Chapter Nine
“So this guy that is doing your recording, his name is Anthony right? Does he have like tattoos along his arm and up his neck?” Charles had been interrogating me since I came over to his and Simon’s house. When I told him about the fact that I was doing my demo tape with Anthony, he couldn’t believe that I was doing it with him. “You know you are one lucky girl.”
“Lucky how?” I continued eating on the steak that Simon had grilled which was so amazing.
“Anthony Stone is probably one of the hottest pieces of prime real estate in town. He’s not only artistic as far as being a musician and is part of his own band but he’s fine as fuck girl.”
“Do you let him talk like this at the dinner table?” I joked with Simon who could only smile throughout this conversation.
“Well, tell her hon, I’m telling the truth here.”
“Charles is right,” Simon chimed in. “We went over to Terry’s Bar and Grill like a few months back. They usually have a live band during the weekend and his band was playing that Saturday night. It seemed like every single girl in town was there that night. All of them dancing in their skimpy outfits, screaming when he was playing his solos, which he did about two of them and he was looking real good in those jeans.”
“Good? Hell, the man was on fire in those jeans.”
I had to laugh but he was right. Anthony could really make a pair of jeans look so good.
“So, have you had the chance to get with him yet?” Charles asked.
“I swear, Lil’ Pud, you are worse than Sara!”
“Great minds think alike you know, besides when was the last time you got you some?”
“Do you let him talk like this Simon? Seriously, the man needs a bar of soap for how dirty his mouth and mind is right now. I know he told me that he was in band and all and yes, he does look hot in those jeans he wears along with those shirts. I’m with the guy for hours on end. So yeah, it’s very hard to not think up naughty things when you have a guy like that around you.”
“So you have been checking him out then?” Simon smiled.
“Hell yeah, I have. It’s not that hard not to check his ass out. Do you know Aunt Reva called me right in the middle of our session?”
“No way.” Charles laughed.
“She wanted me to take her to the store and when Anthony found out I was going he wanted to go along with me. I tried to talk him out of it but he didn’t see the harm in going. I think I said every single prayer I could think of when we got to her house, when we got to the store and when I was trying to get him out of the line of fire when we went to the deli.”
“No! Not the deli.” Simon chuckled.
“She thought that we were fucking. She asked me whether or not we were because my phone was in the room where he was. She even asked him whether or not we were sleeping together and when he said we weren’t, she asked him why not and was it because I was black. He told her he had been out with many black women before but that our relationship was strictly a business one.”
“So…” Simon got up, grabbing my plate along with his own. “How long do you think you guys will be knocking the boots?”
“Knocking the—do you know how so nineties that sounds? I swear you two were made for each other. Both of you have the dirtiest minds next to my own.”
“Peas in a pod are we. Now I hope you saved some room for dessert because I know you will enjoy it.”
When Simon left the room, Charles came over and sat right next to me, completely invading my personal space. “So are you going to ask him out for drinks?”
I looked at him as if he were crazy but honestly, I had thought about asking him for drinks afterwards. “I don't know.”
“Just ask him, ‘why don’t we go for some drinks?’ There is no harm in asking.”
He was right, there was no harm in asking him out for drinks, plus we would get the chance to talk a bit more. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
“Good girl, then when you guys do get the chance to knock the boots then you can clue all of us in on how good it was.”
“Oh my God, really man!”
We both ended up laughing as Simon came in with a platter with plates and an oval dish with something warm and delicious. “That looks delish, what do you have for me tonight?”
“Found this recipe online and I had to try it. Lady and Gentleman, I present to you Caramel Croissant Pudding with French Vanilla Ice Cream.”
I have to admit that Simon as always did up dinner so good but desserts were his thing. Once he served me up a plate, which of course, he made sure everything on it looked as if I was being served from some high end restaurant. When he presented it to me, it was way too pretty to eat. I ended up taking a pic of it before I even put my spoon into it.
“Don’t tell me you are one of those that take pictures of your food?” Charles joked.
I looked at him and chortled. “Remember when you both invited me to New York Simon, and a certain person at this particular table took so many pictures that said person’s phone ended up completely dying. Also remember when said person almost had a hissy fit because said person’s phone went kaput.”
Simon fell over sideways laughing as I smirked at a pretty much disgruntled Charles.
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, just shut up.”
“You walked all up into that one!” I laughed as I took a heaping spoonful of the dessert and I immediately fell in love with it. “Oh my God, you have really outdone yourself as always Simon. This is beyond delicious.”
“Well, I had just enough to make two so that way you can take some home for later.”
“You are a gem as always.” I continued eating while the lively conversation continued on throughout the night.
When I got home, put up my dessert, I grabbed my phone to check and see if I had any messages and of course, I had three.
All of which were from Aunt Reva.
“Hey there, I want you to come over to my place right now, I need your help.”
That was message one.
“Girl, where the hell is you? I tried calling your cell and you don’t even bother to pick up your phone. Did you die or something or are you avoiding me like everyone else is?”
That was message two.
“If you don’t call me within the next fifteen minutes, I will bring my ass down to your place.”
Yes, this was message three.
Looking at the clock, I realized that this call was only about five minutes ago so thank God, I had some time to call her up.
“I thought your ass was dead or something,” she said when she answered the phone.
“I’m sorry Aunt Reva. I was over at Charles and Simon’s place having dinner. My cell was probably on vibrate at the bottom of my bag.” I lied because I knew I had my phone with me all along even though it was on vibrate.
“The devil is a lie and her name is Melanie.”
I knew she was gonna say this too. I rolled my eyes.
“Listen girl, I need you over here tomorrow because I need your help with moving some stuff.”
“But Aunt Reva, how am I going to be able to do that when I have to work tomorrow as well as do some of the other things that I haven’t had the chance to do.”
“Fine, if you want to be that way, then fine.”
Lord, here she goes with the guilt trip that she always loved to play on me. “Listen, what all do you need for me to help you move?”
“Just some boxes from the attic that I need for you to bring down for me.”
I cringed when she said this because my family knew that I had always harbored a deathly fear of attics and basements. “Auntie you know I don’t go into attics right?”
“Well, now it’s time for you to face your fears.”
I moaned and grumbled but she stopped me in my tracks, “Now stop that moaning and crap, girl. You are way too old to be acting like some baby, so when do you get off work?”
“Not until three.”
“Well, bring your ass over here at three forty five.” She hung up leaving me with a feeling of slow dread growing in my stomach.
Tomorrow was going to be a long ass day.