A Special Relationship (22 page)

 
But it was a big deal to Robert.
 
He stopped walking abruptly, grabbed Carrie by the arm, and angrily swung her around to him.
 
“
Simms
?” he asked as if he couldn’t believe it.

 
Carrie was confused by his sudden reaction, and by the firmness with which he held her arm.
 
“Yes.
 
Why?”

 
“You’re joking, right?”

 
“Joking about what?”

 
“Carrie, Simms is a tit. . . .”
 
He exhaled.
 
“Carrie, Simms is a topless bar.”

 
Carrie’s heart dropped.
 
Topless?
“It’s a nightclub, or a multiplex as Dooney likes to call it.
 
And yes it serves cocktails and has some dancers there, my sister’s one of them, but I’ll be a waitress in the restaurant part.”

 
Robert frowned.
 
“The restaurant part?”

 
“Yes.
 
I’ll serve the food.”

 
Robert shook his head.
 
Why him, he wondered.
 
“Carrie, have you ever been inside a bar, excuse me, nightclub in your life?”

 
Carrie didn’t like his condescending tone at all.
 
She, in fact, removed her arm from his grasp.
 
“What difference does that make?” she asked him.

 
“It makes a great deal of difference, young lady, you can’t be that naive!”

 
Carrie looked at Robert and she didn’t get it.
 
Why would he be so upset with her about something that had nothing to do with him?
 
She was going to work at Simms, so what?
 
She never claimed it was a Jetson’s kind of place.
 
Although she’d never been to Simms, she was willing to bet it was probably a hole in the wall like every place Popena had anything to do with.
 
But for him to be so troubled by her decisions about her life was so baffling and uncalled for that it began to upset her too.
 
Just last night she thought Robert was an angel sent from Heaven, now she wasn’t sure who sent him.
 
He was too controlling for her, just like Dale Mosley was, just like Willie Charles tried to be, and she wasn’t having it anymore.
 
“Will you give me my purse, please?” she said as if the last thing she wanted to hear was any advice from him.

 
Robert sighed and opened the door of his truck for her.
 
The idea that she’d even consider working at a place like Simms was just something he couldn’t abide.
 
“I can put in a word for you here at Dyson,” he said as if he didn’t like the idea at all himself.

 
Carrie caught the dislike in his voice.
 
“No thanks,” she replied with certainty as she squeezed past him, reached into the truck, and pulled out her purse that she’d remembered placing on the passenger side floor.
 
She immediately began to search it, to make sure her paycheck hadn’t fallen out.
 

 
Robert managed a weak smile.
 
“It’s all there, I assure you,” he said.

 
Carrie, afraid that she’d offended him, quickly looked up ready to explain her actions.
 
But when she saw the smile on his face, a smile that could sooth a savage beast, she relaxed too.
 
“I just wanted to make sure nothing had fallen out.”

 
Robert nodded.
 
“Understood,” he said.

 
“And I really didn’t mean to bother you like this, Robert, I know you’re a very busy man.”
 
She extended her hand.
 
“Thank-you for everything.”

 
Robert looked dead into Carrie’s eyes as he placed his hand in hers.
 
“Will you at least consider my job offer?” he asked her.

 
“No, but thanks.”

 
“Why not, Carrie?”
         

 
“Because I can’t,” she said with a tinge of out of nowhere emotion.
 
“I just need to do this myself,” she said.

 
“You sure?” he asked as he rubbed his fingers across her knuckles, his eyes refusing to look away from hers.
 
He’d seduce her into reconsidering, if he had to.

 
She inhaled quickly when she felt the rub, a feeling so intense that she immediately attempted to remove her hand from his grasp.
 
But he tightened his hold on her and would not release her.
 
“I’m positive,” she said as she literally had to snatch her hand free of his.
   
          

 
“But Simms, Carrie?”

 
“Yes, Simms.
 
I’ll be just fine.”

 
“I doubt that.”

 
“Well I don’t,” Carrie said defensively, realizing that he really didn’t have a vote in this matter.
 
“I’d better get going.
 
Thank-you.”
 
She said this and began walking, hurrying, away from him.

 
Robert sighed as he watched her leave.
 
Somebody as sweet as Carrie Banks in this dog-eat-dog world, he thought.
 
And now she was taking that
who
me
, pathetic look of hers into Simms of all places.
 
Simms!
 
Who did she think was going to be hanging out in a place like that?
 
The Huxtables?
 
Or maybe George and Weezie Jefferson?
 
Didn’t she know that was the place where the lowest of the low frequented?
 
A place loaded with losers who fantasized nightly about getting their sweaty paws on a sweet, innocent thang like her?
 
He rubbed his forehead as a surge of pain shot across his chest.
 
Because he knew the deal.
 
Because he knew, as sure as he was standing in that tunnel of a parking lot, that somebody like Carrie, even with all of her desire for independence and self-determination, didn’t stand a chance.

FOURTEEN

They were already late when they came out of Mona’s apartment and headed down the stairs, and knowing the way the buses ran they were going to be even later, Mona commented.
 
“Thanks to you,” she added.

 
“Me?” Carrie said incredulously, walking quickly behind her.
 
“What did I do?”

 
“You woke me up late, don’t even try that.”

 
“You didn’t tell me to wake you up at all.
 
I only did it when it looked like you
wasn’t
going to get up on your own.”

 
“Yeah, whatever.
 
It’s still your fault.”

 
As soon as Mona said this, the downstairs door clanged opened and Willie Charles, dressed like a man looking for a good time, entered the building and was about to head up the stairs.
 
Until he saw the Banks sisters.
 
Until he saw Carrie.

 
Anger overtook Carrie at the mere sight of the man.
 
Mona, however, was overjoyed.

 
“What you doing out this way, Willie Charles?” Mona asked him, all smiles, knowing that he could very well be that ride to work they desperately needed.
 
She was dressed in a pair of skintight leopard pants, a halter top and heels, looking like the tramp Willie Charles always took her for.
 
Carrie, on the other hand, was dressed in a way Willie Charles had been imagining she’d dress all those nights he’d been dreaming about her.
 
She had on a pair of perfect-fitting jeans, an inside-tucked button down blouse, and loafers.
 
Looking like a green-eyed angel, he thought.

 
“I was coming to holler at yo’ lil’ butt,” he said to Mona.
 
“But I see you on your way out.”

 
“What’s up with you?” Mona asked.
 
“Just getting off work?”

 
“N’all,” Willie Charles said and looked at Carrie.
 
“N’all.”
 
Didn’t she hear the news, he wanted to ask.
 
That kid sister of hers had told Kincaid about their little incident and Kincaid got all over him.
 
Warned him that if he so much as glanced Carrie’s way again he’d live to regret it.
 
Like that white man was going to scare him.
 
But when Kincaid personally called
 
Myers, the brother who owned the cleaning company Willie Charles supervised, and told him that either he get rid of Willie Charles or lose his contract with Dyson, which was the largest contract Myers had,
 
Willie Charles was fired on the spot.
 
And was still unemployed.

 
“I thought you said you
wasn’t
working tonight,” he said to Mona.

 
“I wasn’t.
 
But
Dooney been
shorthanded all week.
 
Ain’t
no
off days right now.”

 
Willie Charles looked at Carrie.
 
Smiled that gap-tooth smile of his.
 
“Hello, Carrie.”

 
“Let’s go, Popena,” Carrie said as she ignored Willie Charles and moved past her sister on the stairs.
 

 
“Popena?”
Willie Charles asked.
 
“What’s a popena?”

 
“Forget it,” Mona replied.
 

 
“Where y’all headed?”

 
“Simms.”

 
“What, Mo, your sister working at Simms now too?”

 
“Maybe,” Mona said.
 
“What’s it to you?”

 
“Ain’t
nothing
to me.
 
I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
 
Disappointed too, although he’d never admit it publicly.
 
“I guess she ain’t as innocent as she was lettin’ on.”

 
Mona laughed.
 
“You got that right.
 
Now how about you give us a ride, buddy?
 
We already more
late
than CP time and you know Dooney.”

 
Willie Charles looked at Carrie again.
 
She was acting like some virgin around him, now she was heading to work at Simms?
 
He had pegged her wrong big time, he figured, but that was cool too.
 
That just meant his job was going to be easier than he had thought.
 
“Yeah, I can do that,” he said to Mona.
 
“I can give y’all a ride.”