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“In a few short weeks,” Chelsea answered.
“May tenth,” Tanya shared over her sister.
Jas shook his head. “Nah, Chels. ‘S’all good. You know I ‘on’t need all that. We good.”
I continued to shoot bricks Jas’ way.May tenth?That was less than two weeks away! I had no idea he had a birthday coming.Shit. We still didn’t know each other. When his eyes slowly landed my way, I knew he could feel the heat emanating from me. We both knew he would have never told me. It was the kind of stupid shit Jas did to me all the time.
She shook her head. “No, we’re not. I told you guys we would be better as a family and that means celebrating each other’s birthdays and other special occasions. Now,” she exhaled, “any suggestions for how we can celebrate thebig homie?” she emphasized the way I’d noticed some here referenced Jas, only Chelsea’s diction wasn’t authentic, which was odd because she definitely had the Harlem accent. “Any?” she urged, looking as foreign amongst this group as I actually was.
“Jug, my nigga,” Jonathan proposed. “what O.G. be into?”
Juggy scoffed. “Shiiiiit. Working, praying, winning. That’s all a nigga do.” The room laughed. “He ‘on’t need none of y’all asses to do them three things.”
“Yo, Shi-Shi,” B-Sure tossed his chin over to me. “What you construction people like to do after clocking out?”
The small room got quiet in anticipation of my answer. I hated how jealous I felt in the moment. How could I not know this pertinent information about him? This.Thiswas what frustrated me about his enigma. At first, it was cute. Now, it had turned categorically rude. Nonetheless, right here and right now was not the time to express that. I needed to swallow back my feelings and spread over his mishap, smoothly like butter.
“Ummm…” I used the tip of my thumbnail to scratch my nose. “I’m really glad you guys are bringing this up while I’m here. A few of our peers in building have been planning a trip to celebrate.” What the fuck was I saying? I had no idea of the words coming from my brain until after they’d left my mouth.
“Where?” Tanya demanded, expression tight.
My smile was tighter and I could feel the heat shooting my way from where Jas stood. I didn’t care. “I suggested the Caribbean.” The verbal and facial reactions in the room were priceless. “It’s not too far or particularlyexpensive—”
“How much?” a female cousin, whose name I could not recall, asked, jaws popping gum sharply around the room.
Leave it to Black people to lead their interest with that question. And leave it to my silly ass to have no answer prepared.
“Well,” I kicked my feet out, killing time. “That’s where we left the conversation off the other day. We know May tenth is quickly approaching and that we’re late on the planning. I told them about my best friend, Shizu, who is a travel agent. I can check in with her for great rates for hotels and flights. If anyone can work a miracle, Shizu can.” I winked. “She did a dirty thirty destination party for something like five hundred per person. That included flights and an all-inclusive four-star resort.”
“All in what?” Tiny asked, face screwed.
Tanya rolled her eyes, smiling. “It mean food and drinks included.”
“That’s what’s up! I ain’t spend all my tax refund!Owwww!” she pushed out her pierced tongue, splattered with dots all over.
A few of the guys, including Jonathan, grabbed their crotches, declaring their participation.
“That’s cool, Shi-Shi! Okay?!” Chelsea snapped her fingers and whipped her neck. “Seems like a few people are down. So, I’m going to wait until you get back to me with numbers and I’ll share it in our cousins text thread.” She turned to the others, which gave me the opportunity to steal a glance at Jas. He stood expressionless and left out of the conversation. His eyes were empty until they rolled across the room. I followed his line of vision over to Juggy. With a crooked grin, his inspection left Jas and landed on me. Juggy let out a silent snort and dropped his head. “Now, keep in mind, his big day falls on a Monday. If you can’t get off, oh well.”
Chelsea continued with her announcements and the room was clearing just after. Jas remained with the stragglers, diving for food.
He sidled up next to me. “What’re you doing, Witherspoon?”
“About to plan a birthday celebration for my jailhouse boo.”
“Oh, word?”
I was sure I sounded just as corny as Chelsea earlier with the ‘big homie’ comment when I pivoted, grabbing my purse from the counter and answered, “Word. Maybe this is where I should be more often, learning basic information about the convicted felon who breaks his bed on my ass.” Then I began out of the kitchen, I had to beat the Saturday traffic back to Jersey.
“Witherspoon,” he hummed, not pressed, but pressed.
“By the way,” I turned back to face him. “September thirteenth. That’s when this ass was born.”
Then I strutted out, leaving him to his Harlemite family.
When she answered theFaceTime, I was kind of relieved to see she wasn’t still at the dance studio. The video showed an upward view of her, face illuminated by streetlights in the dark of her commute.
“You alone?”
