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“Alot.But what do they say about recovery? Admitting you have a problem is the first step? You’re on your way. Now you just gotta tell Jamal how much you have the hots for him and how he’s the one you want to let loose with. Let your freak flag fly, sister!”
“There will be no flying of any flags!”
“Not even a bra up the flagpole? You don’t know how to have a good time,” Aria said with a waggle of her eyebrows.
Cassie shook her head. “You are too much. Remind me again why I let you move in with me?”
“That one’s easy. You couldn’t pay the rent on your own.”
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“Dad! I need you, pronto!”
Jamal was sitting on the couch, watching highlights from last night’s game against Golden State. Steph Curry had played stellar, going back and forth with Jamal. If Jamal made a basket, Steph went down and drained one. If Jamal had an assist, Steph was looking to pass. But it washishighlight that made the ESPN Sports Center reel. Steph was guarding Jamal hard at the top of the key with thirty seconds to play. The shot clock ran down to ten seconds and Trevin set up a pick and roll option for Jamal, which he took. When Trevin rolled, Jamal dished, but when Trevin could see he didn’t have a shot, he threw a behind the back pass to Jamal, who slammed it in the hoop with authority just as the buzzer sounded. The Thunder won one fifteen to one thirteen.
“What is it, kid?” Jamal asked, not wanting to move from his perch on the couch.
“Seriously, dad? You’re still watching that play? Get over yourself already,” JJ grinned, stealing the remote off the couch and turning off the television.
“Says the girl who shares a play by play of games I sit in the stands and watch,” he replied, pulling his daughter onto his lap. “Now, what seems to be the trouble?”
“How do you know it’s trouble?”
“Cuz I hear it in your voice, kiddo. Have been hearing it since you were a newborn and wouldn’t shut up.”
JJ rolled her eyes. “Did you realize Halloween istomorrow?” she asked incredulously.
“Hadn’t put much thought into it, now that you mention it.”
“Well, IknowI brought the note home that says we’re having a Halloween carnival at school to raise money for cancer awareness. Do you remember this note? You had to sign it saying you would bring something to donate to our booth.”
“Vaguely,” he replied. “Doesn’t Irma have that taken care of?”
“Yes,” she said with another eye roll. “I don’t want you to cook, believe me. But the note also said that parents had to help with the booth. Parents. As in two.”
“Fine. I’ll go work the booth. They will probably take me without me signing up for anything.”
“No, that’s not it,” she said impatiently. “Did you miss the wholeparentsthing I just said?”
“JJ, I’m sure not everyone in your school has two parents who get along. A lot of them are probably single parents.”
“Yeah, but if you’re a single parent you get assigned to work with anyone! Remember what happened last year?”
Jamal thought back to JJ’s last Halloween. Every year, her school did this carnival for cancer awareness. Each class in the school was responsible for some sort of booth with a game the kids who attended the carnival could play. Last year, the school raised over eighteen thousand dollars for cancer research.
JJ’s class was assigned the fishing booth. Jamal spent four hours hiding behind a particle board wall, putting prizes on the clothes clip attached to a piece of string and a stick that the booth used as a ‘fishing pole.’
Finally putting two and two together, Jamal blanched. Last year, he was paired with the PTO president and he didn’t think it was accidental. Crystal McComb, divorcee of Tommy McComb, the man who owned the biggest car dealership in the entire metro area. Crystal was botoxed, lipo-ed, tummy tucked and tanned until she resembled the hot mess, chain-smoking, orange-skinned neighbor of Cameron Diaz’s on There’s Something About Mary. And she was looking for a man to be husband number four. Not only did he spend the entire night putting prizes on fishing poles, he also had to ward off all of Crystal’s not-so-subtle advances, one that even led to anaccidentaltouch of his ass as he was leaning over the booth table to get more prizes for his particle board pond.
“Tell me what I need to do, kid. I’ll do anything that doesn’t involve Ms. PTO trying to grope me.”
“What does grope mean again?”
“Nothing you need to know about til you’re twenty,” he said. “Now, did you fix this? Please tell me you took pity on your dad and fixed it.”
JJ patted him on the back. “Of course,” she said. “What kind of daughter would I be if I didn’t? A bad one, that’s what.”
Jamal looked at her expectantly. “So, you gonna tell me what you did or are you gonna make me wait on pins and needles before you divulge the secret plan to keep crazy mom away from me?”
