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She laughed too, high fiving me, and shaking her head.
“I want to know all the details when we get back in the car,” she said.
For the rest of the fight, I sat with my legs crossed, and I found myself looking behind me every five minutes to see if Jabari was going to come back. Was I sweating this nigga? Nah, I was too fly for that.
Jashae Johnson
My boss was such a fuckin’ asshole. Everyone knew how important today was for me. My baby was playing in the championship game, and literally five minutes before it was time for me to clock out, this lonely, miserable bitch decides to have a mandatory staff meeting. I loved what I did, it paid well, I was doing something that I actually liked, but if I ever decided that I wasn’t going to come back here and work anymore, it was going to be because I had enough of this woman’ shit.
Her name was Ms. Hendrix, and I felt like her old ass didn’t like me. She rode me harder than any other employee. Her deciding that she wanted to have a meeting this evening felt like a personal attack on me. Of course, I wanted to be defiant and just leave, but that would give her the satisfaction of firing me since I knew that’s what she wanted to do, but she wouldn’t dare because she knew that I exceeded what I was supposed to do for the company.
I sat in a room with almost twenty of my coworkers at a long, rectangular table, with my legs crossed, tapping my pen on the notebook that was in front of me because I was so anxious to leave. The game was set to start in ten minutes, and I wasn’t there. I worked smack dab in the middle of downtown Miami, so the traffic was going to be ridiculous getting to my son’s school.
“Ms. Johnson, is there some other place that you would rather be? Your leg is constantly bouncing. I don’t know if you noticed it, but you’ve been tapping on that notebook with that pen for the past ten minutes, and you’re staring off into space, proving to me that you’re not listening to anything that I’m saying. Does this meeting not interest you?” Mrs. Hendrix, my boss, said.
She had to be in her mid-sixties. She was a beautiful, black woman, but her attitude and her over the top dominance made her so ugly. I must have fucked her man in another lifetime because she just tolerated me because she knew that there wasn’t another employee there that could do half of what I did for this company.
“Ms. Hendrix, to be very honest with you, there is someplace else that I would rather be. My baby boy is playing in his senior championship game this evening, and this meeting that you called at the last minute is stopping me from being there. This is the last time that I will get to see my boy play high school basketball in my life, so if tapping my leg, hitting my pen, and me staring off into space annoys you, I’m sorry, but this is how I’m trying to calm down my nerves,” I said.
She looked at me long and hard before she laid down the paper that was in her hands.
“We’ll continue this meeting tomorrow.
Good luck to your son,” she said, and I all but ran out of the meeting room.
I went over to my huge office, used my key to get in, and grabbed my purse. After I turned my desktop off and the lights and everything else in my office, I was out. Walking out of the building, I could see that the elevator doors were about to close, so I ran toward it and got on with the other eight people who were already on. They wore sour looks on their faces since I got on when there was hardly any space already for them.
My phone was inside my purse buzzing away, but I was too afraid to answer it. I know it had to have been either my son, Miami, Mahogany, my grandmother, or my dad, wanting to know where I was since they were all going to be there tonight for the game. The moment the elevator got to the first floor, I hightailed it through the parking garage, trying to make it to my car.
I didn’t even wait to put my seatbelt on before I backed out of the parking spot and drove like a bat out of hell through the garage. Once I was on the way, I finally pulled my phone out, and I had all kinds of text messages, missed calls, and even voicemails. Vonte had left me a voicemail, so I listened to that one first.
“Ma, where you at? You were supposed to be here almost twenty minutes ago. You know I can’t play my best without you in the stands. You supposed to be my good luck charm. Look, I don’t know where you at, but I also know that you wouldn’t miss this game for nothing in the world, so drive safe getting here, alright? I know you haven’t been the happiest with me these past few weeks, but I want you to know that I’m sorry. Ima play my hardest tonight, Ma. I’m doing this one for you. Next week, at signing day, I’m going to finally make my decision, and after that, I’m busting my ass through college and on that court, so I can finally get you to quit your job and live like the queen you are. I’m only saying all of this, just in case I don’t get to say it to you before the game starts. I love you, Ma. Drive safe.”
I smiled big listening to that voicemail. I had to have run three lights before I finally made it on the turnpike, and it was by the grace of God that I didn’t get pulled over.
Almost thirty minutes later, I was finally parking my car in the crowded parking lot of the school. I quickly removed the work blouse that I was wearing and put on the shirt that my son had custom made for me. It had his jersey number on the back, and the front read, Mama of player #3. I looked in the mirror of my car, making sure that I looked up to par, and once everything checked out, I hopped out. I paid the little five dollars to get in and, I was on my way.
In all the games that I’ve ever been to at this school, I’d never seen this many people. I looked at the shot clock, and it showed that they were now in the third quarter and the score was 53 to 45. We were losing, but it wasn’t that bad. I scanned the crowd again, and my eyes landed on Mahogany, who was waving for me to come. They were all sitting together, even Miami was with them. I knew he would be in attendance tonight because he’d been to the last couple of games that led up to the Championship.
Nothing had really changed with Miami and me. We were still good friends, and since he’s moved back to Miami, I will admit that I’ve been seeing more of him these days, and I wasn’t complaining about that. Trip had threatened me, and I knew that I should have stayed away from Miami, but I liked his company. I loved the idea of having a male figure around, but that was simply it. We didn’t have inappropriate conversations, there was no flirting going on when he came around, none of that. Half of the time when I saw him, the majority of our conversations involved Vonte or we were talking about his daughter.
“Let me guess, that asshole of a boss?” my grandmother asked, and all I could do was nod my head while rolling my eyes.
I let her know that I would tell her about it later. The moment I took my seat, my eyes went on my son. They were on a time out, and he mouthed to me, “What happened?”
I couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or what. I was my son’s biggest fan, also his biggest critic, so instead of answering his question, I just pointed to the shot clock, basically telling him to get those points up.
“I got you, Mama,” he mouthed.
I smiled while blowing him a kiss.
“He playing like he got a lot on his mind. Everything alright?” Miami asked.
Like always, he looked so handsome this evening. He was so in tune with the game that he wouldn’t even look at me when he spoke. This was the same way he was a couple of weeks ago when we went to the boxing match. I loved that serious, focused look that he had on his face whenever he was into something. The way he would flex his jaw muscles, even when he would place his hands together to clap, and the muscles in his arms would flex. Maybe I was being thirsty and just turned on by the simplest of things that he did, but I couldn’t help it; he was too fine.
“Yes. He’s fine” I said, keeping it short.
I didn’t want to go around telling people that my son had a baby on the way. Of course, my grandmother knew because she was there, my daddy knew, and Trip. I told Mahogany because I told her everything, and that was pretty much it. I scanned the stands, and my eyes landed on Taylor. She was sitting to the right of me, and I tried to see if there were any signs of a baby bump, but from the jersey that she wore with my son’s number, it was pretty hard to tell. My attention left Taylor, and I focused on the game.
