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To my surprise, Saundra was on the phone one night when I got home from work. I waved at her and she responded by blowing me a kiss.
She kept running her mouth as I threw my coat on a chair and hunted around among all the strange items in my refrigerator in the hopes of finding one normal beer.
“You finished the collection! Twenty-five poems that you’re satisfied with?” she asked into the receiver. “I’m so incredibly happy for you! Oh, you’re giving me way too much credit. Encouragement is one thing but you did all the work. Yes, I’d love to read them. Well, I’m living here with my sister now. As a matter of fact, she just walked in.” She waved me toward the phone. “Well, it was nice talking to you.”
“Who is it?” I whispered.
“Derrick. He said you left a message on his machine.”
“Whatever,” I said, angry that it had taken him weeks to return my call.
“Asha, how are you?” His voice sounded lazy, like he had just smoked a joint.
“Wonderful,” I made my voice sound light and devil-may-care.
“Sorry it took me so long to get back at you but I’ve been focused on a project. Just wrapped it up last night.”
He was cute, sexy and had a tight ass but my life had changed a lot since that night at Tea Party. Getting him into my bed didn’t matter as much as getting Saundra out of it. “Don’t sweat it, Derrick. My sister had told me all about your poetry collection.”
Saundra’s jaw dropped at the lie.
“So, what did you want?” he asked.
WHAT? This man had seen me live and in person! He should have been hoping to take me out on a date. Praying that I would let him climb into bed with me. Instead, his voice was rife with disinterest and he was merely returning a call to his friend’s sister out of politeness. Oh, no! The brother was gay and I’d made a complete fool of myself.
I had to save face. I thought of a quick lie and my tone changed to regretful. “Oh, this is really too bad. I was having some folks over for drinks because one of my girlfriends was here from out of town. To make a long story short, you seemed like her type and I wanted to hook y’all up. She’s gone now. I’m sorry.”
“Very interesting.” He sounded amused.
Time to get brotherman off the phone. “Thanks for calling back, Derrick.”
“No problem, have a good night.”
Saundra was puttering around the kitchen, not looking me directly in the eye. “So how was your day?”
“Work is work,” I snapped.
“Are you mad at me about something? Let me make you a cup of cinnamon tea.”
“Cut the crap, Saundra. Your little joke wasn’t funny. Why didn’t you tell me that Derrick was gay?”
“Because he isn’t. The truth is that he is into white girls so don’t take his rejection personally.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Saundra’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Because I was tired of your irresponsible antics with men, that’s why.”
The self-righteous bitch.
Chapter 40
SAUNDRA
Having my possessions and talking to Derrick had made me feel a lot better. At least I felt like I was back among the living.
The next evening Asha insisted that I go out to dinner with her. Even though, I wasn’t feeling well enough to sit around some fancy restaurant, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“Saundra, will you fix me something to drink while I change?”
