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David came back into the house to a roar of hilarity.
People were giggling, eyes closed in tears with LaQuan talking to them. David was not shocked and knew they were laughing at, not with, his boy. LaQuan was funny like that, and could do that to a group of people by just saying the wrong word at the right time.
David lost the conversation, though, he was taken aback by the sight of his mother’s head thrown back in laughter. She was over there talking to her sister, and having a good time. He watched her for a moment, and the sight warmed his soul.
Then he heard his sister say, “David, tell them about when Quan used to date that retarded girl.”
David tried to hide his laugh with a hand.
“What?” Ginata giggled.
“She wasn’t retarded,” LaQuan barked. “Y’all silly as hell.” The laughter and attention was making LaQuan uneasy. “She just had a little of that Down Syndrome.”
“A little?” Ginata was laughing to hard to speak.
Patricia finished the thought, “How do you have a little Down Syndrome?”
“Whatever. Y’all gonna fall off me.”
David finally spoke, “Pimpin’, you gotta admit that girl wasn’t right in the head.”
“And that’s why she liked him,” Patricia said.
“Fall off me, now.”
“She is a rugby player in Ireland now, right?”
LaQuan hissed, “Aw, you liked her too, playboy. You said she had a big ass.”
“I said that? Hold up, I was the one that was scared of her, man.”
Grandmomma couldn’t stay out of this one. She was nearby, eating hearty helpings of food, she said, “He dates retarded girls and he is a sissy. That boy is a mess.”
Verdie called over to David through the noise. She and Bebe had been talking about the way he had doted after the young lady he worked with. She said, “You let her taste your chocolates?”
”Whoa. Momma?” David leaned back, hand on his chest in mock shock. “In front of everybody? I was going to wait until the afterparty.”
“David! Always gotta be a joker.”
The people around him laughed, except Ginata. She caught eyes with her friend Caren, who had her eyes raised.
David said, “Oh you mean the candy?”
Verdie shook her head, “Be nice.”
“I am always nice, momma.”
Ginata liked that he was smiling again, back to his old playful self.
Verdie said, “He made the brownie teddy bears, rocky road, chocolate pecan fudge.”
“Really now. I didn’t know you can bake.”
“Oh, I’m helpful around the kitchen. It’s in the bedroom, girl, that I am a mess. That’s where I need help like a mug.”
They all laughed again.
“Yeah,” LaQuan quipped, “he sucks in the bed.”
“Nice try. When you learn humor get back to us.”
Ginata placed a hand on David’s thigh to get his attention. She got it.
“Which of the brownies you made?”
He just stared at her, a sill grin on his face. David whispered, “You startin’ something.”
He was surprised that she didn’t have a quip in response. Instead she looked back with an inviting smile. Her hand slid side to side.
“Your hand feels good.”
She added caressing to the feeling of his leg.
“Get a room, dog,” LaQuan said.
“Maybe soon,” she said.
LaQuan froze in shock.
David lost his smile. “Come dance with me.”
She got up and they embraced on the dance floor.
LaQuan shined a big smile at Caren. “What’s up girl? Let’s do this.”
“Uh uh. I ain’t no girl and you ain’t grinding on me. No.”
“You gay?”
“You stupid?”
“Yes he stupid,” Grandmomma said. “Stupid, come put my plate in the trash.”
“I ain’t nobody’s stupid,” He took the plate and moved away.
Grandmomma got up and moved to the dance floor. She came up between David and Ginata. “Thank Jesus you not no sissy boy.” She went into her purse. “Buy some condoms. The good kind.”
“The good kind cost more than $5, Grandmomma.”
“How you know?”
“Ha. Oh, I know.”
“And come here, don’t do it in the booty-hole. That’s AIDS. And a sign you gay.”
“Okay, Grandmomma. I’ma do it just natural.”
Ginata grimaced, not believing she is hearing this conversation.
“And with a condom. Don’t be like your cousin. Taking care of kids with no marriage papers. How he know they his?”
“That’s what I am trying to wonder.”