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Gym Time

" Jazzy get up" Tyson said giving her a nudge." Come on now, you said you wanted to try out this new gym so we're going and later we're having lunch with my mom, then back home for some rest and hittin' the streets with Jevon and Sherica later on." Tyson said " I've been up, I have my bag so I'm waiting on you."

" OK give me twenty minutes" Jazzlyn said stretching and raising out of bed. It was 9:30am by the time they arrived at Kuts and Kurves and the parking lot was packed.

They walked inside and Jazzlyn was really excited about how everything looked. " This aint no real damn gym" Tyson said.

" What do you mean ? I love it!" Jazzlyn said pulling him towards the front desk.

" Yeah but where the fat people at? That's the sign of a
real
gym, they have fat folks in here trying to get in shape too. This looks like a damn club up in here . Don't bring your ass over here without me." Tyson said laughing and Jazzlyn starting laughing as well " Oh I'm laughing but I'm dead ass serious." Tyson said grabbing her hand.

" Hi I have two week free passes for my boyfriend and I, so we came in to start our trial." Jazzlyn said handing them to the woman at the front desk.

" Wel we're so glad you came in to try our facilities, I'm Madison and I'l give you a quick tour so you know where everything is and let you al get to working out!"

" So I have a question. Where are the overweight people at? Are you hiding them?"

Tyson asked with a serious face. Madison looked a bit shocked and Tyson suddenly smiled saying " I'm just kidding...kinda."

" Be quite Tyson!" Jazzlyn said as they made their way through a quick tour of the facilities and then headed to separate lockers rooms to store their things. " Baby a Zumba class starts in 5 minutes after that I'll be ready to go, I try to get my workouts in and then get out. I'm not trying to kil myself working out. I'm not trying to drop any weight real y. I'm just mainly trying to keep what I have tight" Jazzlyn said putting her hair into a ponytail.

" Oh it's tight al right" Tyson said looking at her grinning.

" Shh be quite!" Jazzlyn said swatting him away.

" OK, I'm going to do some laps on the track and then do weights until we leave.

Baby? Do you feel better today?"

"I do. I'l talk to you about it soon. Don't worry about me though." Jazzlyn said and leaned in to kiss him." Have a good workout, I love you." Jazzlyn said.

" Love you too." Tyson walked upstairs to the track arena. " Wel hello there Ms.

Jazzlyn" Jazzlyn turned around and found Bishop the sexy Kuts and Kurves employee who'd signed her up standing there." Oh hey Bishop!How are you? You see I made it here already don't you? I told you I was looking for a new gym." Jazzlyn said smiling. " I see." Bishop said looking her over." So was that your boyfriend you got the free pass for

?"

" Yes that's my boyfriend Tyson. I love the gym so far, if I join I'll make sure you get his referral as well,Tyson actual y lives in Parkcrest too, so I'm sure he'll join."

"I see." Bishop said,looking at her like he al of sudden smel ed something bad and walking off.

"What the hel is his problem? " Jazzlyn said aloud, walking to the Zumba room.

Mama Don't Take No Mess

Later on Jazzlyn asked Tyson what he thought about joining Kuts and Kurves " I mean it was cool, I kinda like more basic gyms where it's al about the workout and getting in and out. If you like it though I'l sign up with you, it's no big deal." Tyson said keep his eyes on the road. They were almost at Tyson's mothers home.

" I'm nervous Tyson!" Jazzlyn admitted." What if your mom doesn't like me? You didn't tell her how my family acted when you came over did you? Oh my God I'll be so embarrassed if you did." Jazzlyn said.

" I didn't tell her about what happened. I mean don't get me wrong and I gotta keep it real with you, I'm my mama's only son. I can talk to her about anything ...and I will if I need to. But if told my mom that, she's going to act like any other mother whose son is being treated bad. It's cool though Jazzlyn, I don't run telling my family every time someone black doesn't like me. Can you imagine me doing that all my life?" Tyson said laughing as he pul ed into his mother's driveway. "Now come on in here so I can introduce my two loves to one another." Tyson said smiling.

" Hold on Tyson!Do I look OK? Maybe I shouldn't have worn shorts? These are too short. I wish you had said something before we left the house!" Jazzlyn said attempting to pull her shorts a little lower." Jazzlyn please get your ass in the damn house! You look fine, hel we live in Texas and it's hot as hell out here today. I aint one of these white folks out here trying to get all tan...that shit makes you look older than you are so can we get in here under some air please?" Tyson said opening the door with his key.

"Mama! We're here!" Tyson yelled out walking through the the living room with Jazzlyn fol owing. Jazzlyn looked around the beautifully decorated home filled with African art work mixed with pictures of family. Even though Tyson had clearly told her his family background, it really hit her looking at family portraits where Tyson was the only white dot in the pictures. " Have a seat Jazzlyn let me see where she is. I know I told her what time we'd be here." Tyson said.

Jazzlyn kept herself busy looking at family pictures in the formal living room, stopping at one particular picture of Tyson sitting on the lap of a pretty brunette with,deep dimples and the same striking green eyes as Tyson.

" Now you see where he gets those beautiful green eyes from." Jazzlyn jumped almost dropping the picture. Jazzlyn turned around to see a shorter petite version of Brianna standing there " You must be Jazzlyn, it's nice to meet you .I'm Tyson's mother Renee." Just then Tyson was back.

" There's my girl ! I was about to get worried, I went in the kitchen and saw you cooked but no you!" Tyson said leaning down to give his mom a kiss and hug. " I see you two already met but let me formally introduce you two." Mom this is my girlfriend Jazzlyn, Jazzlyn meet my mom Renee." Tyson said

"Wel you're late baby we already did that but thanks anyways. Carry this bag to the kitchen, I ran out of something and ran out real fast." Renee said heading for the kitchen with them following. The remainder of the afternoon was filled with conversation and laughs. Ms. Renee talked with Jazzlyn about her time teaching and Jazzlyn asked about ideas with dealing with certain types of students she'd encountered. They'd also shared funny stories about Tyson when he was a kid. Ms. Renee had prepared them a delicious lunch of some of Tyson’s favorites fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and greens along with a sweet potato pie. One she made for Tyson to take to his place.

Tyson’s mother made her feel comfortable and at home. Jazzlyn couldn't help but think that this was how it
should
have gone when he met her family.

"Baby why don't you get the rest of this done while Jazzlyn and I finish talking" Renee said." Let's go to the living room"

" I see how y'all doing me, only man here and you make me do the cleaning up! OK! I see how you wanna do me!" Tyson said laughing.

" That's right, you should clean up! Calling here early in the morning with a menu planned out for me to cook!" Renee said leaving the kitchen. " So when I came in I saw you looking at the pictures. If you two are dating I'm sure at this point he's opened up about himself to you?" Renee stated more than asked, picking up the picture of Tyson and his birth mother. "Her name was Tanya . All these years later I still think of my best friend everyday. I hope when she's looking down on us, she's as proud of Tyson as I am. My son is a good man." Renee said sitting down and crossing her legs.

" A man who doesn't bring just any woman to meet me unless it's serious for him.

When I think about al the little girls that used to hang around my door for that boy! It used to drive me crazy. I had to teach him early not to bring just anyone around his family. So here you are Jazzlyn." Renee said looking at her.

Jazzlyn started to sweat a little bit under her observant stare. " Yes ma'am I real y like him"

" Jazzlyn I realize Tyson has a unique family background. So I have to ask you this...have you dated white men before?"

" No ma'am Tyson is the first"

"Interesting. So how does your family feel about that? That's my son so I already know how he goes about things and as you can imagine, I already heard from the girls how you found out about us. But like I said, when
my
son brings someone to meet me, I know it's serious. So I need to make sure
my
baby aint hurt. Because he
is
my baby even though he's grown. I don't want to ever see him hurt. Especially over the color of

his
skin." Renee said.

Jazzlyn couldn't help but look down at her hands with her head hanging. " Ms. Renee, Tyson met my parents earlier this week and truthfully, I've never been so embarrassed by my family in my entire life!" Jazzlyn said looking miserable." When Tyson and I are together, I mean of course I can see he's white, but it doesn't matter. He's just the man that makes me laugh,the man I feel I can trust and the man that makes me feel loved.

I've only ever had one serious boyfriend, other than just casual dating in high school and I concentrated on getting my degree more than anything in col ege.

But yes they were all black. I never even gave dating a non black man a second thought until Tyson. My mom got over the shock of it all and we've talked since then more and she real y liked him and is wishing us the best. My two brothers and dad Ms.

Renee, aren't going to be as easy." Jazzlyn said shaking her head.

Jazzlyn started thinking about everything her brother Antonio said about her father being upset and feeling disrespected by her dating Tyson. Jazzlyn looked around to make sure Tyson wasn't in sight.

" Ms. Renee can I ask you something?" Jazzlyn asked wiping her her eyes. If Tyson wasn't your son and your daughters came home with a white man would you be upset?"

Jazzlyn asked." My brother Antonio seems to think I'm slapping my dad in the face by being with Tyson."

Tyson's mother shook her head. " Baby,asking me that question is probably a bad idea. You have to understand this Jazzlyn, my husband and I were
already
Tyson's god parents. So Tyson would have been a huge part of my family anyways. Tanya ,Tyson's birth mother was my best friend and our friendship had been through thick and thin, being that she was white and I black. So no honey, I would not have been upset with one of my girls for dating a white man if Tyson hadn't been raised by me full time ."

Renee got up and walked to sit on the loveseat with Jazzlyn.

" Truth be told I feel sorry for you young women nowadays! Hell,I'll keep it real, as my girls say. With everything else you have to worry about in the dating world, who has time to worry about what color a man is?" Ms. Renee said looking at Jazzlyn like she'd lost her mind." Let me tel you what I tel my girls, is the man heterosexual?...No down low tendencies? No. Check. Does the man have a good career and if he's not in the field of his choice, does he have a solid plan to make it happen for himself ? Yes. Check. Does the man have self respect? Because if he has none for himself he damn sure don't have none to give you! Yes. Check. There a whole lot more I could add to that list and trust and believe me. A mans color would
NOT
be on that list!" Ms. Renee said with a laugh.

Jazzlyn sat for a minute and thought about the few things Ms. Renee had ticked off, none of which Darien had minus the whole down low thing! Hell when I really sit and think about it, the only thing we real y did have in common
was
we're both black! My family didn't like him either. So I'd real y be a fool to let any of that nonsense be a factor in my wanting to be with Tyson.

" Ms. Renee, thank you
so
much for this little talk!You have no idea how much clearer you've made me see. I had a lot on my mind since my brothers visit last night and quite frankly didn't discuss it with Tyson because I didn't want to upset him." Jazzlyn said.

" Baby let me give you a bit of advice. This is for with my son or any other man who is supposed to be your partner. Talk to one another. You should not have been so upset last night keeping all that negativity in because I know it was bothering you about your brothers and thinking about your father being upset with you. Honey let me tell you if you and Tyson are a couple...that's what he's there for. Believe me when I say, Tyson knew you were upset. So you may as well have discussed it!" Ms. Renee said.

" True. He knew something was bothering me and I just told him we'd talk about it later. Thanks so much for letting me talk to you about all this Ms. Renee." Jazzlyn said.

" Anytime baby don't be a stranger, you can call or stop by anytime. Tyson doesn't have to always be with you either. My girls and I are planning a spa day pretty soon, so I'm inviting you in advance. I'l let you know the details later. We'd love to have you." Ms.

Renee said.

" Mama" Tyson said walking into the living room, "The kitchen is all clean. You know I don't eat and run but we gotta go. We're doing a little double date thing with Jevon and one of Jazzlyns friends tonight so we have to get going. I don't know how the week is going for me at work or if I'll be working late or not but if I'm not, I'l be over to do the yard one day after I get off. It's going to be Wednesday more than likely. If it starts to look busy I'l call you and let you know. So you can have that service come out and do it.

They need to send out the same guy as last time. I don't want no whole lot of strange people over here. They'll already be paid in advance so they don't need to come in either." Tyson said frowning.

" Those people are nice Tyson I don't know why you always act like that." Ms. Renee said laughing.

" I'm just saying mama you gotta be careful with these people. Know who's around and coming in and outta here. Imma try my best to do it myself though, but I don't want it going past this week so they're the backup plan." Tyson said.