Fixin’ Tyrone (20 page)

“You ain’t gon’ take it? What’s wrong?” But he knew. “Mia, I got this from work.
Honest
work. I told you I work at my uncle’s shop. He’s teaching me a lot. I’m doing good there.”

“Fixing cars?”

“Yeah. I asked him for five hundred dollars. You know, like an advance. Told him he could take it out my checks. He knew I was taking y’all to Six Flags. He helps me out. He wants me to do right.”

“So you blew four hundred dollars in one day?”

“I’m
giving
you two hundred dollars. This ain’t blowing it. And I didn’t blow the other two at the park, either. Every dollar I spent was worth it.”

She took the money from him. “Are you trying to impress me? Throwing all this money around?”

Tyrone shook his head. “How am I supposed to impress you with
four hundred dollars
? You got like
ten
bedrooms in your house, a
Lexus
, a
Tahoe
. I’m broke. I can’t impress you, Mia. I want you to know I’m serious about my kids, though. I’d do anything for them.”

His words were so heartfelt, Mia didn’t remind him that Mica wasn’t his child.

“I’d do anything for you, too, Mia.”

She smiled. “Tyrone, I don’ think—”

“Can I have a hug?” he asked.

Of course
. “Yeah, I been waiting for you to make that move.”

“What move? We had a nice day. I had a good time with you. I miss you. I want to hold you. I’m not trying to be slick. I’ll tell you what I want.”

“And you want to do
what
with your hands if I hug you?”

“I already told you,” Tyrone said. “I won’t touch you nowhere you don’t want me to.”

It went against everything she believed in, but Mia was finding it harder and harder to resist his charms. What harm can one little hug do?
Plenty
—but she did it anyway.

Tyrone stepped forward, and he was not smiling now. His eyes were set and serious. He put his arms around Mia’s waist and pulled her close to him. Her breasts pressed against his chiseled torso. His hands were big and warm. They slid to the small of her back, but stopped there, came back up to her sides, and then his vice-like arms consumed her.

Mia closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his cobra-shaped back. Tyrone’s body was hard, and smooth. She traced her fingers down his spine. His muscles flexed like a stallion in stride.

She felt his lips on her forehead, then her temple. He kissed her cheek, then the top of her ear. He kissed her cheek again. His breath was hot, but sweet. He nuzzled the corner of her mouth, and Mia turned away.

“Why not?” he whispered, but Mia couldn’t respond. His right hand came up. He brushed her cheek gently with his fingertips, then ran his fingers through her hair. He pushed her face towards his, and Mia did not resist this time.

He kissed her top lip, gently, then sucked on the bottom. He licked her bottom lip, then pecked the top one softly. Mia kissed him back and something like a cymbal crashed in her chest. She felt his hands slide down the small of her back once more, but again they stopped. She knew what he wanted. Tyrone had always been a
butt man
. But this was
wrong
.

Twenty-four hours ago, she was physically sick, she was so distraught over the loss of Eric. Now she was in Tyrone’s arms. Tyrone, of all people, but everything felt so nice, and so right. Tomorrow she might hate herself, but tonight, for this moment at least, she needed to feel something different.

“Go ahead,” she whispered, and Tyrone didn’t need to be told twice. He squeezed her buttocks with both hands and pulled her hips forward. He caressed her, fondled her, then gripped more tightly. Mia’s pelvis was pressed to his, and she felt him hardening against her. And she felt lightning; a dull explosion of electricity pulsated between her legs.

She pushed away then.

Her chest rose, then hitched. She lowered her head and exhaled. Tyrone backed away, his face marred with unfulfilled ecstasy for a moment, but then his eyes softened. There was a noticeable bulge in his shorts. Mia looked away coyly.

Tyrone turned away from her. “The kids still up?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Mia said.
Any old excuse will do
.

He took a jerky step towards his mother’s car.

“I guess I better get going,” he said.

“Okay,” Mia said.

He took a few more steps into the darkness, then turned, his hands meeting over his crotch. His skin seemed to glow in the moonlight. His eyes glistened. “My, my grandmama’s having a family reunion in a couple of weeks,” he said. “I was wondering if you and the kids could go with me.”

“All right,” Mia said, glad he hadn’t asked her for anything more; she would have agreed to anything.

“All right,” he said. “Cool. So, I guess I’m gonna go.”

Mia didn’t respond. She watched him get into the car, and it started with no racket this time. Apparently there
was
more than one thing Tyrone could do with his hands. He drove off without further words, and Mia was happy to find the kids were in their rooms when she got in, rather than in the living room giggling through the peephole.

BREAKDOWN

Crystal woke her up at 1:30 a.m. Mia looked first to her alarm clock and then to her sister, who only wore boxing shorts and a tank top.

“What? What are you doing?”

“Eric’s on the phone,” Crystal said. She had the cordless in her hand.

“What?”

“It’s
Eric
. He says it’s important.”

“Crystal, is something wrong with my clock, or is it really
one-thirty
?”

“It’s one-thirty,” Crystal confirmed. “I told him you was sleep. He said it’s important, and I had to wake you up.”

“I’m not getting up for that,” Mia said and rolled over.

* * *

Crystal woke her up again at 1:52 a.m.

“Mia?”

“Crystal, are you crazy or what? You
know
I work tomorrow.”

“I know, Mia, but he’s here.”

“Who’s here?”

“Eric.”

Mia unwillingly fought to shake the sleep off. “
Where
?”

“He’s outside, at the front door.”

She sat up with a start. “Eric is
here
?”

“Yeah. I told him you was sleep, but he came over here anyway. He says he needs to talk to you.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, he’s on the porch.”

“You opened the door?”

“No. I talked to him through the door. He said, ‘
I’m here, so you have to wake her up now
.’ ”

Mia threw her feet over the bed and slipped into her slippers. She looked at her clock again. 1:53 a.m. The alarm would go off in four hours. She shook her head at Crystal and stood on unwilling legs. She grabbed a robe she kept on the closet door.

“I can’t believe this,” she said. “What are you doing up so late anyway?”

“I was talking to Sydney,” Crystal said.

“What the hell is
he
doing up so late?”

“He still at the studio. You going out there?”

“Hell, no. Are you crazy? Did he say what he wanted?”

“No. I thought it was something about that bitch who broke yo window. That’s the only reason I woke you up the first time. He just keeps saying I gotta wake you up, it’s important.”

“I don’t believe this shit.” Mia kept a gun in the house. She thought about retrieving it, but couldn’t really see Eric as a threat. He was one of the sweetest men she had ever known, in fact. If he had come this late, it had to be important.

“Do you want me to get my bat?” Crystal asked.

“No,” Mia said. “Something must be wrong.” She laced up her robe and grabbed a baseball cap from her dresser. This would be the roughest Eric had ever seen her, but he was the one showing up uninvited at two in the morning. If he was expecting a fashion show, he had another think coming.

“I don’t think you should open the door,” Crystal said.

“Why not?”

“I got a bad feeling.”

Mia frowned. “A bad feeling like what? Am I going to get shot or stabbed?”

“That’s not funny.”

“Crystal, I can’t even count how many times I’ve lived through your bad feelings.”

“One day it’s gonna be the real thing,” Crystal promised.

“Well, thanks, sis. You can go to my funeral and tell everyone, ‘
I told her, but she didn’t listen
.’ ”

“I will, too, watch.”

Mia stepped past her and crept cautiously through her shadowy home. She would never admit it, but Crystal’s creepy premonitions spooked the hell out of her. The fact that Crystal was wrong 100 percent of the time did little to allay her fears.

In the living room, Mia squinted through the peephole in her door. And there he was. Eric wore jeans and a T-shirt. His shirt was faded and soiled, and if she didn’t know better, Mia would guess it was the same one he had on when he fixed her window two days ago. The jeans looked the same, too, come to think of it. Eric’s eyes were soft and pained. His features were set in a mask of unrelenting sorrow. He wasn’t crying, but his shoulders hitched like he was having dry heaves.

“He looks pretty bad,” Mia whispered.

“He looks
crazy
,” Crystal clarified.

Mia jumped a little. She knew her sister followed her into the room, but she didn’t know how close Crystal was. “Girl, get off me.” Mia shot a soft elbow into her gut.

“You goin’ out there?” Crystal asked in a hushed voice.

“I don’t know,” Mia whispered back. “I guess so.”

“He looks crazy,” Crystal reiterated.

“I know, but I don’t want him out there all morning.”

“Why don’t you call the police?”

“For what? He’s not doing anything.”

“They can still take him for being crazy,” Crystal informed her.

“Eric, what are you doing here?” Mia yelled through the door. She watched through the peephole. His face lit up at the sound of her voice.

“Muh, Mia? Mia, is that you?”

“It’s me, Eric. What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you.” He moved his face up to the door and talked into the peephole as if it were an intercom. This move distorted his features to carnival-mirror proportions, and Mia had to back away.

“Eric, it’s two o’clock in the morning. I’m asleep. We’re going to have to talk tomorrow.”

“I need to talk to you
now
,” he groaned. Even speaking through the door, Mia could hear a pained quality to his voice.

“Okay, Eric. What do you want to tell me? Hurry. I’m going back to bed.”

“I want to talk to you
in person
, Mia. I need to see your face.”

Crystal slapped her sister hard on the shoulder. “Don’t go out there!” she hissed.

“
Ouch
, girl! Stop hitting me,” Mia whispered. “I don’t want to go out there,” she yelled at Eric. “It’s too late. I don’t have any clothes on. It’s gonna have to wait ’til tomorrow.”

“It’s an
emergency
,” he pleaded. “It won’t take more than a minute. I promise.”

Crystal hit her again.

“Girl, stop hitting me!”

“You better not go out there,” Crystal whispered.

“I’m
not
going out there. I’m just going to open the door.”

“
Why
?”

“So I can see what he wants and he can leave.”

“Why don’t you just call the police?”

“Quit being so scared,” Mia said and unlocked her dead bolt. Crystal started to say something else, but Mia cut her off. “All right, Eric. Here I come.” She pushed Crystal into a corner behind the door. “I’m going to leave the door open. If something happens, you come out there.”

Crystal nodded, but she didn’t look like she’d be any help in a crisis.

Mia opened the door slowly. The first thing she realized was that her peephole needed to be cleaned. Eric looked much worse than she thought. His white T-shirt was not merely dingy; it was filthy. The neck area was stretched and loose, and there were dried stains all over. Mia couldn’t tell if the maroon-colored blotches were ketchup or blood. The foggy, yellow discolorations might have been beer or urine.

Eric was like a caged animal. His eyes were wide and wild. He stared at Mia, but seemed to look
through
her. His dark brown skin was ashen, and Mia could smell the alcohol on him from four feet away.