Dario

 

 

“What time am I meeting you at Suite 713?” Quinton asked from the other end of my phone.

“Of all the places to go, you pick there,” I said, shaking my head.

“Aye, you didn’t say where we could do drinks, you just said it was cool. Now you bitchin’ out?”

“Never that. Not at all.”

“Good, because I got a couple of chicks coming through . . . nice-looking ones, too.”

I didn’t know how I felt about going on Chanel’s turf and potentially having a woman up in my space, but I did tell Q that I’d hang out, so I was going to keep my word. Besides, Chanel had long moved on and as expected, I hadn’t heard from her.

“I’m hearing hesitation up on the other end of that there receiver, dude.”

“That’s your mind playin’ tricks on you, Bro. I’m good. What time did you wanna meet up?”

“I’m thinking about eleven, maybe a little before.”

“That’s cool. I’ll shoot you off a text when I’m headed your way.”

I got up off the oversized sofa chair in my California room and walked inside my bedroom. I really didn’t feel like getting drinks after the day I’d had. Kinda just wanted to chill, but it was probably a good thing that I was going. I couldn’t stop thinking about making love to Chanel earlier in the day, and then telling her about my conversation with Rai. If I knew her like I thought I did, then she was probably going to be holed up in the house trying to connect with her kid. If that woman didn’t care about anything else, she cared about Rai and that was one of the things that I really admired about her.

The connection that we had wasn’t just some fly by night connection; it was real chemistry. I swore that I wouldn’t ever chase after a woman, but she had me wanting to do just that and if I saw her tonight, I was going to do just that. I knew where she belonged and she did too. It was clear as day when we . . .

Interrupting my thoughts was a picture that flashed across my big screen. I grabbed the remote as quickly as I could and aimed it at the television to increase the volume.

 

“And in local news, retired Redskins tight end, Tyler Johnson, was arrested this afternoon. Police say that Johnson was arrested on charges of assaulting a minor. That minor, the son of rumored girlfriend, club owner, Chanel Norwood, is—”

 

From the time I snatched my keys, ran out my house, zipping in and out of traffic at high speeds on the freeway and ran inside Alta Bates, had to be some kind of record. I’m sure of it. I jetted into the first parking space I saw and sprinted inside the electric doors.

“I’m looking for a patient,” I stated anxiously to the security guard behind the desk.

“Name please?”

“Rai Norwood. R-a-i . . . N-o-rwood.”

He looked up at me once he had the information in front of him. “He’s in the ICU, which is located on the fourth floor of the Merritt Pavilion. The elevators—”

I was already gone by the time he was giving directions. I hopped on the elevator and the moment the doors closed, I was right there at the edge of the slit waiting for my exit. I looked up every so many seconds anxious to reach my floor. When the signal dinged and the doors slid open, I ran straight for the waiting room attached to the nurse’s station to gain permission to see Rai. As I approached, I saw a familiar face sitting near the window, and took the short detour.

“Excuse me, my name is Dario. You’re Chanel’s sister, right?” I asked the young woman.

“Yes . . . I am,” she responded, slowly giving me a curious look. “I’m Rochelle.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said.

“I’m Chanel’s mother, Denise,” the woman next to her said. Looking at both of them quickly revealed that they had been crying. Their eyes were puffy and bloodshot red, each holding tissue in their hands. Chanel’s mother had the worry of a hundred people etched across her beautiful face.

I looked around the room in search of Chanel. “Is Chanel here?” I asked, directing my question at them both.

“She’s here,” Denise responded, pointing in a direction past the nurse’s station. “She’s back there . . .”

Her voice cracked before she could finish, so her daughter stepped in to finish. “She’s back there with Rai. I’m sure she’d want you to wait for her, though.” The compassion in her voice surprised me for some reason. Maybe it was everything that Chanel had told me about her.

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I’ll be back. I need to go and speak with the nurses really fast.”