“Where to today,” Mo asked as Demetrius took a seat on the passenger side of his Jeep.
“Number running duty today, my man. So, we gotta be real nice to the customers we have left. The government legalizing the lottery in Ohio and adding that pick 4 option has hurt business.”
Mo glanced over at Demetrius. He had this whatever look on his face. “I’m nice to all my customers, no matter what. But I must admit, this lottery has trimmed our profits.”
“Now if one of our customers hits, daddy be acting like they stealing from him.”
“Remember when Mr. Homer won twenty thou, and Don started stuttering, and then slammed his fist in the wall before he finally coughed up the money.”
“I remember,” Demetrius laughed. “Don had to wrap his hand for a month like he was still boxing.”
Demetrius was laughing on the outside, but this was something very real and personal to him. After his father had finished boxing with the wall, Demetrius had told him that paying the money was non-negotiable. He’d never questioned his father’s integrity on these deals before. But it was getting harder to make ends meet and none of his clients had ever won that much money... and none of them were like Mr. Homer.
Demetrius was normally in and out of client’s homes. Sometimes he just took the numbers on the porch, they handed him the money for their bet and then he was on his way. But Mr. Homer was different. He was a baseball fan and had seen Demetrius play when he was in high school. Mr. Homer had even given him a Willie Mays baseball card. And even though Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron were his favorite all time baseball players, Demetrius treated that card like it was a piece of gold.
Mo pulled up in the parking lot of the Church’s Chicken on Riverview and got out of the car. He told Demetrius, “We can eat here when we get done with our route.”
Demetrius shook his head. “Not today. I’ve got a meal waiting on me when I get back home.”
“You gon’ keep her up in the house, huh?” Mo smirked. “Since you almost got the both of us killed over that girl, I sure hope you planning to share.”
“She’s not like that, man. Angel’s in my guest room. She cooking and cleaning my house to pay me back the money I lost on her.”
“You really think your daddy is going to hold your money?” Mo didn’t look as if he believed that.
“Sure do. So, I might as well get something out of this deal... I haven’t had a woman cooking and cleaning behind me since my mama died.”
“That’s because you never wanted anyone in your house. So, why you all of a sudden trust this girl?”
Demetrius didn’t want to explain his reasoning, because in truth, helping Angel felt more to him like he was helping his own mama. He had finally put his foot down and not allowed some man to send a woman somewhere that might get her killed. Demetrius didn’t want Angel’s son to carry the pain of missing his mother, because he knew how that felt. “She’s cool people. I can deal with her and her son for a little while.”
They arrived at the first house. Demetrius knocked on the door as Mo said, “Be careful, that girl will have you over there playing daddy to her son in no time.”
“Who?” Demetrius laughed at that. “I ain’t got no kids and ain’t trying to have any no time soon.”
~~~~
Angel had written out a grocery list the night before and handed it to Demetrius before she and DeMarcus went to bed for the night. The next morning the refrigerator and the cabinets were fully stocked. Angel got down to the business of cleaning, and from what she could see, Demetrius truly needed her services. Humming as she worked, Angel even smiled as she took out the trash. Housekeeping might not pay much, but it was an honest day’s work and wasn’t nobody asking her to ‘take it all off, baby’.
Just as Angel thought of her short lived life as a stripper, DeMarcus started crying in his sleep. Angel put the broom down and picked her baby up. Rocking him as she kissed his forehead, Angel told him, “Don’t you worry little fellow, I’m not going back to that place ever again. I promise you that.”
Some days Angel wished she had never left home... never met Frankie and then stupidly fell for all his lies. And some days Angel held onto the anger she felt for her cousin who had worked at Frankie’s club, and told Angel how wonderful the life of a stripper was... and how much money she was making. She hadn’t bothered to mention how much shame she would feel each time she took her clothes off in front of strangers.
She had been stupid. Angel had no business being around street people, because she hadn’t known anything about the lifestyle before she ran away from home. Frankie had been so smooth that she hadn’t recognized him for the devil he was. Angel wished she could go home and see her mother and brother, she missed them so much. But how could she explain that she now had a son with no husband?
She put her son back down and then went into the kitchen to start dinner. She’d decided that meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans sounded good. Once she put her food on, Angel started on the bathrooms. Demetrius had two. One in the hallway and the other in his bedroom. Angel was a bit leery about going into his bedroom at first. But she didn’t want Demetrius thinking that she was slacking on any part of her job. She stepped into his bedroom and was immediately surprised by what she saw. The bed was a mess of course, so she stripped it and put his sheets in the washing machine.
However, the thing that left her in awe was the huge black and white pictures that hung on his walls. She doubted these men were family members because they were all dressed in baseball gear. The pictures reminded her of Demetrius swinging that bat in the alley and then Frankie holding his arm as if it was broken. “The boy likes his baseball,” she said to herself as she went into the bathroom and cleaned until it shined.
As she closed his bedroom door, Angel smiled at how nice the home was beginning to look. She doubted that cooking and cleaning would be enough to pay Demetrius everything that she owed. But, she was still going to do the best job possible. She also planned to look for another job, so she could earn money to pay this debt. But this time she wouldn’t settle for a job that required her to take her clothes off.
The thing Angel didn’t understand was how she had fallen so hard, so fast. One day she was a little girl dreaming about following in her father’s footsteps and the next thing she knew, she was running away from home, having a baby, and then becoming a stripper. How she wished things had turned out differently, but they hadn’t and Angel blamed her parents for that.
They were the ones who’d given up and caused her to lose her faith and the feeling that all was right with the world. Now, Angel not only knew that there was evil in this world... she had slept with the devil.
Trying to get her mind off of her baby’s daddy, Angel went back to the kitchen. She turned off the mashed potatoes and opened a box of Jiffy corn muffins. It was smelling good in the kitchen and Angel smiled as she tasted her meatloaf... delicious as usual. The secret, her mother taught her, was in the parmesan cheese and Italian sausage added to the meat mixture.Not to mention, the barbecue sauce rather than tomato sauce as the outer glaze.
The front door opened just as Angel was turning off the oven. She hollered to him, “Dinner’s ready.”
~~~~
“Mmmm, it smells good in here.” Demetrius closed the door and made his way to the kitchen. Taking his jacket off, he slung it across the back of the chair. But Angel quickly snatched it off of the chair.
“You do have a hall closet, you know.” She put his jacket on a hanger and hung it in his closet. “Wash your hands,” she hollered at him as she walked back into the kitchen to fix his plate.
“Girl, you acting like my mama, rather than a housekeeper.”
As Angel put the food on his plate she retorted, “I might not be your mama, but I still want you to wash your hands.”
Rolling up his sleeves, Demetrius went to the sink and washed his hands. Angel put the plate in front of him as he sat back down.
She stood watching as Demetrius put his fork in the meatloaf, and then brought the fork to his mouth. She held her breath as he bit into it, and didn’t release it until she heard him sigh.
“This is some good eats.” Demetrius’ cheeks puffed out as he stuffed his mouth with food. He swallowed the food on his plate and then asked for a second helping. As she was getting his plate, he asked, “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Not right now. I’m going to check on DeMarcus and then we’ll eat something later.”
She put the plate in front of him and then Demetrius said, “I can’t eat all this good food alone. Why don’t you get DeMarcus and the two of you can eat with me.”
But Angel backed away from the table. “I didn’t know that being your dinner companion was going to be a part of my job duties.”
Putting his fork down, Demetrius glared at her. “There you go with that mess. I got plenty of people I can eat with, so don’t worry about me.” His beeper went off, Demetrius glanced at the number, then went to the wall phone in the kitchen and dialed the number.
“Hey man, what’s up... Nothing, just eating.”
Demetrius switched the phone from one ear to the next. He answered the caller’s question by saying, “Sounds good. I don’t have anything else to do tonight. Might as well go clubbing.”
Demetrius listened a few moments, then he cut his eyes in Angel’s direction as he said, “Instead of meeting me at the club, won’t you come through. My housekeeper made dinner, and it is good.”
Her back was to him when he called her a housekeeper, so he couldn’t see her face, but he saw those shoulders tighten. Serves her right, Demetrius thought. If she wanted to be treated like an employee, he would do just that.