Amber P.O.V. -
On my lunch break, I went to CVS and got a vase to put the flowers in August bought me. When he left out I realized I was being a little hard on him.
Yes he did make me angry, but he was trying to make an honest effort to fix things by bringing me the flowers. And they weren’t the cheap kind of flowers either, he spent a pretty penny on them.
On top of that, when I took them out of the trash a small card fell out that read:
“From the bottom of my heart I appreciate you Amb. –Mr. 12 inches ;).
I had to remind myself to be patient with him. He was extremely young, a little bit sensitive, and hadn’t learned how to fully control his emotions quite yet.
I put the flowers in a clear glass vase filled with water, and sat it on the right hand corner of my desk next to some books I had lined up.
It was about 9pm and I was getting ready to leave to go home finally, but before I left, I wanted to find Aug and thank him for the kind gesture.
I walked down the hall to see the women’s washroom light on. I don’t know why he always cleaned that last, but he did.
His cleaning cart was in the hall, pushed against the wall. I knocked on the door that was ajar, and leaned on the side of it as I watched him wash his hands.
He looked over at me with a straight face, then back at his hands.
“I put the flowers you gave me on my desk. Their beautiful. Thank you.”
He shook his hands over the sink, then rubbed them on his black sweat pants. He gave me an angry look as he brushed pass me and walked into the hall.
“August.”
I looked at him as he bent down to adjust some toilet paper that had falling at the bottom of the cart.
“Stop giving me a hard time.”
He stood back up and rolled the cart midway down the hall to the janitorial closet.
He opened the closet and I leaned on the door, looking at him put materials from the cart onto the shelves.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
“I’m cool na.” He finally spoke.
“Aug.”
He continued to put materials from the cart onto the shelves, not even acknowledging my presence.
“I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”
“Talk. Now you can go. Please and thank you.” He was mocking what I had told him earlier.
I stepped all the way into the closet, closed the door and locked it.
“What are you doing?”
He finally looked over at me.
“We gonna stay in here until you talk to me.”
“Why you wanna talk na?”
He rested one arm on the stop shelf and the other at his side.
“Because I care about you August okay.”
“Tsk.” He waved me off.
“And I want to be there for you. But I can’t do that if you keep pushing me away with your attitude.”
“I don’t need nobody to be there for me. I’ve been alone 21 years. I can do 21 more.”
Finished unloading the materials, he tried to push pass me to get to the door.
“I’m not moving.” I softly pushed his hand away.
“Stop fucking with me Amber.” He tried to push pass me again, grabbing the door knob.
I removed his hand and scooted further in front of the door blocking him.
He gave me a straight face, and I rolled my neck playfully.
“What you gon do Ike? Hit me?” I gave my best Angela Bassett impression from the final scene of What’s Love Got to Do with it.
“Girl move.”
“No.”
“I’m tired and sleepy as hell. Move Amb.” He folded his arms, like that was gonna scare me.
I folded my arms and looked him up and down.
He sat in a fold up chair that was in the back of the closet facing the door.
“You crazy. You know that.” He grinned.
I walked over to him and stood in front of him. He looked up at me. “Now what did you want to talk about?”
His grin disappeared. “I just been going through it.”
He looked down at the floor and started playing with his hands.
“Like how?”
He looked towards the wall and I could see the tears welding up in his eyes. “Damn man. I said I wasn’t gonna do this shit.” He hit his knees in frustration that he was allowing himself to cry in front of me.
“August it’s okay. I’m not judging you.” I ran my hand through his hair to assure him of this.
“What’s going on?”
He rubbed his hands together and sniffed. “We getting evicted. I can’t work to make money for the rent and go to school. So I had to drop out. ”
He sniffled then wiped his nose. I saw his lip quiver and he just broke completely down. “This shit hard Amb. A nigga trying, but it ain’t never enough.”
I wrapped my arms around him and placed his head on my stomach.
“I’m lost Amb. I don’t know what to do. I can’t do this shit by myself. ” He wrapped his long tatted arms around my waist and the tears sunk into my blouse.
I rubbed his back and kissed the top of his head. I regretted that I didn’t see this sooner. He looked like such a helpless baby.
I rubbed his back one last time and told him to come with me. He followed behind me pulling up his pants and wiping his eyes.
When we got to my office, I went in purse, pulled out my check book and wrote him a check.
“Here.”
“Nah, I’m not accepting that.”
“August you need it.”
“I don’t care man. I’d work myself to death before I do that.”
“Would you just take it,” I shoved it at him.
He pushed my hands away.
I folded it and put it in his pants pocket.
“If it makes you feel any better you can pay it back on your dental salary.” I smiled.
He pulled it out to look at it.
“This is a thousand dollars. I’m only short $200.00.”
“Then that means you’ll be ahead for next month.”
He reluctantly took it. “I’m paying this back.”
“I’ll gladly accept it when you do.”
He hugged me tight then kissed my cheek. “From the bottom of my heart Amb, I appreciate this.”
“And make sure tomorrow morning you get re-enrolled. Don’t let me have to come down to the school.”
He smiled, “I am.”
“I’m sorry for not listening to you earlier.” I wiped his eyes and bent his forehead down to me and kissed it. “Next time don’t push me away just talk to me.”
“I will.” He kissed me one last time on my cheek and said thank you. He closed the door, and left out.
August was slowly melting my heart. I couldn’t stay mad at him if I tried. I sighed, got my things, and headed home.
August P.O.V.-
The next day I asked my supervisor for the day off, so I could get stuff straight with school. I told him everything that was going on and he was extremely understanding. He also said, it would be no problem for me to go back to working part-time.
He was an older black man, that was like a grand-father figure of sorts. He said he admired young black men who took advantage of the opportunities that were not afforded to him when he was younger, and would never be the cause of holding me back.
I went back home to chill, because I had class in the morning. When I opened the door I found Kay-Kay on the couch pouting with her arms folded.
“What’s wrong with you?” I laughed at how cute she looked mad.
“Chay-Chay and Noonie got to go over they friend’s house, but I couldn’t go.” She gave her mother, who was in the kitchen cooking, a mean look at stuck out her tongue.
“It was only for big girls.” Chandra said stirring what smelled like gumbo in a pot.
“I am a big girl!” Kay-Kay yelled.
“Who you raising your voice at little girl?” Chandra gave her the mama stare. You know that mama stare that stops you in your tracks real quick.
Kay-Kay huffed and stared at the wall.
“You want some ice cream Kay?” I held my hand out to her.
“Yes.” She grabbed my hand and jumped up and down on the couch.
“She hasn’t eaten yet Aug.” Chandra looked over at me.
“We’ll get something.”
“Why when I’m cooking?”
“Cha just let us go out.” I gave her an annoyed look.
She looked at Kay-Kay, then me.
“Fine.”
I got Kay and we went to the ice cream shop.
“What you want?”
“Uh….”. She stood on her tippy toes looking through the glass at the various ice-creams. “That one.”
“Let me get two waffle cones, with strawberry cheese cake ice-cream.”
“One or two scoops,” the latino man behind the counter asked.
“Kay you want one or two?”
“Two!” She exclaimed loudly.
I patted her on the head and smirked, “Two on both.”
The man fixed our ice-cream, I paid him and we found an empty table outside behind the shop. Kay sat on one side and I on the other.
“Is it good?” I asked her.
“Mm-hmm.” She smiled with ice-cream on her face.
“Wipe your face Kay.” I handed her a napkin.
I felt my phone vibrate. It was a text from Amber that read:
Didn’t see you today. Hope everything is alright.
I sent her a response:
Took the day off to re-enroll. I’ll c u 2morrow. Damn, I’m gone 1 day & u feenin’ 4 me like dat? imagine when I give u these 12 inches lol.
Amber:
Good-bye Aug. lol. See you tomorrow.
Aug:
Aight. Love you.
“Fuck.” I realized what I just did.
“Ooo-you cursed.” Kay-Kay kicked her feet back and forth.
“My bad.”
I didn’t know why I wrote the words Love you. It was clearly too early to be saying that shit. On top of that, we not even dating.
But the truth of the matter was that I did love her. The way she held me yesterday. The way she watched me cry and didn’t judge me. That was love.
If my mother never taught me anything, she taught me the meaning of love. And love was loving someone more than yourself. And at that moment, Amb loved me more than herself.
She didn't care that I had unneccesarily spazzed on her. No telling what expenses she had, but she went into her purse and gave me her on money. How many niggas gon do that? Most just say, they'll pray for you and keep it moving.
And whether she said it or not, I could feel she loved me. And I loved her back. A nigga just didn’t want her to know that I was that I was whipped this fast.
Butterflies filled my stomach due to my embarrassment. I turned my phone off not wanting to see her response. Now she probably think I’m some soft ass Drake type nigga.
“Why you curse Uncle Aug?” Kay-Kay took a big lick of her ice-cream.
I noticed that my ice-cream was melting all over the napkin. I picked it up and licked it, trying to catch the drippings on the side.
“I don’t know Kay. I’m sorry you had to hear that.” I reached across the table and rubbed the top of her head.
“Did your friend like the flowers we picked?”
“Yeah, yeah she did.”
“Did she like the butterfly? That was my favorite.” She got googly-eyed remembering it.
“Yup.” I wiped my sticky hands on a napkin.
“Is she your girlfriend?” Kay licked her fingers.
“Uh, naw.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t ask her.”
“Why?” She moved her head from side to side, like she was bopping along to a song.
“Scared she’ll say no.”
“Why would she say no when you bought her flowers?”
“Answer me this. Why am I always getting love advice from a 5 year old?”
She shrugged her shoulders. I laughed at how cute she was.
“You gotta take her on a date.”
“Where would you suggest Kay?”
“umm…a balloon.”
“Balloon?”
“Yup. The one’s that go high in the sky where you can see the whole world.” She emphasized how big the world was.
“Oh, the hot air balloons. Damn, I never thought of that. Where you get that from?”
“I saw it on Up! They went everywhere on a balloon.”
She was talking about the Disney movie, I bought her for her Birthday.
“I might have to hire you Kay. You keep coming up with these ideas.”
She giggled. A nigga is scared of heights, but it’s for Amb so I guess I’ll get over it.