Minutes later, Curtis woke up and walked into the bathroom. When Brandon heard this, he jumped from his chair and ran toward Curtis as he washed his hands.
“Brandon, come back here and finish your breakfast,” I yelled in a polite tone.
Brandon ignored me and continued in the direction of Curtis. By the time Brandon got to the door, Curtis was coming out and they met outside the door.
“Good morning, son,” Curtis said as he picked Brandon up.
Brandon just giggled as Curtis carried him back into the kitchen and sat him down at the table to finish his breakfast.
“Good morning,” Curtis said, directing his attention to me.
I looked up at him as he walked over to the coffeepot with his do-rag tied around his braided hair. “Good morning,” I replied dryly.
“What’s for breakfast?” he asked.
“Oh, so you’ve got the munchies now?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he replied.
“You know what I mean. Did you forget why you went to jail? You, coming in here at odd hours of the night, drinking and smoking with your friends—”
“I was drinking, yes. But I didn’t touch drugs of any kind…Is that why you have an attitude this morning?”
“I don’t have an attitude. I just want you to understand that what you do out there in those streets affects us,” I replied.
“Well, being out in them streets last night landed me a job working on a couple of cars today.”
I took a sip of my coffee.
“Can I please get a bacon and egg sandwich before I go to work?” He stared at me.
I looked up at him as I got up to make him a sandwich. After all, Curtis was doing all he could to keep a steady flow of money coming. I was doing just fine on my teacher’s salary but I wanted more out of life than just getting by. Curtis had dreams of one day owning his own body shop, and I guess this was the way he had to build up his reputation. My horoscope said that I should have more patience with troubled situations, and I could see that if I kept going back and forth with him it could have escalated.
As I made Curtis a breakfast sandwich, Brandon sat in front of the TV while Curtis showered. By the time he got dressed I had his sandwich and had filled his thermos with coffee.
He walked over to me and kissed me on the lips. “Baby, I’m sorry for disrespecting you last night, okay?”
I smiled as the words wiped away the little anger I had inside of me. My horoscope was right again, I thought.
Curtis walked over to Brandon and kissed him on the cheek before going out the door. I began cleaning up the kitchen and parts of the other rooms before doing laundry. In the midst of this, Mya called.
“Hi, Mya,” I said.
“Girl, what’s up?” Mya asked.
“Nothing. Just doing my usual weekend cleaning.”
“There’s a ladies’ night party at Club Nsomnia tonight. I don’t want to go by myself. Are you down for it?”
“Have you talked to Tangie?” I asked.
“No, but let’s call her on the three-way,” Mya said as she clicked over to call.
“Hello?” Tangie answered in an exhausted tone.
“Girl, you still sleep?” Stephanie asked.
“No, I’m awake. What’s up?”
“Hey, Tangie,” Mya cut in. “There’s a ladies’ night at Club Nsomnia tonight. You down for hanging out?”
“Nsomnia? Hell, yeah. Saturday is when the ballers come out,” Tangie replied, excited.
“What about you, Stephanie?” Mya asked.
“I don’t know about that. You know how Curtis is about me going to a club.”
“What?” Tangie shrieked. “As much as Curtis hangs his ass out in the streets, you deserve at least one night on the town. Make his ass stay home with Brandon for a change.”
“Yeah, Stephanie. Just tell him we’re having a ladies’ night out tonight,” Mya said.
I paused for a moment. “You know what? You’re right. He dragged his ass in here this morning at around four o’clock. Yeah, count me in.”
“Great,” Mya replied. “Let’s meet over to my house at around six o’clock and we can ride to the club together.”
“That sounds like a plan. I’ll see you guys later,” Tangie said before hanging up.
“Okay, Mya. I’ll see you then. I’m just going to finish doing laundry.”
Curtis came in at around three o’clock with a look of exhaustion on his face. I was in the kitchen finishing up dinner as Brandon sat in the den watching cartoons. Curtis put his thermos on the kitchen counter and kissed me on the cheek.
“Hey, baby,” he said as he continued past me.
“How was your day?” I asked. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”
“I’m beat. I’m going to take a shower and get into bed.”
“How long are you planning on sleeping?” I asked as I dropped everything and followed him into the bedroom.
“’Til about ten o’clock and then I’m going out. Why?”
“Well, I had planned on going out with the girls tonight and I wanted to make sure you were home to watch Brandon.”
“What? Going out where?” Curtis responded as he turned toward me.
“I’m going out to have some drinks—why?”
“Why tonight?” he asked.
“Why not tonight? Didn’t you go out last night?” I replied defensively.
Curtis reached in his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. “Yeah, and look at what I made in doing so.”
I looked at the hundreds and twenty-dollar bills he had in his hand. “What does that have to do with me going out with my girls?”
“Nothing, but I was going to meet Cedric tonight to try to get some more clients.”
“Cedric? Is that who you’re hanging out with?”
Cedric Nichols, Curtis’s childhood buddy, has a reputation for being in all kinds of illegal shit.
“That’s who’s helping me get work. What’s wrong with that?”
“Think about it, Curtis. What kind of brothers do legitimate business in a club?” I asked firmly.
“I’m not going to a damn club. I’m going to meet them at Cedric’s body shop.”
“Club, body shop—it doesn’t matter where. Who does business with clients that late at night?”
“I’m just trying to help Cedric with his workload until I can build up my client base to start my own business.”
“You’ve been using that same line for the last year. But almost every night you come home smelling like liquor and weed.”
He bit down on his teeth and gave me a hard look. “Look, I don’t have a master’s