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“Darius is my nephew. I know Eddie from way back. That boy nailed every piece o’ booty that moved. Made Lee Nightingale look like a choirboy. Eddie sent his mother into despair. Think they wrote to the Pope claimin’ it was a miracle when he became a cop. Still, even after he got the badge, he fucked everything that breathed, no coffeemakers insight. Jet, girl, you are the shit!”
Daisy leaned back and tucked her denim, platform boots under her skinny ass, preparing to stay awhile. I realized immediately I should have come alone but I was thankful I hadn’t shared about the toaster.
“She thinks she’s boring and out of his league,” Daisy threw in.
I shot her a killing look.
She let out a tinkly-bell laugh.
Shirleen matched it with another burst of hilarity.
I sat back, put my iced tea on a coaster, crossed my arms and legs, one foot bouncing with angry impatience and pulled out The Glare.
“I don’t know what’s so fucking funny,” I said to them, and maybe it wasn’t worth the F-word and maybe I shouldn’t have confronted the likes of Daisy and Shirleen with the F-word, but I was feeling a bit ticked off. “You’ll see. When this is all over, he’ll be gone like a shot.”
They took no notice of the F-word or my attitude. They burst into gales of laughter and if they’d started rolling around the floor giggling, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
When they got control of themselves, Shirleen held out her hand to one of the hangers-on and snapped her fingers. “Get me the phone, Wanda. I gotta call Dorothea. This shit’s too good not to share.”
Wonderful.
“Dorothea?” Daisy asked, carefully wiping away a tear of humor so as not to smudge her mascara.
Wanda handed Shirleen the phone.
“Darius’s mother. She’s gonnalovethis.” Shirleen’s eyes came to me while she punched buttons with her thumb. “What brand of coffeemaker was it, girl?”
I looked at the TV set.
“KitchenAid,” I muttered.
“Oowee! No silly-ass Mr. Coffee for Eddie Chavez. When that boy does somethin’ he goes whole hog,” Shirleen hooted, putting the phone to her ear. “Dorothea? You arenotgonna believe this!”
Daisy giggled and I clenched my teeth.
My life sucked.
TWENTY-THREE
GRAY
Ilistened to Shirleen tell Darius’s mother about the coffeemaker, clearly both of them appreciating the story a lot more than I ever would.
Then we watchedDays of Our Lives.
Then Dorothea came over.
She was pretty, soft-spoken with eyes that went bright when she met me then settled into what I suspected was a permanent sadness that she tried to hide, but it didn’t work too well.
She wasn’t what I would expect a drug dealer’s mother would look like. She looked normal and kind, a lot like Darius looked when he wasn’t being scary.
We left, with Dorothea making me promise to tell everyone she said hello and Shirleen making me promise to come back and watchDays of Our Liveswith her and to keep her informed of any new kitchen appliances Eddie and I bought together.
Darius was long gone.
Matt was looking like he was going to ask for a raise.
Daisy took off the minute we got to Fortnum’s and I found out from Indy that Mom, Tex and Lottie were at our place for Mom’s PT, then they were going to hit the El Camino to cruise neighborhoods looking at apartments.
