THIRTY-FOUR
Eric sat next to Sophia in the living room of her apartment. His arms were folded across his chest and he was struggling with his thoughts. He was trying not to squirm or move around too much. Eric did not want to appear nervous as Sophia watched him. He appeared cool on the outside but his mind was frenzied and his stomach did calisthenics trying to keep up with what he heard.
Sophia had shared some information she had gathered during lunch with her friend from the DA’s office. She appeared drained and withdrawn. Eric was sure she didn’t know of his or Busta’s role in the murder for hire scheme. It would be his secret and he hoped Busta had not shared it with anyone else.
He took a peek at Sophia but said nothing. Eric wanted to hold her but felt the tension of her unbending silence. He still felt love for her but wondered if this was the beginning of the end. Sophia was resolute in her convictions of right and wrong, he did not know what to expect. He knew she was patiently waiting for answers. There were a lot of questions to be answered but where does one start when lives are lost at the end? He didn’t want to second-guess his actions.
Sophia could sense Eric’s heartbeat increasing. She watched his chest heaved with each beat. He should work at getting into better shape, she thought as she waited for him to open up. Sophia wanted him to tell her something but most of all, she wanted to trust him again. She was just about to push his buttons when the doorbell disturbed her.
Sophia sighed, got up, and checked the monitor. It was Deedee with shopping bags. She shook her head and buzzed the teenager into the building.
“It’s your niece and it seems as if she’s been doing some shopping. Smart girl,” Sophia added as she walked to the kitchen. Eric waited for Deedee to get off the elevator. There were tears in her eyes when she ran to him, hugged, and kissed him.
“What’s the matter, Dee?” Eric asked. “Why are you crying, baby?” he asked bending over his niece in parental concern. Deedee cried for a second then spoke.
“A touch of nostalgia, I guess.”
“Huh?” Eric asked. Sophia joined them seated out in the living room.
“I was with the girls, you know,” Deedee said as Sophia handed her a glass of cold water. “And I was feeling down so I wanted everyone to feel better without being selfish. So, I bought everyone an outfit and Coco returned hers.”
“Well, that’s not so bad. Coco could get an outfit at another time, Dee,” Eric said.
“But that’s not it,” Deedee continued. “Coco just doesn’t want me to buy her anything. I told her it was okay with you, Uncle E. She thinks I’m a show-off.”
“Dee, don’t worry. People like Coco are ghetto. You don’t have to kiss anyone’s ass to...”
“Eric, how dare you tell the child such things. Deedee, listen, Coco may not want to owe you any money for...”
“But that’s just it, she doesn’t have to pay me back. I charged it on my new card. It was just something that I wanted to do to show...” Deedee started and exhaled in frustration. “Maybe she doesn’t like me to be nice to her. Where she’s from, she’s not used to people giving her anything. In the ghetto, everyone is taking or trying to steal from you. No one gives…”
“What you know about being in the hood, girl?” Sophia asked with a smile.
“I mean, its poor people and people who can’t help themselves so other people take advantage of them. You know the system, the police…” Deedee said.
“Not all people who live there feel that way about it and that’s what you may not be seeing,” Sophia said. “It’s like when you accept something for itself and not anything else. Coco is probably defensive about anything anyone says about her neck of the woods,” Sophia said. Deedee thought about it for a minute and for the first time, she felt like she could understand Coco.
“You know, I’ve never thought about it that way. I mean, I thought everyone wanted to do better and live better.”
“Most people do but they don’t want you to point it out to them,” Sophia said and opened the box containing Coco’s outfit. “It’s a very nice dress,” Sophia said as she refolded the dress and placed the box on the sofa. “You can always wear it or maybe one day she’ll reconsider,” Sophia said and winked at Deedee.
“Thanks, Sophia,” Deedee sighed and bid goodnight. “I’ll see y’all in the morning.” She headed to her bedroom.
“You’re welcome, hon. I’ll look at what you bought later, alright?”
“Okay but you better come quickly because I’ve got to go to sleep. I was invited to a video shoot scheduled for six tomorrow morning.”
“That’s early.”
“Yeah, that’s about the time those cameras usually start rolling,” Eric said.
“Whose video shoot is it?”
“It’s Silky Black’s. We ran into him and Show Biz at Mr. Chow’s.”
“Really, you were having some kind of day, weren’t you?”
“Trying to,” Deedee said drifting off to her room where she quickly took off her heels and flopped onto the bed. Before dozing off into a deep sleep, she could hear Eric and Sophia speaking in hushed tones back in the living room.
“I don’t know how much you wanna be involved in the kinds of things that I’m talking about,” Sophia said. “Eric, in order to change, you’ve got to want to change. I’m going to sleep. I can’t do this anymore tonight.”
Eric sat in the living room staring into space. He was unable to immediately react. Eric wanted desperately to convince his fiancé that there was nothing else to the killings but Sophia could hardly be swayed. He sat around nursing a beer and thinking what it would take to persuade the woman of his dreams of his innocence. A smile cursed his lips when he saw the Dior box sitting next to him. That night, he fell asleep with a strategy on how to win his Sophia back. Eric thought the plan was fool proof and couldn’t wait to put it in effect.