When All Hell Breaks Loose (24 page)

There’s a tap on my shoulder. It’s Carla. I look past her and notice Tim is gone from the kitchen table.

“Where’s Adrian?” she asks.

“In the back, lying down.”

“Is she okay? Is she sick?”

“No. She just got a little emotional from the scene with my parents, is all.”

Carla shakes her head. “That was so beautiful. I wanted to tell you that,” she croons. “A Boston grand is nothing to take lightly. Your mother really loves your father, that’s for sure.”

“For real, those things cost an arm and a leg,” B.J. adds. He looks at Carla and smiles.

Carla smiles cordially at B.J. and looks back at me.

“I’m about to leave, so let me go tell Adrian.” Carla hugs me and walks down the hall.

“Man, she’s fine,” B.J. says. He’s staring down the hall at Carla. “Where’d you find her?”

“She’s Adrian’s maid of honor. They know each other from way back. Back when Adrian was in hair school.”

Tim comes over. He has his jacket in his hand. “Say man, I’m about to be out.”

“You not staying for the New Year’s countdown?” Bennie Junior asks.

“Naw, home slice. I’m sleepy and I have to catch a plane in the morning to go see my mom in Austin.”

“Well, all right, cool breeze.” We grip each other. I excuse myself from Bennie Junior to walk Tim to the door.

“You sure you and Carla Perrone aren’t going home together?” I whisper with a grin.

Tim looks at me and smiles. “Actually, she’s coming over for a drink, but I’m not interested in her like that. It’s something different about this sister. She’s like a homegirl. Somebody you’ve known since birth.”

“Yeah right,” I joke. “A fetus friend.”

“Seriously. I would be surprised my damn self if I end up boning her tonight.”

“Well, you two be careful driving to your house. And watch out for these crazies, there are a lot of drunk drivers out tonight.”

“All right. Hey, kiss Adrian for me and tell her I said happy New Year.”

Carla comes down the hall with her coat and scarf. Judging from her crimson face, she’s upset.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, I had trouble finding my coat.” She smiles. “It fell on the other side of the bed on the floor. I couldn’t find it at first. I paid a lot of money for it to be losing it, you know.”

“Sorry about the trouble,” I say to her.

Tim breaks the silence. “I’ll call you when I get back from Austin, man.” He daps me again and follows Carla out the door.

Inside, the music has been turned back on and everybody has a soul train line going. I join in the fun until it’s time to do the countdown. Mom and Pops grab wineglasses and noisemakers and begin passing them around. I head to the back to get Adrian. She’s sitting up when I open the door.

“You feeling any better?”

“Not really. Are they getting ready to do the countdown?”

“Yeah, you coming?”

She stands up and slides on her shoes. “Did Carla leave?” she asks.

“Yes,” I say proudly. “She left with Tim.”

Adrian shoots me a quick uncomfortable look. “How could you let her leave with Tim? Greg, I told you …”

“They’re just bonding before the wedding.” I’m grinning, but I can tell Adrian doesn’t see the humor in my joke.

“Greg, that’s not funny. Tim could fall in love with her, and she’s not prepared for that. Don’t you get it? Tim could really get his feelings hurt. Carla could, too. I don’t have time to be dealing with a maid of honor going through emotional distress over a man at my wedding.”

I walk in and pull her against me. She allows me to hold her, but I can tell she’s not into the mood of the evening. “Adrian, what’s the matter? I didn’t think there was any harm in introducing Carla to Tim, baby.”

“I know.” She sighs. “It’s just that Carla is important to me. We’re close. Tim is important to me, too. I don’t want either of them hurt.”

“Well, I’ll tell Tim to leave her alone if that’s what you want.”

“Good.” Adrian releases herself from my grip and grabs my hand. “I’d really appreciate that.” She pulls me down the hallway and into the living room. Her mood goes from solemn to happy in a matter of seconds. The countdown has already begun. All the guests are surrounding the piano with glasses held high. Pops is in the middle, looking at his watch.

“SEVEN!… SIX!… FIVE!… FOUR!… THREE!… TWO!… ONE! HAPPY NEW YEARRRRR!!!!”

Everybody begins hugging each other and toasting each other, clinking their glasses together. Uncle Bennie starts in a drunk chorus of “Auld Lang Syne.” I’m smiling at everyone, but I’m feeling confused. I didn’t think Adrian would take my suggestion literally. I can’t believe she actually wants me to tell Tim to stop seeing Carla. They aren’t even romantically involved. They just met each other, and it seems harmless.

Adrian grabs my waist and looks at me. “Well, aren’t you going to kiss me and wish me a happy new year?”

I look at her. She’s holding me close and staring into my eyes. “Happy New Year,” I say dryly as I lean in and peck her lips.

As I pull back she grabs my head and kisses me passionately. She presses her breast against me and I can tell she wants to get busy. Adrian has this sly way of rubbing her hard nipples against my torso when she’s horny. “Now I’m ready to go home,” she whispers. She licks her lips, and I know what that means.

As soon as everyone stops singing, I go get our coats. Several other guests are leaving, so I don’t feel bad.

Jamal and Freedom, and Aretha and her date agree to hang around and help my parents clean up. Adrian bids everyone good-bye and we head to the car. She strokes me all the way home and I can barely get out of the car when we pull up in her parking lot. I have a hard-on and Willie is bulging against my lower torso. I carry her into the apartment and up the stairs. Before I can get her in the bed good, we go at it. Needless to say, the buttons on my shirt all get snapped off and the lamp next to her bed gets cracked when Adrian’s foot knocks it off the stand. By the next morning, I don’t have a problem calling
Tim and asking him to leave Carla alone. When he gets back from his trip, that will be the first thing on my agenda.

Adrian and I spent the rest of New Year’s Day butt naked in the bed, like Adam and Eve. Adrian is some kind of woman and I can’t believe I was actually on the verge of being mad at her. If I’m lucky, Tim and Carla will have fallen out on their own before I get a chance to talk to him.

I
go to pick Tim up at Love Field airport. He’s all smiles when he gets off the plane and walks into the terminal. He looks well rested and ready to get back into the swing of things.

“How was Austin?” I ask as we grip, do a brother hug, and head to the baggage claim.

“Man, it was all that! Moms made homemade everything! She sent you back two pies, half a carrot cake, and a peach cobbler.”

“I’ll have to call her and tell her thanks. What else did you do?”

“To be honest, the entire time I was there, I thought about Carla. We even talked a few times. I gave her the number before I left.”

I clear my throat. Tim admitting that he’s been thinking about a woman is heavy stuff. I can’t remember the last time he even talked about thinking about a woman seriously. This may be a good sign. “She’s definitely all that,” he continues. “We have a lot in common and I have a good time when I talk to her.”

“What did you two end up doing New Year’s after you left my parents’ house?”

“Nothing really. We sat at my place, drank wine, and talked about
everything under the sun. We made omelettes together and did more talking. As a matter of fact, she slept in my bed and I slept on the couch.”

“The couch? Tim, you know that is unlike you, man.”

“Surprised me too. I hadn’t slept on a couch since college.” He laughs. “But it’s the truth. She slept in one of my T-shirts, in my bed.”

“So she was the one who brought you to the airport?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you thinking about seeing her on a more consistent basis?”

“Right now, Carla and I are just enjoying ourselves. I don’t feel pressure to perform with her. I can be Tim Johnson without all the materialistic things.…”

Tim is really tripping. I’ve never seen him like this before. Normally, he would be bragging about how he had Carla climbing the walls, begging for more of his turbo-engine sex injector. He would be talking about how she slid out of her panties and became his love slave for several hours. This is unlike him to be talking about a woman the way he’s talking about Carla. In a respectful way! It’s like talking to Will Smith about Jada Pinkett, almost revolting and intriguing at the same time.

I don’t know what to do. Adrian made me promise a second time to tell Tim to stop seeing Carla. Of course, she was on top of me butt naked at the time. But now, I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. Tim looks happy and it’s good to hear him talk about a woman in this fashion.

The last time Tim talked about a woman like he talks about Carla was two years ago, with a woman named Nedra Rollins. She was a loan officer at a mortgage company. Tim met her at the mall and he swore up and down she was the one. I thought she was, too. She was nice, good-hearted, had no children, was career-oriented, and had a body that just wouldn’t say no. Tim did everything he could to make her happy, and she seemed receptive—until she went on vacation to Kansas and never returned. No letter, no phone call … nothing. Six months later, she appeared in
Hustler
magazine as “The Tantalizing Texas Tornado.” Ass out. Tim was crushed, but he hid his feelings
and embarrassment so deep that now he swears on his father’s grave that he never dated a woman named Nedra Rollins.

“We’re supposed to go to a concert Valentine’s weekend,” he says.

I snap out of my daze. “What concert?”

“D’Angelo, Maxwell, Dionne Farris, and Lauryn Hill are doing a Love Thang tour.”

“Damn, that’s a tight-ass line-up. I didn’t know they were coming to Dallas.”

Tim laughs. “They’re not coming to Dallas—the concert is in Baltimore, on the thirteenth of February. She has some friends there, so we’re flying up.”

“Tim, you don’t do things like that with anybody.”

He picks up his bag from the conveyor belt and we head to the airport exit. “Carla isn’t just anybody. She’s a good woman friend to have. I ain’t trying to marry her, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Shit, you might as well be.”

“Uh-uhn dawg. This player will never be tied down.”

“You keep on, your ass is going to be cemented down.”

We both laugh.

“So, how’s everything going with the wedding?”

“Cool. Everyone has been paid except the priestess, the caterer, and the photographer.”

“Adrian is really on her stuff, then.”

“Yeah. She has an amazing business sense. She’s also doing a damn good job on the house. Looks like some really rich people will be living there.”

“Man, with your combined incomes, you’ll be living like Babyface and Tracy Edmonds.” Tim laughs.

“Shit, more like Florida and James Evans, with the way Adrian spends money.”

We both crack up.

Tim looks over at me. “Did I ever tell you that Adrian is a good woman? I admire her. She’s … she’s classic. You’ve got a good woman, Greg.”

“Thanks man.”

We load the car and head back to Tim’s place. When he arrives,
there’s an envelope nestled between the door and the jamb. He takes it out and opens it up. It’s a card with a dinner reservation on it.

“This is Carla, I bet.” He smiles.

“Where are the reservations?”

“At Brother Soul’s.”

“That’s the new soul-food place on Northwest Highway. I read in the paper it’s expensive. The cheapest plate was seventeen dollars.”

“Yeah, this is Carla,” he says, looking at the handwriting.

“So you’re going?”

“I can’t wait to see her. This will be the perfect meeting place. Carla has class. I like that in a woman.”

I help Tim carry his luggage in. I don’t linger, because his dinner date is tonight and I’m sure he needs to get ready. Tim usually takes about an hour and a half on the average to get ready for any date or event.

One time, I made the mistake of coming to his place before we went to a Mavericks game. Tip-off was at eight. It was six-twenty when I made it to Tim’s. I was trying to beat traffic. When Tim opened his door, he had a toothbrush in his mouth, but he wasn’t dressed. It was cool because I figured he’d take twenty minutes, tops. Then I heard him go to the back and turn on the shower.

“Tim man, what are you doing?” I yelled from the couch.

Tim came into the den with a towel in his hand. “I got to take a shower,” he said.

“Well hurry up, man.”

“Let me shave and as soon as I finish, I’ll hop in the shower. It’ll only take a few minutes,” he assured me.

Needless to say, by the time Cinderfella was ready, it was seven-forty and we still had thirty minutes of traffic to sit through. I was pissed the entire time. On top of that, the Mavericks lost to the sorry Minnesota Timberwolves. But that’s Pretty Boy Tim for you.

At any rate, I give him dap and head out. I’ve decided not say anything to Adrian. Hopefully, she will assume that I told Tim to stop seeing Carla. I don’t understand what the big deal is, anyway. I know Adrian and Carla are friends, but Carla is a grown woman and I don’t see why she needs Adrian to watch over her. As a matter of fact, Carla
seems more assertive than my girl. She can handle Tim, and she doesn’t seem like the type to let any man treat her like shit. She has a tough interior surrounded by a fire that has a certain sex appeal. There are a lot of women in Dallas who could learn from her. Especially my sister. Speaking of which, I need to stop by Shreese’s house and pick up the draft of the program for the wedding.

My sister is a design layout executive for one of the largest advertising firms in the United States. The company has a small branch in Dallas. She’s the main reason Jamal has gotten so many of his graphics in different commercials and print ads. She selects the artwork for every campaign that comes through the door.

Shreese was an art history major at the University of Texas at Austin. She’s smart. Way smarter than her big brother. She was on the dean’s list every year, she was in
Who’s Who in American Universities
, and she won the Dallas Museum of Art academic achievement award two years in a row. She has a lot of book sense, but no common sense whatsoever. None. All she did was go to church and study. She has a gift for painting. She even sold three pieces when she was in high school. One of the pieces hangs in the black arts building downtown. She designed the program for the wedding, and I need to go pick it up.