like a long-term migraine headache, and that worried me.

Had I lost my perspective? Had I become one of those gullible, stupid females that my mama and auntie sat around talking about like dogs? No, I didn't think that I'd slid down that low on the food chain of common sense. I was a lot of things, but I was not a damn fool when it came to men. I was just a woman in love.

One thing I knew for sure was that if Seth ever did anything that made me feel like he was using me or disrespecting me, he would regret it for the rest of his life....

Chapter 35

Seth

I
T WAS CAROLINE
'
S BROTHER
M
ICHAEL WHO DROPPED OFF
D
ARNELL
that Friday. Rachel took off work early so she could be home when they arrived, because when I took off, I didn't get paid. And we needed all the money we could get our hands on. By the time I got home, my son and Rachel were behaving like old friends.

“Daddy, Miss Rachel said she'd take me to the video arcade tomorrow!” Darnell yelled as soon as I got inside. He was big for thirteen and looked more like me than ever.

“Hey now! Don't I get a hug before we start talking about video arcades?” I scolded. He ran to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I held my breath and looked into his eyes and then at the rest of him. I tried not to look too closely at the shabby clothes he wore. But what I saw was disturbing, to say the least. First of all, his hair was knotted up on his head like cockle-burs. “Darnell, don't you have any combs or brushes in your house?” I asked, struggling to keep the tone of my voice light.

“Yeah,” he answered with a shrug. “We got a bunch of combs and brushes. Mama buys them two or three at a time from the Dollar Tree store, but I couldn't find nary a one before I left.”

Surprisingly, he wore a pair of new-looking Nikes, but his thin plaid shirt and purple jeans were wrinkled and torn in a few places. Rachel must have read my mind.

“Honey, I told Darnell I'd take him shopping for some new clothes.” Rachel walked over to Darnell and gave him an affectionate touch on his shoulder. “We'll get an early start tomorrow so we can take our time.”

Darnell looked back at Rachel like he wanted to hug her. He turned back to me and said, “Miss Rachel said she'd take me to the movies tomorrow, too!”

“I said we could go to a movie if we could find one that's rated G,” she said, gently shaking a finger in Darnell's face.

“That's nice,” I muttered, looking over Darnell's shoulder at Rachel as she stood there, smiling, with her arms folded. “I thought you had plans to do something with your uncle tomorrow.”

“I did, but I can see Uncle Albert anytime,” she told me. “Now, let me get in the kitchen and get that pizza in the oven.”

“What about the collard greens and fried chicken you said you'd cook for me today?” I whined.

“Have I ever let you down? I've already cooked dinner for you, but the pizza is for me and Darnell.”

I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen such a huge smile on my son's face, and the one on mine was probably even bigger. I was beaming because the two most important people in my life had already bonded. Not only was Rachel a good mate, an immaculate housekeeper, and a great lover, but she was also going to be an awesome mother, because it seemed to me that all she really cared about was making her loved ones happy.

 

Darnell gobbled up half of the pizza. And he also had two helpings of the greens and several pieces of fried chicken.

“I wish my mama would cook real food sometime,” he said, speaking with his mouth full of food.

“Sweetheart, don't talk and eat at the same time,” Rachel said gently.

“Oh. I'm sorry, Miss Rachel—”

“And I told you not to call me Miss Rachel. You can call me Rachel.”

Before Darnell could continue, I jumped into the conversation. “What does your mama usually cook for you and your sisters and brother, son?”

“Mama don't cook that much. We mostly eat TV dinners and sandwiches. When she got money, we get Big Macs and Happy Meals, and every once in a while she'll have a pizza delivered,” Darnell told us.

“What about her friends?” I asked. Rachel kicked my foot under the table.

“What friends? She got a bunch of boyfriends, and her girlfriends only come around when they want to smoke weed or borrow something.”

My heart sank. I knew that my son was not in the best environment, but since he lived in L.A. and I didn't get to see him but a few times a year, there was little I could do about it.

“Uh, Darnell, how would you like to live with us someday?” Rachel said, surprising the hell out of me. “You can have your own room, but you can only eat Big Macs and other fast food every once in a while.” I had casually mentioned to her a few times that I was probably going to ask for full custody of my son someday, and she had been very supportive. But the subject had not come up in a while.

“I don't know,” Darnell said, speaking slowly. “Mama said . . .” He stopped talking and looked from Rachel to me and back. “Mama said she would put me in a foster home before she would let me live with you and your . . . She called Rachel a bad word.” He gave Rachel a sympathetic look.

“Son, you don't have to go there. We get the picture,” I said, with my jaw twitching. “I'm going to do everything I can to make life easier for you,” I vowed.

We finished our meal in silence and watched a few comedy shows on TV until Darnell fell asleep on the couch in the new pajamas that Rachel had purchased for him without my knowledge. This woman was so thoughtful, it was frightening.

When I got out of bed Saturday morning, Darnell and Rachel were already up and about. He had showered and put on some fresh clothes, another cheap shirt and a pair of jeans that looked as if he had slept in them.

“Daddy, Rachel made me—” Darnell stopped talking and turned to Rachel. “What was that egg thing you cooked for me this morning?”

“An omelet,” she said.

“And some grits! I hadn't had no grits since that time Mama took me to Denny's for my birthday a couple of years ago.” He turned back to Rachel. “We still going to the video arcade?”

“We sure are.”

“You can count me out.” I chuckled. I had hung out at the video arcade so much when I was a kid that it was now one of the last places on the planet I wanted to be.

“We didn't invite you to go, anyway! Besides, you've already told your mama that you would spend some time with her today,” Rachel said.

I had planned to go alone to my parents' house that Saturday afternoon. I hadn't told my family that Darnell was spending a couple of weeks with me, and I wasn't going to if I didn't have to. For one thing, my mother still had a difficult time dealing with my son's hard-core inner-city personality. I had scolded him on several occasions about using crude street language in her presence. And I thought he did things on purpose to antagonize her. The last time I'd brought him to the house to spend time with my folks, he had taken a bath and had not even bothered to let the water out of the tub after he'd finished. But the thing that drove Mother up the wall, and Father, too, for that matter, was how he would spray the toilet seat with urine in all three bathrooms and leave without flushing the toilet. Such habits horrified my mother, so it was no wonder she rarely asked about Darnell anymore. To say he was a “black sheep” was putting it mildly. And that saddened me.

I was not concerned about any of the folks I knew seeing Darnell out and about with Rachel. My mother and most of her friends wouldn't be found dead in the places Rachel usually patronized. Mother shopped at high-end establishments in San Francisco and in some of the outer suburbs that didn't attract a lot of black folks. I was pleased to know that she liked Rachel. She had recently advised Rachel to call her by her first name now. Mother had never allowed any of my other girlfriends to do that, not even Darnell's mother.

I waited until Rachel and Darnell left before I called Mother.

“I'm on my way,” I told her.

“Is Rachel coming with you?”

“Um, nope. She's going to spend some time with her uncle.”

“Well, if she changes her mind, tell her she's more than welcome.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“As a matter of fact, I was going to come over there so she can show me how to make hush puppies in time for my next Tupperware party next week. If she's not too busy, of course. I know she works and has to come home and cook dinner.”

“Huh?”

“I really want to get to know her even better. I know how serious you are about her, and I want to do all I can to help you make this relationship work.”

“Well, uh, let us know what day and what time you want to come over here. And, oh, did I mention that Darnell is with us for a couple of weeks?” Right after I finished my last sentence, I held my breath.

Mother hesitated for a few seconds. “No, you didn't mention that. Will he be coming with you today?” For my mother to be such a warm and caring person, she could be very cold at times. It saddened me to know that it was my son who had her acting like an iceberg this time.

“Well, yes. I was going to ask Rachel to bring him over after they come back from the mall. I hadn't said anything, because I wanted it to be a surprise.” I was used to doing damage control with Mother, so she almost never questioned my motivation.

“I see. I hope she comes, and I, uh, can't wait to see my grandson again.”

Mother hung up, and I immediately called Rachel on her cellular phone. “Baby, Mother wants us all to come by the house today so she can see Darnell.”

“Oh. All right. We're just about to go have foot-long hot dogs and fries. Darnell and I couldn't find a decent movie, so we'll go over to your parents' house around three or four. Will that time be all right?”

“I think so. I hadn't told her he was coming up here, because I wanted to surprise her. So do me a favor and go along with it, okay?” I had already told Rachel how my mother felt about Darnell.

“Okay, baby. We'll be there. Now, you get up and get on over there. You know how your mother is when you tell her you're coming over. She'll peek out the window every five minutes until you get over there.” Rachel laughed, and I laughed along with her.