CHAPTER 39

“Hello?”

“Hey, Yolanda? It’s me, Maxwell.”

Yolanda closed the mystery novel she was reading, not bothering to mark her page. She sat up on her sofa and smoothed her frizzy hair, as if he could see her.

“Hey, Maxwell. What’s up?” she said, her voice unnaturally high.

“What are you doing this evening?”

“Um…”

Is this one of those times that I’m supposed to pretend that I’m busy and have lots of stuff to do? Or am I supposed to be honest and say that after I finish this book, I’m gonna watch Imitation of Life and cry like a baby at the end as I always do?

“Yolanda? You still there?”

“I’m here.”

“Look, I know I caught you at the last minute, and it being a Sunday I know you probably have plans already—”

“It depends. Did you want to hang out or something?”

“It’s no big deal, actually. My good friend Tony just bought a house in Sugarland, and he’s having a little party tonight. I was hoping—”

“Sure! I’d love to,” Yolanda said eagerly.

He laughed.

“I was hoping you’d say that. It starts at six, so can I pick you up in, say, forty-five minutes?”

“No problem. I’ll be ready.”

“You sure? Most women would need at least two hours to get ready.”

“I keep tellin’ you, I’m not like most women.”

“Okay, I believe you. See you in a little bit?”

“Wait!”

“Yeah?”

“Does this mean you thought about what I said? Are we friends or are we…”

“Do you have to analyze everything, Yolanda? Why can’t we be friends who are trying to learn more about each other? Nothing more, nothing less, okay?”

“Okay. I can deal with that.”

“I’ll see you in a little bit. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Yolanda threw her book down and jumped off the sofa. She did a Beyonce booty dance without the booty.

“He called me, Precious! He called me!”

Precious looked at her, yawned, and rolled over.

* * *

“And this friend of yours lives by himself?” Yolanda said, gawking at Tony’s beautiful Spanish-style home.

“Yep. All by his lonesome,” Maxwell said, backing up to parallel park on the street. “Let’s hit it,” he said, opening his door.

He got out and walked around to Yolanda’s side. She was standing on the curb checking out her surroundings.

She was dressed in a white linen pantsuit. Her long-sleeve tunic was knotted at the waist with a thin gold belt. He was pleased that her outfit accented her narrow waist, one of her best features. Her hair was pinned up in a messy updo, with a few stray strands framing her face. Maxwell looked at her neck, long and graceful, like a dancer’s.

“What is it?” Yolanda asked, looking up at him.

The setting summer sun cast an amber glow across her skin, making her look like an angel.

“You’re stunning,” Maxwell said, surprised that the words escaped his mouth, but not sorry they had.

She smiled.

“Thank you,” she said, looking down.

When did she get so beautiful? Maybe it’s the light…

“Let’s go inside,” he said, taking her hand and leading her across Tony’s yard to his front door.

He heard the loud music and laughter even before he reached the door. Maxwell knew Tony’s neighbors wouldn’t mind. Tony’s skin color definitely afforded him certain privileges. Man, if this was my house I’d be sitting in the back of a patrol car for disturbing the peace.

He rang the doorbell, suddenly nervous about what his friends might say about Yolanda. He looked at her again, making sure it wasn’t just the sun in his eyes. She smiled back at him.

Yeah, she’s pretty.

The wide oak door swung open.

“Hey, what’s up!” Tony said, opening the massive door wider so Maxwell and Yolanda could walk through.

“I thought you said it wasn’t gonna be a lot of people?” Maxwell asked, surveying the crowd. It was pretty mixed up— blacks, whites, Hispanics, a handful of Asians. Maxwell recognized a lot of them from Tony’s job at the hotel.

“You know how it is, one person tells another person, and soon everybody is invited. So…who is this lovely young lady here?” Tony asked, a sly smirk on his face.

“This is Yolanda. Yolanda, this is my friend Tony.”

“Yolanda! I’ve heard so much about you.”

Maxwell gave him a look that said, “Don’t.”

“Good things, I hope?” Yolanda said.

“Sure, sure. Well, you guys go make yourselves comfortable. There’s plenty of food and booze in the kitchen. Oh, and Maxwell, Andre’s been looking for you.”

“Where is he?” Maxwell asked, looking around.

“Check in the den or dining room. He’s trying to set up a domino game. Catch you guys later. I need to get back to my guests.”

“See you later, man.”

“Nice meeting you, Tony,” Yolanda added.

“You, too, Yolanda. Hey, Maxwell, before I forget, did you see that Denzel Washington movie? You know the one with Meryl Streep?”

“No,” Maxwell said, puzzled. “Why?”

“Just thought you would want to know that Ebert and Roeper give it two thumbs up. Way up!” Tony said, both of his thumbs pointing up.

Maxwell laughed.

“Well, I’ll have to check it out,” Maxwell said, walking into the living room, still laughing.

“What was that all about?”

“It’s a guy thing. Don’t worry about it. I’m gonna get a beer. You want something?”

“A beer is fine.”

“Be right back.”

Maxwell moved through the crowded kitchen and looked into the refrigerator.

“You lookin’ for something to drink?” a voice screeched behind him.

He cringed and plastered a smile on his face.

“Hey, Brenda!” Maxwell said, turning and giving Brenda a hug. Her strong perfume filled his nostrils and he starting coughing.

“You okay?” she asked, beating his back like a runaway slave, trying to dislodge whatever had caused his coughing fit.

He waved his hand, a signal for her to stop hitting his back, and stepped away from her to catch his breath. “Beer?” he asked finally, his voice no more than a strangled whisper.

“Over there,” she said, pointing to a huge ice chest in the corner, filled with different types of beer.

“Thanks,” he said, grabbing two beers out the ice chest.

“So, how’s everything been going?” Brenda asked.

“Great. I can’t complain.”

“There you are! I lost you for a minute,” Andre said, sliding up to Brenda and playfully kissing her cheek.

She blushed.

How can Andre walk around with this mutant, kiss her in public, and not be ashamed of her? Her silky blonde weave, which didn’t match her nappy orange hair, hung pin straight down her back. Maxwell looked away.

“Hey, man, when you get here?” Andre asked, turning his attention to Maxwell.

“Little while ago.”

“Where’s your friend?” Andre asked, smiling.

“She’s in the other room. I’ll go get her.”

“Bring her in the dining room. I wanna whoop y’all’s butt in dominoes.”

“Let me get Yolanda and we’ll meet you in the dining room.”

He walked back to Yolanda in the living room and handed her a beer.

“Thanks,” she said. “So what’s goin’ on? We gonna dance, eat, mingle—what?”

“Actually, I wanted to introduce you to one of my friends, Andre. He’s in the dining room setting up a domino game. You play, right?”

“Does a dog have fleas?”

He laughed. She always finds a way to make me laugh.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Let’s go, they’re already in there.”

Maxwell led Yolanda by the elbow to the spacious dining room off the kitchen.

Andre and Brenda were already sitting down at the large oak table pouring dominoes out of a large metal tin.

“Y’all ready to get your butts whooped?” Maxwell asked, pulling out a chair for Yolanda.

Andre cocked an eyebrow at Maxwell. Maxwell sat down, and didn’t bother to push Yolanda’s seat in for her.

“I saw that,” Andre said.

“Shut up. So how are Dante and Trey, Brenda? Who are they with tonight?”

“My mother. I hope they are minding their manners over there, they can get pretty wild.”

“How old are they now?”

“Seven and ten. Enough about them, are you going to introduce your girlfriend?” Brenda asked.

Maxwell started coughing.

Everyone waited for Maxwell to make the introductions, but his coughing fit kept going, and going, and going.

Finally, Yolanda stuck out her hand and introduced herself to everyone around the table. When Maxwell stopped coughing, he took a swig of beer and started mixing the dominoes, not looking up to give anyone eye contact.

The game went by quickly; everyone was at the top of their game. In the end, Brenda and Andre won by a measly five points.

“That was a good game. Yolanda, you need to come by the house sometime and play with us again. That would be nice, huh, baby?” Brenda asked, nudging Andre in the arm.

“I guess. Go get me another beer,” he said, sliding his empty bottle toward her. “And a plate of food; I’m starving.”

She smiled and got up to see to her husband’s demands.

“I’ll go see if she needs some help,” Yolanda said, following Brenda into the kitchen.

“Why you always talking to Brenda like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like she is your servant or something.”

“She is. Besides you can’t talk, you almost had an asthma attack when Brenda said Yolanda was your girlfriend. What’s up with that?”

“Nothing.”

“I saw the way you was looking at her, just admit you have feelings for the girl—”

“I don’t!” Maxwell said sharply.

Andre laughed. “Okay, I’ll leave you alone. But you was right about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“She’s past skinny. I think you have found the first, and only, black anorexic.”

“She’s not that skinny,” Maxwell said.

“Uh-oh. There you go. Anytime you add that in front of a word you’re really sayin’ the opposite. You really sayin’ she’s too skinny,” Andre said.

“For somebody so smart, you come up with some dumb stuff.”

“For real, I’m serious. People always say stuff like that. Especially women. Oh, girl, he’s not that fat. He’s not that ugly. He’s not that broke. What they really sayin’ is, ‘Yeah he’s fat, ugly, and broke, but I love him.’ So you love this girl or what?”

“Why you keep askin’ me that? We not even like that.”

“Then why you keep seeing her? Why you keep callin’ her?”

“I dunno.”

Truth was, he really didn’t know. She wasn’t as exciting or sexy as Theresa, but he felt a comfort with her that he had never shared with another woman. She was interesting, funny…He genuinely did like her, but in a totally asexual way.

But that moment they shared outside…

That was real. I do have some attraction to her.

“Hey, guys, you two okay?” Tony asked, sliding in a chair next to Maxwell.

“Yep. Doing great. I was just tellin’ your boy about the chick he brought.”

“She’s really pretty,” Tony said.

“She is. But have you seen her body?”

“She’s a little thin—”

“A little thin? She’s a bone! She makes Skeletor look like the Nutty Professor.”

“You exaggerate too much, Andre. Yolanda is a nice, pretty woman. She’s nowhere near as bad as you make her out to be.”

“That’s because you’re white. Us black folks like our women bootylicious not bonylicious. I’m telling you, Maxwell, don’t trust pretty women! Dump that chick before you fall in love with her and be stuck walking around with Olive Oyl.”

“Don’t listen to that idiot over there, Maxwell,” Tony said, throwing Andre a dirty look. “It doesn’t matter what we think about her. What do you think? Is she girlfriend material or what?”

“I think she’s cool. We’re gonna take things slow and see where it goes.”

“It’s okay to like her, you know. It’s not a crime, Maxwell,” Tony said.

“I know that. We’ll see how it goes, okay?”

Yolanda walked up with Brenda close behind her.

“Here’s your beer and your food. I put extra ribs on there just like you like it—”

“And the extra barbecue sauce?” Andre asked.

“Right next to your bread.”

“Where’s the beans?”

“Under your chicken breast.”

“Go get me some more napkins. I can’t eat this with only one measly napkin,” Andre said, balling the napkin up and throwing it at her.

“Sorry, baby, I must have forgot,” Brenda said, walking fast to the kitchen.

Andre shook his head and dug into his food, ignoring the warning glances from his friends.