Miscegenist Sabishii (3 page)

“Did you have fun?”

“I did. You did too.”

“Yeah that was a nice surprise. You hungry? I know I am.”

“I can’t eat this late at night.”

“Are you for real? How can you go out drinking and not hit White Castles after?”

“Uh...That would be the desire not to puke two hours later. Besides, there’s work tomorrow and it’s already after midnight.”

“Yeah you’re right,” I responded disappointed. This wasn’t going the way I had planned it… Woo Nikki with my wit and personality. Tell her I liked her and then challenge her arguments against inter-office romances.

At her house she patted my arm good night and let herself out the door before I could make a move to open it for her. Not even a good night peck on the cheek. I’m not a pessimist--but I know when the odds are stacked against me.

NIKKI

Man, my head was pounding. Why in the hell did I order Hennessy--straight up? I guess I felt a little nervous. But then every time someone bought a round of drinks they’d order me another one. I ain’t gonna lie; I was fucked up for a hot minute. I remember Tony asking me to dance and he was so good out on the dance floor that I reverted back to my hoochie mama days. That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Tony grabbed me
for a slow dance and you know...it felt so good being held. Afterwards I went to the bathroom and cried. Isn’t that crazy?

There was this brother Dean there. He is F-I-N-E! Brother couldn’t keep his eyes off me. I wanted to get to know him but somehow it didn’t seem right to rap to another man when you come with someone else--even if that someone else was just To
ny and he wouldn’t have cared. But still…

The next day at work Tony brought me Perrier after taking one look at my red eyes. And somehow I made it through the day. At home I planned to strip down naked and climb into bed but there was a message on my answering machine. Imagine my surprise when I heard

Dean’s voice! He hoped I didn’t mind that he had gotten my number from my cousin Jay and blah…blah…blah! I whooped loudly when he said he’d like to take me out sometime and he left his phone number.

The next day Dean and I talked on the phone for hours. We had so much in common! We made a date for that Friday and we talked every night on the phone. He kept asking me about Tony, though.

“Ain’t nothing going on between you and ol’ T-baby is it?”

“What? No,” I said surprised. “He’s my supervisor at work. Team leader is what they like to call it, whatever.”

“Oh. Well why are you going out with your supervisor?” I frowned at the phone.

“Because he’s friends with Jay. We weren’t going out. We were just going…to listen to Jay D.J. Why? Is there something wrong with Tony?”

“Naw.  It’s just when I saw T roll up with you on his arm it surprised me. Tony never got no play in High School. Dude always went for the black chicks, but they were too busy trying to get with
me.” He laughed. I thought that was mean so I changed the subject.

　
Friday we went to see a movie and to dinner. Dean is sexy and I’m not going to lie, I was horny and I gave him some. It’s been so long since I’ve been touched that I was exploding in 5 minutes! It was good and everything, don’t get me wrong, but Dean spent a lot of time trying to make himself look sexy. You can tell when a man is trying to star in his own porno.

Come Monday I planned to ask Tony about Dean but he beat me to it. He asked me what I did over the weekend.

“I went out with your boy Dean. We saw a movie and then went out to dinner.”

“Dean…” He said surprised. Tony’s lip curled up, but he wasn’t smiling. “So did you have a good time?”

“Yeah. He’s cool.”

“That’s good.” He walked out of the office singing softly to himself. I think it was that Amy Winehouse song where she sings what kind of fuckery is this.

TONY

I’ve been spending so much time at the gym that regulars think I work there.  Someone has already asked me if I would take them on as a personal trainer. I always liked the gym, but since Nikki started seeing Dean I have a lot of pent up aggression that I’m trying to get rid of. I spend like 4 hours a night there!

My mom is still trying to hook me up with Asian women. She’s gone through the daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and cousins of all of her Asian friends. So she’s taken to picking women up off the street for me.

I went over for Sunday dinner and she had a lady there that she’d met at the nail salon. She was Korean, not even Japanese! I did take her out but she kept commenting that I sounded like I was black. I finally told her my real dad was mulatto and she excused herself and never came back.

My cousin Noonie has been wanting to detail my car since I got it. She works for an auto dealership where she does detailing on the weekends. Nice things always made me feel better so I let her take it one day, which started turning into a monthly thing. I suspect that she’s using the opportunity to drive around the city in it. But I don’t actually care because Noonie does great work and she’s not charging me a dime so she can knock herself out. On the days she takes the car she drops me off at work, picks me up and then I take her out to eat.  After I drop her off at her place I hit the gym. This is now my life. Crap.

Me and Nikki were walking out of the office together one day and she stopped when she saw my car parked at the curb.

“Isn’t that your car?”

“Yup.” Noonie had just tinted the windows. She climbed out of the driver’s seat sporting spike fuchsia hair, a short school girl skirt, fish nets and combat boots. My Aunt no longer even tries to find her a nice Asian Boy.

She tossed me the keys. “How do you like?” She asked then danced around the sidewalk. There wasn’t even the smallest bubble.

“Nice. I like. For this you get steak tonight.” I waved goodbye to Nikki and Noonie and I drove off to Ruth’s Chris steakhouse.

NIKKI

Dean was telling me how I should get rid of my retirement plan because it was stupid to save for a future that wasn’t even promised to us and people were stupid to go without when they had thousands collecting dust in the bank.

I was in a sour mood today so I didn’t even bother to argue with him. Why do men always have to act like they know more than they do? Goddamn! I’ve got a college degree, my own home, a car and I don’t need some man’s advice. Especially not from someone who plays video games all day.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Dean… but in short spurts. 

My thoughts reverted back to the girl that was driving Tony’s car. It looks like he’s been getting some. He never even mentioned her and I thought we were buddies. This skinny Asian woman’s been driving his car and picking him up from work. Then on Friday he didn’t even bring the cookies or tea.  When I asked him what was up with that he shook his head in a distracted way.

That night Dean didn’t show up for our date. I waited for two hours for him to pick me up before calling his cell phone-- which he never

answered. Shit, I was tired of him anyway. The

next day he shows up at my door so that we could go out for breakfast. His forehead was jacked up. He had a hickey the size of a walnut.

“Jesus! What happened to you?” He touched his head nonchalantly. “Oh played basketball with the boys last night.”

Excuse me? Did we not have plans--? He made to step into my apartment. I blocked the entrance. “We had a date last night.”

“Oh baby, I’m sorry.  Something came up, it was kind of spur of the moment.”

“Cell Phone?”

“I’m sorry, baby. It just slipped my mind.” I thought about it and shrugged. He exhaled a relieved breath and grinned.

“Call me later.” I said while shutting the door in his face.

It felt good to be done with Dean but I still felt mopey, and because of it the rest of the weekend was ruined. I found myself thinking about all the fun I’d had at Club Ritz and how it’s always fun when you are hanging with someone who is a friend. Take Tony, for instance. He and I honestly laugh together, unlike with Dean who is not even half as fun. I wished that I could find a guy like Tony; someone who is a friend first and smart, easy to talk to and of course being totally sexy like Tony wouldn’t hurt. I guess that skinny Asian girl is having all the fun with him now.

I couldn’t wait for Monday. At least I’d have something constructive to do. I saw Tony in the break room and my mood suddenly perked. I sat down next to him.

“Hey, how was your weekend?” I asked.

“Good. Yours?”

“Fine. What’d you do?”

He shrugged. “Nothing much, went to the gym. I hooked up with your cousin and the guys.  We played a little basketball-”

“Yeah.” I interrupted. “Dean came over with a walnut sized hickey.” Tony’s lip curled in a peculiar way that wasn’t quite a smile. It was really kind of cute, actually.

“How are you and Dean doing?” He asked timidly. I met his eyes and hesitated.

“Fine.” I finally answered. 

He flexed a muscle in his arm and it was pretty impressive. I couldn’t help myself by giving him the once over. Tony is a cutie pie. His hair is cut into a choppy, unruly hairdo that only an expensive barber can make look so good. His body was chiseled and hard, even more so from living in the gym lately. Sometimes I have a hard time taking my eyes from his. His almond shaped, brown eyes reminded me of warm chocolate. I have to admit that there are times where I wanted to touch where his eyelids didn’t exist, and then touch where mine did. We were so different physically but I sometimes forget because on the inside we are very much alike.

The next day I put aside my usual heels and dug out a pair of flats. I put on a linen pants suit and clipped on my afro puff ponytail. When I stood next to Tony I reveled at the fact that he was only about an inch and a half, maybe two inches shorter than me, which made him about 5’8”! Hell, I was on an easy six feet in heels. Maybe I’d give them a rest for a while.

Jackie came up to me at the copy machine. “Have you been noticing how good-looking Tony’s been getting lately? I mean he was handsome before but now he’s VAVOOM!”

I laughed, uncomfortable. I knew Tony liked black women…and obviously his Asian girlfriend. But would he ever go out with someone like Jackie? She was the whitest woman in the world.

“You’re friends with him do you know if he’s seeing anyone?”

“Uh, well I’ve seen a woman driving his car.”

“Really? The Jag? It must be serious.” Jackie went back to her copying and I realized that I was jealouse.

TONY

Playing basketball with the fellas was the first time I got out of my funk in weeks, especially when I went up for a lay-up and my elbow went down hard on Dean’s head.

“Oh my bad, man.” I said casually. He was hip to me and I didn’t get to jack his nuts with my knee. But still it was a good day.

NIKKI

Dean has been blowing up my phone. I don’t
know why he’s been pressing me after 3 weeks of mediocre sex. Most times I won’t even answer the phone, and the one time I did he ended up saying, “So you want to break up with me?”

“Fool, we weren’t together in the first place!”

“You fucking T-baby?” I slammed the phone on him. Crazy, stalking, mutha-fucka! From being stressed my neck and shoulders were in knots.

In my office I crossed my arms and rubbed my neck, eyes closed in concentration.

“What’s wrong?” Tony was frowning at me. I jumped and he held up his hands. “Sorry your door was opened.”

I sighed and relaxed. “Stressed out.”

Tony put my cases on my desk. “Over what?”

“Tony.” I admitted. “Dean has been stalking me.”

“What?!” His eyes narrowed.

“I haven’t seen him in weeks. But he won’t stop calling me. Truth be known, I didn’t even think that he was all that into me in the first place
—but since I was the one who put on the breaks it’s like his ego can’t take it.”