47
A Reminder
“ Good morning, brother.” Stacy stood in the kitchen of the condo she was renting temporarily, placing her phone on speaker while waiting for her tea water to boil.
“Good morning,” Brent said. “How are you?”
“The same as I’ve been the last few hundred times you’ve asked me. I’m fine, Brent, really.”
“Has he called?”
“No, and he isn’t answering my calls either.”
“There’s a reason.”
“Which you refuse to tell me.”
“Stacy . ..”
“Brent. You’re my brother and my protector, and I love you for it. And I know that it’s killing you not to put a foot in Tony’s behind for what he did to me. But—”
“But what?”
Stacy paused as the kettle whistled and she turned off the heat. “I’ve forgiven him.”
For seconds, the sound of water being poured over tea bags was the only thing to be heard.
“Please tell me that I didn’t hear what I think I heard.”
“You heard correctly. I forgave him, Brent. It was the Christian thing to do. But,” she hurried on, over Brent’s objection, “that doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten what he did. I’m not saying that I’ll get back with Tony.”
“Sounds like you’re not saying that you won’t either.”
“Honestly, besides taking it one day at a time? I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m in counseling with the pastor’s wife at our church, and that’s helping a lot.” Stacy knew that Tony was also in counseling, both with her counselor’s husband, Derrick Montgomery, and also with a licensed professional whose expertise was in rehabilitation from steroid use and anger management. But she didn’t think Brent would appreciate these facts, so she kept them to herself.
“Here you are asking me all of these questions, but you still won’t tell me what happened when you guys confronted Tony.” A friend of Stacy’s had been at the restaurant when Brent and the other three brothers had “encouraged” Tony to step outside for a conversation.
“He lived to tell about it. That’s all you need to know.”
“I wish you guys had kept out of it, let me handle it.”
“Couldn’t do that, baby girl. Wasn’t no way a brothah was going to put his hands on our sister and there not be a discussion. Be glad that that’s all it was.”
“Look, it’s my life, Brent. I have a right to know how you’re affecting it.”
“I’ll tell you this much. I told Tony that to get to you, he’d have to go through me. Which means if he wants to talk to you, wants to so much as look at my baby sis, he’s going to have to prove to me that he’s changed, that he’s got his head on straight and that what happened was a one-time occurrence. If he does all that then he may be able to look at you in my presence. And then we’ll go from there.”
The conversation shifted to other family matters, including the upcoming Labor Day picnic they planned to have at the beach, Stacy’s nieces and nephews, and whether or not Serena would win another US Open.
“She’s like a fine wine, getting better with age,” Brent was saying as Stacy’s doorbell rang.
“I know that’s right.” Stacy walked to the door and broke into a big smile when she saw who was waiting for her. “Brother, I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, sis. But don’t get Tony in trouble. Stay away from him.”
“Mind your business.”
“You are my business.”
“Bye, Brent.”
“Bye.”
Stacy threw open the door. “Little Bo Peep!” she said, throwing her arms around him.
“Spacey Stacy,” he said, as they rocked back and forth in a dramatic hug. “Girl, you so crazy,” he said when they parted. It was the first time they’d seen each other since Bo and Darius’s reconciliation and both their relocations. There was a lot to catch up on.
“I just made tea. Do you want some? And before you ask, no, I don’t have any cognac.”
“I wasn’t going to ask, heifah. Tea will be fine, thank you very much.” He followed her into the kitchen. “Where’s DJ?”
“Over to his uncle’s house, bonding with his cousins.”
“Ooh, I bet he’s glad to be back in LA.”
“No more than me.”
“Or me.”
“So when did y’all get back from the tour?”
“It was over a couple days ago, but we spent some time in New York with my family.”
Stacy placed the tea on the island in front of Bo. “Sounds like you guys are back on track.”
Bo tried hard not to smile. Failed. “We’re doing all right.”
“Is ‘all right’ what has you turning red from the neck up?”
“Girl, I ain’t blushing. Get out of here.”
“Whatever. You’re preening like a peacock.”
“Hell, I can’t even front. You know that man knows how to pump a penis.”
“Yes,” Stacy deadpanned. “I remember.”
“Ooh, sounds like somebody is overdue for some pumping. What’s going on with you and crazy man?” He blew on his tea and waited expectantly.
“Nothing. My brothers have him on lock; he hasn’t called, won’t return mine.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“You sound as bad as my brothers. I’m not saying I’ll get back with him. But he’s my husband, the man I was married to for three years. I haven’t seen him or said a word to him since that night. I want to talk to him, find out what happened to make him snap like that . . . for my own healing.”
“I thought you said he left you messages about taking steroids.”
“He did but . . . I don’t know . . . I just need to talk to him. That’s all.”
“What conversation is there to have with someone who left an imprint on your face?”
“I guess the same kind to have with the man who stuck his junk in somebody else’s trunk.”
“Whoa!” Bo sat back in the chair. “I guess I deserved that. I shouldn’t be judging how bad one thing is over another. Wrong is wrong.”
“Exactly.” She joined Bo and sat at the island. “He wants us to do couples counseling.”
“How do you know this?”
“He told me in an e-mail.”
“I don’t know, Stace,” Bo said, slowly shaking his head. “I just don’t know.”
“Me either.” They were silent, sipping their tea and listening to strains of classic George Benson. “What about you? How was it getting back with Darius after... all that happened?”
“Strange. But good. In some ways it’s better than it’s ever been. But I probably shouldn’t tell you that.”
“Oh my goodness! I totally forgot about what you did—stabbing him in the butt with some scissors. Bo, that was some straight-up ghetto madness.”
“It was what it was and is what it is.”
“So . . . did it heal okay? I mean, does he have a big scar or anything?”
“Child, please. That man don’t have a scar.”
“He doesn’t?”
“No,” Bo calmly replied after a sip of tea. “He has a reminder.”