*This chapter is to get a tiny bit of insight on Honey and Zeke's personal life. Very important to the story.*
****
"You talk a good game when you could just be honest."-Kelly Rowland
Chapter[25]
Honey
"You ready to do this?"
I sighed heavily as I looked around Mama's room. I placed a piece of stray hair behind my ear and placed a hand on my hip. "As ready as I'll ever be." I said. I grabbed the nearest empty packing box as Tyrone reached for one himself. It had been almost two months since she passed and since then I haven't even stepped into her room. Even walking past her room was hard, but Tyrone encouraged it was okay to miss her and grieve but that it was time to start the healing process. So, I felt it was time to box everything up with Tyrone's help to start.
I threw on some sweats and tank top and found some empty boxes.
I went to the dresser and began picking up her things and placing them into the box. She had little trinkets scattered across the top like earrings, bracelets and what not. I came across a particular bracelet that I had bought her for Mother's Day that just passed. I remembered we were sitting down watching TV in her room. I was curled up beside her when she seen the commercial for the pretty diamond studded tennis bracelet and couldn't stop hinting at wanting it.
I fought back the tears and clasped the bracelet around my wrist.
"What you got planned for tonight? I thought we could try this bar that just opened up on Battlefield. Grab a couple of friends you know?" Tyrone asked from the closet. I could hear him rummaging through the piles of clothes and shoe boxes on the bottom of it.
I shook my head slightly, twisting the bracelet to watch it sparkle around my wrist. "I can't. Made plans already."
"With who?" To be honest I was hesitant to even speak Zeke's name. I was still shocked myself that I had even agreed to going out with him tonight but he was persuasive. But I also knew saying his name would only draw up more questions from Tyrone and possibly even an attitude that I wasn't looking forward to dealing with. Was not trying to have another episode like we did that night at the bar. Maybe if I said a friend he would-,
"Zeke?" I was afraid to respond right away. I was expecting him to judge me from across the room but instead he found his way beside me turning me to face him.
"What, did you think I was going to get mad if you told me you were seeing him again?" Not wanting to look him in the eyes, I continued down Mama's dresser aimlessly tossing things in the box.
" I dunno. Not mad but maybe judgmental. Last week I was just at your house talking like I hated him and still didn't know if I wanted to even be with him. Some people would call that being a fool."
"Naw, that's just you being a woman." He joked, but I wasn't laughing. I glared at him and he cleared his throat.
"Look. you're a grown ass woman. You can do what you want and how you please but you just gotta be smart. To be honest I think you overreacted but that's just me."
Overreacted?
"You don't get it, that's all." What the hell did he know?
"Really? How I see it is that you got mad because he wasn't upfront with you about something that didn't even need to be brought up in the first place and if you think about it, you lied first. He asked you what did you do for a living and you failed to tell him you were a stripper. The whole base of the situation leads back to that question he asked."
I was speechless because this negro was right. If I would have just told him I was a stripper, he would have asked at which club then he would have thrown in his father owned it and that night at the restaurant would have been completely different.
Completely. Different.
"I think you two need to own up and tonight makes the perfect opportunity." He said matter-of-factly.
Again, he was right. Taking me back to the conversation Zeke and I had at the club.
**
"Fine, two minutes. But I'm counting." As mad as I wanted him to believe I was, I couldn't help but realize how much I had missed being around him. With him standing in front of me in all his fine glory. He had on a simple outfit, jeans, black fitted t-shirt and a pair of Lebron's. He even got himself that goatee that I thought would look sexy on him. Damn was I right.
But it was his eyes that I missed the most out of past month that we hadn't spoke. The way I felt when he looked at me made me warm all over and wet between my thighs. It was as if those smoky grey eyes wanted to see into my soul.
"Honey?" He waved his hands in my face and I laughed lightly in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" He frowned and I remembered he hated repeating himself.
"I said give me a chance for me to make things right. Let's start over with a clean slate." He stepped closer enough for me to smell his spicy colon that I loved and grabbed my hands rubbing his fingers across my knuckles.
"Please, over dinner?" He pleaded.
**
As much as I wanted to say no, I knew deep down there was no reason to still be mad at this man. It was only right to hear him out and besides, free food was involved.
"Yeah, you're right." I admitted to Tyrone.
"I know." All I could do was shake my head and continued packing. Tyrone and I continued to talk, making plans for the weekend and he even brought up how the girl from the diner called him last night.
"She wants to meet up somewhere and hang out." We were now down to the last of Mama's things while I was stacking boxes in the corner of the room.
I turned around and grinned like an idiot and he rolled his eyes.
"Well did you say yes?" I pressed.
"I said yes but I dont think we would have anything in common."
"You won't know till you give the girl a chance. She could be a good catch, don't miss out on someone who could be your future wife." I said.
He scoffed. "Yeah, ok."
He was bugging.
I knew it had been forever since he dated but then again he was very particular about the girls he dated. The had to walk, talk and act a certain way for them even remotely catch a ounce of his attention.
I shook my head at him for the failed attempt to see that he was going to miss out on something new.
Soon after, we were finished packing and him and I stood back to assess how much change we made to this room.
He swung his arm across my shoulder and I laid my head on his.
"Looks good Cassy. Do you feel good?" Honestly, I didn't know how I felt. It was neither good or bad. It was just, eh.
"Okay, I guess." He laughed.
"I'll take it. Now, where the food at?"
*****
"You don't know how much it means to me that you showed up Honey." I nodded my head and took a bite out of my Alfredo.
Zeke had me come to a little hole in the wall not too far from my house. It was a small intimate Italian joint that screamed romance. I started to protest but he assured me all he wanted to do was start fresh.
"Yeah, the food is delicious."
He smiled. "And you look beautiful."
flattered, I smiled. So I did get a little dolled up. I put on a cute little halter dress and heels and a tad bit of make-up. I told myself I wanted to see if I still had it but deep down I knew this was for him.
"Thank you. And you're handsome, as always." He kept that mega-watt smile that right away melted my heart and my face warm.
"Honey, I miss you." I heard the longing in his voice and couldn't help but feel it also. I missed him too. The laughing, the touching and those sweet kisses.
"Zeke-,"
"Let me finish." I quickly closed my mouth. "I miss you baby. Not being able to talk you has gotten me all fucked up. I can't walk into my bedroom without imagining seeing you in it laid up next to me. I can't even go into a grocery store and look at a head of lettuce without the memory of the first day I saw you holding one."
I laughed remembering how embarrassed I was for running off like that. That day I felt like I just had a conversation with my middle school crush.
"I remember."
"I wan't to start clean. Fresh slate. Ask me as many questions as you like and I'll answer them as honestly as I can."
"ok," I was curious. I wanted to know the real Zeke and all of what he was about.
"What do you do for a living?"
He pondered for a moment and leaned back into his chair. Iwas expecting him to stick to his flipping house lie but he surprised me.
"Business consultation is what I really do."
"So you go to a business and.."
He chuckled. "I go to a corporation and identify ways to ehance the overall operating model," He mut have saw the confusion on my face because I damn sure did not know what he was talking about.
"To get in depth would be another day. I know if I keep going you're just going to be completely lost."
I laughed. "I'm glad you noticed."
It was silent for a second but during that silence my mind was coming up with a million and one other questions to ask him. Many of them were common questions and some very personal. With all these qestions swirling in my head I came to realize I didn't know jack shit about him.
All I knew was that his name is Zeke and six months into seeing eachother, he's the son of my boss.
I was falling for a complete stranger. Ain't that some shit?
He cleared his throat bringing my attention back to him. "What made you want to start working for my father?"
I looked down at my alfredo playing in what was left of the meal. The memories flooded back to me as I began to remeber the feeling I had when Nova first introduced me to him. The nervous pain in my stomach that would only get worse when it was finally my turn to touch that pole for the first time.
"Working for him was the end result of a series of unfortunate events. Believe it or not, I did want to go to college. Get that degree and do something meaningful with my life in the scientific field."
"What did you want to be?"
"A Neurologist. I was interested in the learing about the disease that could attack the nerves, the spine and just how our body works in general but my mama made that difficult for me. Most parents wanted to see their child succeed, leave the hood and do some goood with their lives. Nuh-uh, not mine.
I tok a sip of my wine. At that time, she was heavy into the drug game. She was all about the kingpins and high profile dealers. Her boyfriend was even JD, the notorious kingpin of Westbrook and King Ave territory."
"Yeah, I rememeber hearing about that dude. He the one that got gunned down by the cops?"
I nodded my head and this time taking a huge gulp of wine. Shit, retelling the past was bringing back the feeling of pain and feeling unwanted.
"Yeah, the same one. Well, he had a bad drug habit, fucked around on my mama and in the end she was left with a bad liver, chronic bronchitis and a broken heart. That time it was rough and I felt I needed to stick around for her.So, I bailed out on college and stuck around. That was when my friend, Nova, brought up the idea of working for your Dad."
I fought back the tears but I couldn't stop the cracking of my voice.
"She may not have won the best mother award but she was all I had." I waved the empty glass and meekly smiled. Slightly embarrassed about my almost break down. "All gone."
Zeke could only look sympathetic. I couldn't be mad when he only nodded his head and had no words to say. How was he to respond to something like that? I doubt it was even relatable. Silence over took us once more until the waiter came back to ask if I wanted more wine. Zeke interjected instead asking for the check.
When the waiter brought us the check, Zeke placed a fifty on the table and grabbed my hand.
"I wanna take you somewhere."
He didn't wait for my response. He led usout out the door and to his car. I asked about mine still being in the parking lot and he admitted that we wouldn't be where we were going for long. I said nothing else as he peeled out of the parking lot.
What really was there to say? There more I wanted to speak up and ask where we were going, I would turn and look at his face and see that what ever he was going to show me was very important to him.
Fifteen minutes of sitting in the car fidgeting and very curious, we arrived at a Cemetery, the same one my mother was buried. Zeke killed the engine, and got out, opening my door and leading the way down the path through the aisles of soft grass and variety of bouquets that sat pretty on the in-ground tombstones. The sun was beginning to set and in a weird way, it made everything beautiful as if death wasn't something as scary as people believed. It made me believe that this life was not the end and that something was grandeur after death.
We stopped at a beautiful set of orchids. Zeke sunk to his knees and smiled brightly at the name engraved on the marble plate
Cheryl Hampton
1965-2008
"Hey, Mama."