Georgia On My Mind (4 page)

“Say what? What the hell am I doing here?  What the hell are you doing here with her, Charles? Who the fuck is this?"

“Look Peaches I can explain."

“Explain what Charles?  How the hell can you explain this orangutan bullshit?" Peaches snapped as she flashed the ring box.  She opened it and gasped. “What the fuck? This is my ring- a two carat princess cut solitaire surrounded by another carat of baguettes set in platinum. I’ve been eyeing this damn ring for years!"

“Peaches..."

“Peaches My Ass!” She screamed. “How fucking could you?  How could you propose to her on my day in my restaurant with the damn ring that I've always wanted?  How could you do this to me, Charles?"

“Peaches, you don't understand.  I didn't want you to find out this way.  I wanted to tell you..."

“Tell me what?"

“I wanted to tell you in private, that I'm in love with Mercedes and that I've asked her to be my wife."

Peaches is completely taken back at this point.  Holding her chest as if she was about to have a heart attack she stumbled backwards. “Oh my God I think I'm having a damn stroke.”

Charles quickly grabbed a chair. “Peaches, sit down.  You know how you get when you get over excited. Just calm down! Here have some water."

Now, during all the commotion, Peaches discreetly slipped the ring box into her ample cleavage.  Hurt and upset, she quickly sat down to catch her breath, but she declined the glass of water.  Instead she grabbed the champagne bottle and took a giant gulp before addressing the appalled diners.

“I'm sorry y’all.  Just give me a second or two to catch my wind and get myself together.  Then, I'll let you good people get back to your expensive meals. It’s okay, don’t worry I’m fine!"

Charles stood by obviously concerned about Peaches. “Peaches, are you okay?  I didn't mean for this to happen like this."

“Just give me a second Charles.  This is a lot of shit to digest and process all at once.  Give me a chance to get myself together." Peaches responded before taking another big swig of champagne. Refreshed, she stood to face Charles. “Okay, I feel much better now! That’s some good champagne! Okay, I’m ready to go! Charles, you must be out of your rabid, half- wit, dumb ass, boo- boo the fuckin fool mind if you think that I am going to let this fugly..."

“Fugly?" Mercedes asked insulted though confused by the terminology.

“Yes, fugly... Fucking Ugly, anorexic bitch come in at the eleventh and a half hour and steal all of my hopes and dreams.  In the sixteen long years that you have known me what makes you think in your wildest damn dreams that I would let this type of monkey ass, buffoonery go unchecked and unpunished?"

“Peaches... Can we talk in private?"

“No! And don't Peaches me!  Where was this bitch when I was working three damn jobs to put your stupid ass through Law School?

“Peaches... please!”

“And where was her bony ass when I sacrificed my health, my dreams and my career to support your penniless, broke ass while you attempted the Bar five fucking times? Huh, Charles? Not once, but five fucking times!"

“Peaches let's talk about this outside. Okay?” 

“Hell no! Fuck that and fuck you!  As I was saying, where was she when I was doing your laundry, cooking your meals, cleaning your toilet, ironing your draws, paying your car note and sucking your three inch dick for the past twelve fucking years?"

“You see this is the exact reason that I don't want to marry you!  In fact... the truth is I never intended to marry you.  You and I have been growing apart for years and you know it, Peaches!  See, you're perfectly happy living Ghetto Fabulous whereas all of my life I've strive to get as far away from the Ghetto Mentality as possible!  But I can't, now can I, huh Peaches? Not with you hanging all over me like I’m the last damn fucking life raft off the fucking Titanic!"

“Bitch, I know you didn't..." Peaches snorted in shock.

“Oh yes I fucking did!  But, let me finish.  I let you talk now let me say what's on my mind.  Let me get some shit off my damn chest!  Yeah, you may have made a few sacrifices for me along the way. So, fucking what!  I made a few sacrifices of my own."

“Charles, what did you ever sacrifice for me?  Name one damn thing!"

“What did I ever sacrifice for you?  I sacrificed my happiness.  For two years I've been in love with this beautiful, sexy woman, but I considered your feelings so I stayed with you." He retorted.

“Was I that unattractive Charles?  Was I really that bad to live with?”

“Peaches when I first fell in love with you, you were a bad ass bitch with a phat ass.  But look at you now.  Look at you!  You've let yourself go.  You don't even care anymore!  Now, you're just a fat ass bitch...!”

Peaches suddenly lost all sanity and self-control! Without warning she punched Charles straight in the mouth, as hard as she could with her fist, mid- sentence.  Charles, who was caught completely off guard went flying back over the table. The table crushed beneath his weight and collapsed to the floor in a loud crash.  PISSED to the nth power, Peaches immediately stomped over to finish his bitch ass off.

Naturally, people scattered and ran out of the restaurant, without paying of course. Mercedes, who had been by Charles side the entire time, immediately ran to the front of the restaurant to get out of Peaches way, fearing her trick ass would be next.  Now, Rashawn who had been discreetly watching the drama unfold from his secret corner had seen more than enough. He quickly flew over and snatched Peaches back mid stride, before she could pounce on Charles for the kill.

“Get off me!  Let me go!  This Bitch thinks that he can just treat me like horse shit after all I've done for him!” She snorted as she wrestled to break free from Rashawn’s hold.

“Peaches!  Calm down.  It's me Rashawn Martin. It’s over, leave him alone and let’s go!"

Peaches, who was stunned to hear her name stopped to see who knew her.  She instantly recognized Rashawn as the kid she use to babysit back in the day.

“Rashawn?  Peanut?  Is that really you? Oh my God, it is you! Look at you… You’re all grown up I can’t believe it’s really you, Peanut!"

“Yeah it's me, Peaches." He blushed from embarrassment.

“I don’t understand… What are you doing here?”

“I'll explain later.  We got to go!  The police are probably already on their way.”

“One second Peanut.  Let me just finish beating this bitches ass!"

“Peaches no! We have to go!" Rashawn yelled as Peaches muscled her way away from him. 

With the agility and strength and ferociousness of a lion she pounces on Charles.  Straddling him around his waist she prepared to beat his bitch ass to within an inch of his pathetic cheating life!

“Ah shit! No! No, Peaches no! Peaches, please let's go." Rashawn groaned as he realized that Peaches was about to fuck Charles the fuck up!

“Okay... I'm coming!  Just give me one second, Peanut.  Who's the fat ass bitch now Charles? I know you didn’t think I was finished with your little bitch ass! Did you?" Peaches grabbed the roses Charles gave Mercedes and began to beat his black ass with them.  Rashawn tried to pull her off of him, but she was too angry, too powerful and too strong.  Rose petals were flying every damn where. The thorns from the stems dug into Charles’ flesh, but the unconscious Charles did not feel the pain. 

“See, it's weak ass niggas like you that give good brothers a bad reputation.  Just as soon as they make a dollar the sista that gets them to the bank ain't good enough to help them spend the check.  The good news is that strong, hard working women like me don't need bullshit, dickless, losers like you to be successful.  So, I don't want or need you, Charles!  You punk, ass nigga bitch!"

Everyone was stunned.  Some of the women applauded and cheered. Frightened, Mercedes pleaded for the manger to do something. “Stop her! Did you at least call the police... She's going to kill him. Look at her! She’s already probably squashed him to death!"

“She ought to kill him!" A waitress yelled back. “Beat his ass Peaches!”

“If I was her I’d beat his bitch ass too!” An older white woman remarked as she cheered Peaches on. “Beat that ass! Beat that ass! Beat that ass!” Many of the other women joined in the chant. “Beat that ass! Beat that ass!”

“That fool hasn’t moved since she hit him. Yelp, his bitch ass is dead!" An old man responded.

Rashawn could hear the sounds of sirens in the distance. “Peaches, fuck Charles! We got to go now!"

Peaches continued to beat Charles with the roses until she had said her peace and counted to three! “Bitch ass nigga!  You wait until I tell your mama!”

“Peaches!  He's not worth going to jail over.  Let's get out of here before the police get in here!" Rashawn advised her.

Peaches said not a word as she got off of
              Charles, who was still out cold. Without a damn care in the world, she adjusted her clothes, fixed her hair and walked away as if nothing had happened.

Rashawn took her hand, slipped his arms around her waist and the two of them calmly walked out of the restaurant like a happy couple as the police, fire department and EMTs rushed pass them to rescue Charles.

“Come with me.  I'm parked right over here.” He said as he escorted Peaches to his car.

Visibly upset and shaken to the core, Peaches held on to Rashawn’s hand tightly as they walked to his car which was parked directly across the street from the restaurant.

“Okay.” She managed in a small, emotional voice. Her body was trembling from the surge of adrenalin that coursed through it.

Moments later they were in Rashawn’s classic 1972 Monte Carlo and safely away from the scene of the crime. Rashawn looked over at Peaches who was obviously devastated. “Peaches are you sure that you’re okay?  You're bleeding."

“I’m okay. Don't worry about me. This isn’t my blood, it’s that fool's blood, not mine.”

“You know that you can't go home right now.  So, I'll take you to my place.  Okay?"

“You got anything to eat there?  I am starving. I didn’t get to eat all day. I was too busy running around Atlanta like a damn idiot trying to make myself look beautiful that ungrateful asshole!"

Rashawn sighed. “I don’t really have any food, but we'll order something when we get there. And for the record, you’re already beautiful and Charles is an extremely ungrateful asshole. He’s always has been."

“Look Peanut, I don't know where you came from but thanks for getting me out of there. I completely lost it in there. I saw red and the next thing I know I had punched Charles in his big damn mouth. The absolute last thing on earth I need right now is to get locked up over some stupid bullshit like this."

“Don't worry about it.”

“I got a really big Interior Design contract and I can't afford to screw it up.”

“I'm sure everything will work out.” Rashawn assured her.

“What were you doing there?”

Rashawn hesitated. “Umm… I was meeting a friend.”

“I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to ruin your plans.”

“No, it's cool. She’ll understand.  This is more important. I’ll call her once we get to the house.  Peaches, are you sure that you are okay?” Rashawn responded as he realized that he had totally forgotten about his date.

“Peanut, to tell you the truth I don't know if I'll ever be okay after this.  I can't believe that Charles did this shit to me after all that we went through. He promised me we’d be together forever. I guess forever isn’t as long as I thought it would be.”

“You want to talk about it? I’m a really good listener. I don’t talk much, but I’ll listen.”

“Maybe later. Right now I can't. It hurts too damn bad!”

“No problem. Let's get you somewhere you can chill, kick off those killer heels and relax.”

“That’s sounds good.” Peaches smiled although she struggled to fight back tears.

They drove in silence for a while. Rashawn’s townhouse was about twenty minutes outside of Atlanta. He knew Peaches was hurting bad, but he also knew that there were no words that he could say to comfort her. He felt helpless to help her.

As they entered his community Rashawn looked over to see Peaches discreetly wipe away tears as she stared blankly out of the passenger’s window.  He pretended not to notice as he pulled into his driveway and announced, “Okay, we’re here.”

Later that night, Rashawn and Peaches sat on the floor in front of his couch with a coffee table full of half eaten Chinese food containers in front of them. Peaches had finally allowed herself to relax and let the previous events of her night go.

“Man, I didn't realize how hungry I was.  I'm completely stuffed.” Rashawn declared as he stretched.

“Lightweight.  We haven't even had desert.”

“Desert?  I forgot all about desert.” Rashawn said as he rubbed his belly.

“How are you going to forget about Chocolate - Chocolate Chip, Chocolate cake?  It's your favorite.  Here let me get you a slice.”

“No!  No, no, no!  I can't eat another bite.”

Peaches quickly opened the cake and teased Rashawn with it. “Look at it! Look how rich and creamy it looks. Look at all that yummy chocolate. You know you want a piece.”