Just Make Him Beautiful (39 page)

“Good morning
,
suga,”
she
said, walking in
with full disguise on
.

I held the door open for her.
  “Good morning
,
Ms. Stewart
…
I mean, Momma,” I replied
,
giving her a hug.

Keith came down the stairs and caught us both off guard.
“Morning
,
Momma
.
”

“Good morning
,
young man
.”
Momma gave Keith a hug. “A
nd where is the
m
iss
u
s this fine morning?”

“She has classes early on Mondays, Wednesdays
,
and Fridays
.
S
he told you that, remember?”

“Oh that’s right
.
I tell
ya, my mind ain’t what it used ta be
,
but boy
,
can I cook. Now, what you young
’u
ns like ta have for breakfast?”

W
e headed out into the kitchen.

“Nothing for me
,
Momma
.
I don’t eat breakfast.
Besides, I have some errands to run. We hadn’t gone shopping for food or anything
,
but Cameron here can take you and get whatever you need, a’ight” Keith stated grabbing a
cup of coffee.

“Well
,
baby, don’t you know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?”

“I know
,
Momma
.
I’m just nev
er
up in time.
You t
w
o have fun,” Keith said as he walked out the kitchen.

“Whew
!
I didn’t think his stupid ass would ever leave
.
” Momma
sat
down at the table and pull
ed
her wig off.
“You know it’s kind of hard smiling in his face and shit after you told me what he did
to you.”

“I know
,
Momma
,
and I love you for it
.
B
ut
,
like you said, we got work to do
.
”
I put Momma’s wig back on her head.

“Look, don’t get cute. Now
,
where’s this safe?”
she
asked
,
standing up.

After checking the house and making sure that both Keith and Robin were gone, I took Momma into Keith’s office and opened the safe for her.

“Wow
,
baby
!” Momma said, looking at the s
tacks of hundred-dollar bills.
“W
e oughta take this
money
here and run
.
”

I took all the money out and placed it on the coffee table.
“I wonder how much it
is.
”

“Give me a few
,
and I’ll tell you.
In the meantime keep an eye out at the door, just in case.”

“I can do betta than that.
Check this out,” I said
,
pulling up
all the cameras around the area
,
including the one at the front gate
,
on Keith’s computer.

“Dayum
!
T
his muthafucka got it going on, huh
.
” Momma laugh
ed
as she
count
ed
Keith’s money.

“So he thinks.
”
I looked at all the c
ameras on the computer screen.
“
So, Momma, when do you wanna take the money and leave?”

“Hmmm
.
I don’t know. We might have to wait until the first of the month because this muthafucka here has records of all his
pickups
and drops.
”
Momma’s eyes grew bigger.
“
And according to his book here, on the first of next month
,
he should have over one million dollars in this safe
.”

“Wow
!
A
re you serious?”
A
lump
started
form
ing
in my throat.

“
Yeah
,
b
aby
.
Momma
doesn’t
joke when it comes to money. Ah, is there
any way
you can have Keith, Robin
,
and Junior here on the first of the month?” Momma
was
still looking through Keith’s account booklet.

“I can have Keith and Robin
,
but like I said, Keith makes sure that Junior and I don’t see one another. Why do you ask?”

“Baby, if we take his money, there’s no way
he
will let us just run away
with it
. He will come looking
,
and once he finds us, he will kill us,” Momma said in a serious tone.

“So
,
what are you saying
?”
I asked nervously.
“Y
ou wanna kill them?”

“We have to, not only for the money
,
baby, but for Ray as well,” she responded
,
looking me dead in the eyes.

“
Momma
,
I don’t know
…
I’m scared
.
” I
got
up and
started
pacing the floor.

“I know you’re scared
,
Cameron
.
A
nd please don’t take this the wrong way
,
but I need you to man up, al
l
right
.
”
S
he
put her hands on my shoulders.
“Now
,
listen to me
.
T
here is almost
two hundred fifty thousand dollars
lying
over there
on that table.
If we take it, he will surely come after us
,
but if we hold out and plan, we can get four times that amount and not have to worry about looking over our shoulders.”

“How we gonna do that
,
Momma?”

“Don’t worry about that
,
baby
.
J
ust have them here on the first
,
and I’ll take care of everything else. In the meantime, let’s put this money away, turn off that computer
,
and get out of here.”

My mom and I put everything back the way it was and headed out to the grocery store to pick up some food for the house. Once we got to the grocery, I
grabbed a cart and
started thinking back to whether or not my mother could actually cook
.

“So
,
Momma, can you cook?”
I asked
,
speeding up and walking
by
her down the frozen meat aisle.

“Hell
,
yes, I can cook. Actually, I’m
a very good cook
,
for your information
.”

“Hmmm
.
S
o
,
what’s for dinner
?
S
teak?” I grinn
ed
.

Momma put the cube beef steak in the cart.
“Smart
ass
.
”

“So, we meet again,” a familiar voice stated behind me.

I turned around.
“Oh
!
H
ey
,
Z
.
H
ow are you?”

“And who is this, baby?” Momma asked, smiling all in
Z
’s face.

“I’m sorry
.
Z
,
this is my
…
I mean
,
this is Ms. Stewart
.
Ms. Stewart
,
this is Zachary Davis
.
”

“It’s very nice to meet you
,
Mr. Davis
.
”
Momma
smil
ed
and
held
up the back of her hand to be kissed
.

Z
kissed Momma’s hand.
“The pleasure is all mine
,
Ms. Stewart
.
”

“Oh dear boy, no need to be formal
.
J
ust call me Annabelle,” Momma said
,
flirt
i
ng
.     

I cleared my throat.
“So
,
how you been
,
Z
?”

“I’ve been good. A little disappointed that you never returned my call,”
he
said,
looking me dead in the eye.

“Well, I guess I’ll
let
you young people talk
.
I got
a lot of groceries to get. It’s been real nice meeting you
,
Mr. Davis
,” Momma said as she walked away.

“
W
hy
did
you stand me up?”

“Umm, something came up
,
and I got busy. I was gonna call you
,
but I thought you would be upset
.
” I bit my bottom lip.

“You got busy and you were gonna call
,
but you thought I would be upset
.
O
kay,” he
said,
disappointment in his eyes.

“
Z
, you’re a really nice guy
,
and I like you a lot
,
but there are things going on in my life right now that I really don’t wanna get into, okay
.
Now, once this is over, I will call you
,
I promise,” I said in a genuine tone.

“Yo
,
man, it’s cool. If you ain’t feeling me like that, why can’t you just say so?”

“Because I
’m
feeling you
.
I just can’t do anything about it right now.
Please believe me
.
I will call you
.
” I walk
ed
away from him.

*

Momma and I had gotten all the groceries we needed to last us for the entire week.
As we got into the car, of course
,
she wanted to know the story behind Mr. Davis
.
I explained to her that he was the guy I had had a date with
on Saturday evening
,
and when I
’d
returned home, Keith slapped me a few times because he thought I was cheating on him.

Momma then got qui
e
t
.

I looked over at her and could see in her eyes that she was getting upset about Keith hitting on me.

“It’s okay
,
Momma,” I said
,
rubbing her hands.

“No
,
baby, it’s not okay.
A man ain’t
supposed
to put his hands on you
,
period.”

“I know, but I just don’t like seeing you getting upset,” I stated softly.

“He will pay
.
Y
ou can believe that
,
or my name ain’t Ms. Annabelle Stewart!”
S
he fold
ed
her arms around her chest.