NINE

 

I’m kind of suspicious of guys.

Probably because my mom is pretty bitter after getting dumped with no child support by my dad and Darius’s dad. I don’t remember my dad, but I do remember Darnell before he disappeared. I have a picture of him that Darius and me look at sometimes, but we don’t let Mom see.

Mom’s always said she’d kill me if I turned up pregnant. I’ve had boyfriends, nothing serious. But when I fell, I fell hard.

I first met Chaz on the sidewalk. I was looking for the address of the building for my job and trying to walk in Denise’s shoes. I walked right into him.

“Hey,” he said, grabbing me so I didn’t fall over.

“Sorry …” I said, staring up at him. He was so fine. I thought, What a good start to the day. It made me just a tiny bit less nervous to look at a cute guy and forget everything for a minute.

I just wanted to look at him more, so I said, “Do you know where this address is?”

He looked at my paper and laughed. “You must be Destiny. I’m Chaz.”

He held out his hand. Feeling like I was dreaming, I put my hand in his, forgetting how to do a confident handshake like Ms. Williams had taught me. I just wanted to hold his hand.

He pulled his hand away gently and laughed again. “We’re right here, c’mon.”

As I followed him into a building, I thought, he’s so hot! I’ve gotta find out how old he is, if he has a girlfriend, and go to the bathroom to check out my butt in this suit. And I am wearing Mom’s boots tomorrow, for sure. Maybe I still had no idea what I was doing here for this ­internship thing, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

I tried to pay attention to what Chaz was saying as he showed me around the office. He introduced me to three other people and gave me an ID to get into the building. But he was so cute, it was really distracting. Then I realized I had to come back to earth.

“Umm, I’m just wondering if you can tell me what time you want me to be here … and when I’ll be finished,” I said.

I felt stupid asking right away, but Mom had made me promise. She had found a free summer Bible camp for Darius, but it was only mornings.

Chaz raised his eyebrows. “Why, do you have another job, Destiny? You know this internship pays really well, right?”

I squirmed. I didn’t want to get into my family problems with him. My first feeling of relaxation left me. We might both be black, but I bet he didn’t grow up worrying about money. Not with a billionaire stepdad.

“No, I just … my mom wanted to know,” I muttered.

“Well, it will depend on what we’re working on. As a reporter, you already know that you have to be ready to go when a story comes. So there might be some nights when we’re out later.”

He turned on a computer and logged in.

“If she’s worried about you taking the bus late, I can always give you a ride home,” he said without turning around.

Now I was really feeling like a little kid. But I also loved that he was talking about us doing lots of stuff, being out together.

I shrugged off my worries about Darius. It would work out. Like Denise said, it was my mom’s problem. Darius was her kid, not mine.