Nickel
Tuesday. Also known as Blue Ball Day.
Every Tuesday, I would come and visit my grandma, and every Tuesday, I would leave with a raging hard-on from seeing Karmen. I tried to get her to talk to me every time I saw her. I was starting to get desperate.
I had recently started bringing her shit from the bakery in town to try to entice her to sit with me, but she never took the bait.
Today was no different. After she had coolly let me down, I had walked out the front doors, deciding I was done trying to get her to go out with me. I had never worked so hard for a chick in my life. I still had some pride left, and she wasn’t going to strip me of that.
I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. As I was taking my first drag, my phone started ringing, and I dreaded answering it. I looked at the display and saw it was Pipe, my VP, calling.
“Yo,” I said, putting the phone to my ear.
“We need you to do a run tonight. Brinks had some shit come up and can’t make it.”
“Fuck no. I got shit to do this evening. I told Maniac I would help him with the fireworks for Shake the Lake tonight,” I spit out. I was so fucking sick of this bullshit. I seemed to be the only one who could fucking be counted on. You think I would get respect from these fuckers. Fuck no. Don’t even get me started on not wanting to go on these fucking runs.
The Weston chapter of the Fallen Lords had recently voted on taking on muling for a notorious drug lord. The vote had gone through eight to four. Three other brothers and I were the only ones to vote against it.
Except, since the vote happened, I had been the one doing most of the runs and taking most of the risk. This shit was getting real old quick.
“You go now, you’ll be back before fucking sundown.”
“You know I’m not down with this shit, Pipe,” I bit off. Pipe also voted against the muling, but with the vote going through, he had to be behind it now.
“I know, Nickel, but I got no one else to do it. You and Boink just need to drop a couple of things off and grab one thing, and you’ll be done for the night. Promise.”
“I better be back by fucking six, Pipe.”
“You will be, Nickel.” I ended the call and shoved the phone in my pocket. Gah, this was fucking bullshit! I paced the sidewalk, running my fingers through my hair, wondering how the hell shit had gone sideways so quickly in the club.
“Nickel!” I spun around and saw Karmen standing at the door of the nursing home.
“Yeah?”
“Um, I think you might have left your keys.” She looked around nervously, a set of keys dangling from her fingertips. Even in hospital scrubs, this chick drove me crazy.
I patted down my pockets, searching for my keys but didn’t feel them. They must have fallen out when I kissed Nan bye. “Yeah, babe, they’re mine.”
She glanced around again, deciding if it was safe to walk toward me. I should have been a gentleman and approached her, but I didn’t. I wanted to see if she would make a move. She looked like a scared little lamb, and I was the big, bad wolf who wanted to make a meal of her.
“Um, is everything okay?” she asked, taking a step toward me. “I heard you yelling into the phone before and didn’t want to interrupt you.”
I shook my head and laughed. “Nothing a six-pack won’t fix.”
“Oh, well, here’s your keys.” She held them out to me from five feet away and waited for me to grab them.
“You got plans tonight?” I was done chasing this chick. It was time to get straight to the point.
“Um…”
“You say that a lot, babe.”
“What?” she asked, confused.
“You say um a lot.”
“Oh, I guess I never noticed.” She stood there staring at me.
“Plans? You got any tonight?”
“Um.” She realized she said um again, blushed red, and her eyes darted down. “No plans.”
“You ever been to Shake the Lake?”
“Once, when I was seventeen. I didn’t get to see the fireworks, though.”
I reached out to grab my keys but grabbed her hand instead. “Come with me tonight,” I pleaded, our eyes locking.
She tried to jerk her hand out of my grasp, but I tightened my grip. “I can’t,” she insisted.
“Sure, you can. You just told me you don’t have plans.”
“Um, I forgot that I have to go to…um…badminton practice,” she stuttered.
“Badminton practice?”
I didn’t think she could blush anymore, but her cheeks turned a dark shade of red, and she nodded yes. “I felt that I needed to broaden my horizons and figured that would be a good place to start.”
“Well, how about you broaden your horizon with me tonight, and you can pick back up with your badminton practice next week.” Her eyes darted to the left, and I knew she was scrambling to find an excuse not to go. “Please,” I begged.
“Um, what time is it?” she asked hesitantly.
“Dusk. I need to help Maniac set things up, so you can either come with me and wait while I work or I can swing by after we’re done, and we can watch the fireworks together.” Holy shit, I think Karmen was actually going to say yes.
“I have to work in the morning, so I can’t be out all night.” She jerked her hand from mine and clasped both in front of her.
“I’ll have you home in time to slip into bed with a full night's rest.”
She just stared at me, her eyes uncertain. This was the moment of truth. Was Karmen going to give me the time of day?
**********