In the Life (35 page)

"I hope so." Mykel also picked up his own fork. He picked at the salad a little more even
though he was ready for the main course.

He looked around the restaurant and took note of all the wine bottles that were sitting around as decoration. Decorative plates were also mounted on the wall along with black and white pictures to give the place a rustic feel. His eyes also wandered out of the window where is saw an attractive black man leaning on what Mykel guessed to be his car. His arms were folded in front of him and he had dark sunglasses on. Through the glasses shielding his eyes, Mykel felt as if the man was staring directly at him. It was a little creepy. And on top of that, the man looked familiar.

"Jackson, I think we have a problem."

"What?" Jackson looked up from his plate to see his friend's gaze still looking outside. What Jackson then saw made him panic.

"Tracy? What the fuck?" How the hell did he know where I was?" Both men kept staring out the window. They were too much in disbelief to look away.

"I guess your license plate again."

"Shit, shit, shit," Jackson said while stomping his feet on the ground. A white woman sitting across the room looked over at him which made him straighten up. Jackson was not about to make a scene. Hopefully, Tracy wouldn't either.

"Well, you know that he is going to stay out there and wait for you to leave."

Jackson looked around for their server. The Hispanic middle aged lady was nowhere in immediate view. Jackson tossed the green cloth napkin that was placed in his lap onto the table. He rose from the table and fished a credit card out of his pocket.

"If you see our server, tell her to box our stuff up and get the check.
We aint going to be here for too much longer." Jackson gave Mykel the card and walked to the front door.

Tracy's stare did not change even if with Jackson getting up from the table. Mykel stopped looking out the window even though he felt a hole being drilled in the side of his face.

Jackson walked up on Tracy as calmly as he could. He wanted to yell and scream, but once again, he would not make a scene. Tracy did not even look at Jackson at first.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Jackson said in a controlled yet angry voice.

"Who the hell is he, is the better question?"

"I don't owe you any kind of explanation or answers, but he is a friend."

"He works with you?" Tracy finally looked over at Jackson.

"Why do you want to know? So you can do more fucking research."

"You haven't returned my phone calls."

"And I don't plan to either." Jackson watched as Tracy took off his shades. His eyes were puffy and red underneath. All of a sudden, Jackson wanted to laugh at how pathetic the scene truly was. However, he was too pissed to be amused.

"All I wanted to do was to get to know you better," Tracy said trying to explain away his actions.

"Well that all comes with time and talking, not sneaking and stalking.

"It wasn't like that. Just come on home with me and we can start all over again." Tracy looked apologetic and fragile. How sad? A chuckle finally escaped Jackson's lips.

"That ain't never happening." Jackson saw Mykel coming outside from out the corner of his eye. Tracy saw him too. "Besides, it is time for me to go. And stop calling me! I don't ever want to see you or hear about you anywhere near me, my friends, my house, my job, or any other place. Find yourself some other dude to annoy with your baby dick having ass."

Jackson turned to leave, but a strong hand on his shoulder stopped him. A steamed look from Jackson was all it took to make Tracy let go. Jackson grabbed his car keys from his pocket as he walked off. How he wished he had a knife attached to the keychain instead of a Jewel-Osco grocery store preferred customer card.

"I ain't gonna let you just keep walking away," Tracy called out without getting a response back from Jackson. "This is your last time, I promise you."

Chapter 23

With a serving tray loaded with plates of food balanced in his opened palm, Jackson whizzed past customers to get to one of his customer's tables. Using his free hand, he skillfully opens up a tray jack and set down the platter on top of it. As he doled out the food, Jackson felt a tap on his shoulder. He could see Mykel out of the corner of his eye. They still had to finish the conversation that they had started earlier.

"So where were we?" Jackson asked Mykel as he approached him at the drink station. He quickly looked back at his guests to make sure they would be okay for a couple of minutes.

"Yeah, I think you were about to spill the dirt on your new roommate. It has been a week now and something has to have gone down." Mykel stopped a minute and checked his surroundings. No one was in ear shot of their conversation. "Sherrod is just too sexy to leave sitting around in his room alone."

"He is hardly alone, remember? Alonzo is still at the house like he lives there. He still has his key and a lot of his stuff is still there. You can barely find the bed in that room with all the shit crammed in there. And then, let me tell you about last night. Both Sherrod and I were sleep, it had to be like two in the morning. Alonzo comes bursting into the apartment stomping and carrying on. He goes into his old room and I guess wakes Sherrod up. They were arguing until like 4:30. I couldn't sleep through it."

"What were they arguing about?"

"I don't know." Jackson took another backwards glance at his tables. Drinks were half way filled. He should still be good for another few minutes.

"You said you couldn't sleep through it. You catch anything at all?"

"Well, I know I heard something come up about Alonzo's mother. I already knew that she was still not well. I mean, she is a little better, I guess. She is back at home now, but Alonzo and his family are really always by his side. My guess is that the argument was about Sherrod being there for him."

"But didn't you say that Sherrod had gone to the hospital with Alonzo and met his mom? What else is there to do? It ain’t like he can cure cancer."

"I don't know." Jackson threw up his hands. "That shit is between him and…"

"Tracy!" Mykel interjected with a far off look in his eyes.

"No! Alonzo and Sherrod. Stay focused here," Jackson replied. "And what did we say about Tracy? His name is not to be even uttered. We have already taken everything that has happened with him, put it in a box, shoved it into a canon, and blasted it far, far away from here. Baby dick has finally stopped prank calling the house and I am too happy about that."

"Well, don't be too happy. Tracy just came into the door."

Jackson turned around and saw Tracy at the host station. Tracy looked over to Jackson, but no real contact was made. Jackson turned away and ducked down low in the drink station. He knew that he was still visible, but he had to do something.

"What is he doing here?" Jackson asked in a raspy whisper.

"It looks like he is getting a seat." Mykel's eyes followed Tracy to a booth on the other side of the restaurant. The hostess sat Tracy in a booth that was away from Jackson's section but still in an open enough area where Tracy could still see everything that was going on. Once seated, Tracy casually opened up his menu and started reading it. To the informal eye, one would think that Tracy was just treating himself out to a dinner alone. However, both Mykel and Jackson knew that trouble was brewing.

A female server greeted Tracy at the booth. Smiles were on both of their faces. Jackson and Mykel moved over to a more discreet location where they could spy on Tracy without being obvious.

"It looks like ol' Denise is trying to win him over with her smile and her tits," Mykel said of the obvious flirting.

"Yeah, well, someone needs to warn her about the small dick having psycho but that someone will not be me." Jackson removed himself from his perch and went into the kitchen.

"So what are you going to do?"

"The only thing that I can do and that’s to try to not pay him any attention.
That is probably what he wants from me anyway! To show him some kind of attention or get flustered but I won't do it. I refuse to let him think that he is going to get the best of me."

Jackson stuck to his game plan. He did not even look Tracy's way even though he was tempted a few times. He stayed parked at Denise's table for a good two hours. Denise wasn’t complaining about the sexy squatter. She spent most of her shift sitting in the booth talking to him. Jackson finished out his lunch shift without incident. He breezed past the host stand without saying goodbye to anyone besides Mykel who was working a double shift. Jackson couldn't help but look back at Tracy who was watching his every move. Tracy started getting up from the booth, but his newfound girlfriend was interrupting his swift exit. Although he had paid his tab an hour ago and left a hefty tip, Denise didn't want to let him go.

By the time Tracy made it out of the restaurant, Jackson was ripping out of the parking lot buckling his seat belt as he maneuvered the vehicle. Tracy ran to his car and tried to catch up. Jackson was now being chased by Tracy. Who knew what would happen if Tracy caught up with him? Worried and steadily checking his rear view mirror, Jackson knew something had to be done. He didn't have enough gas in his car to keep this cat and mouse game going. Jackson picked up his phone and made a call for help. However, he didn't call the police.

Sherrod watched as Alonzo paced the floors of what had become ‘their' bedroom. Alonzo was busy marching back and forth venting about what was going on with his family life. Sherrod tried to stay focused on the conversation, but everything being said had been said at least twelve times already. The whole thing was almost sounding rehearsed and scripted. Sherrod fell back on the bed and closed his eyes. The rise and fall of Alonzo's voice was almost enough to put Sherrod to sleep.

"Are you listening to me?" Alonzo asked bringing Sherrod's full attention back to him.

"Yeah, of course."

"What I say then?"

"You were talking about how expensive chemotherapy was and how your mom hates it. It makes her feel even sicker."

Alonzo paused for a minute and looked at Sherrod with a disapproving look. Sherrod had been right but Alonzo knew that Sherrod was still not as engaged in the conversation as he should have been. However, Alonzo shook it off and went back to talking.

"So, I was thinking that we should go out tonight. With you picking up those extra shifts lately, I barely get to see you. This is like the first time in a long minute that we have been able to chill."

Before Sherrod could respond, his phone rang.

"You got to help me. I don't know what to do," Jackson said in a panicked voice.

"What's wrong?" Sherrod sat straight up in the bed. Alonzo took notice.

"I was at work and Tracy showed up. Now he is following me in his car. I tried to jump on the Dan Ryan and lose him on the interstate, but it ain’t working, He is still right on my ass."

"Where are you now?" Sherrod got up off the bed and headed towards the door.

"Umm, I am still out here close to the job."

"Shit, it would take me a long ass time to bus it out there. Meet me at 79th and State when you get off the Dan Ryan. I doubt he would do anything in front of all the people that are out there at this time. I am on my way now. Try to shake him on some other exits in the meantime. At least that will give me extra time to get there."

"Okay, well hurry." Jackson hung up the phone. He looked back in his rear view to see Tracy getting closer and closer. He tried to speed up a little but traffic wasn't permitting him to be speed racer.

Sherrod was about to go out the door when he doubled back to go to the room. He opened one of his trunks and grabbed a menacing looking steel gun.