She was walking by my desk when the manager of my department Alice, a short heavyset white woman with red hair, freckles and a high pitch squeaky voice in her early forties asked to see me in her office. I nodded to her after dealing with the long call I had, I headed over praying this Rachel Dolezal knock off doesn’t piss me off. So, I prayed for the best and knocked on her office door waiting, until I heard that squeaky voice say. “Come in.”
She was sitting behind a desk made of maple wood in a dark brown leather office chair with a friendly smile.
“I just wanted to see if you wanted to cover for Amanda this weekend. She’s having her baby shower and need someone to cover for her.”
Amanda is our residential freak that’s having her sixth child by her fifth baby daddy, but that’s another conversation for a later time.
“I’m afraid I can’t. As you already know I do the show on Friday and Saturday nights. That’s why I have those days off.”
This bitch knows my days off. She always asking me to come in on one of my days off and cover for somebody. She knows if she doesn’t find anybody to cover, she’ll have to do it. I think it really pisses her off I had these days before she even came to work here, so it would look bad to her bosses if she tried to switch my days to soothe her ego. I’ve worked in the customer service department at Charter Spectrum Cable company for eight years now and waited my turn in line to land these days, so I’ll be damned if I give them up so somebody who has been here half time can feel better.
“Well if you change your mind let me know, we’ll still be trying to fill that shift.”
I nodded, then turned around and walked out of the office. Lord knows if I thought we could make it on the money from the Hip Hop radio show I produce at KDUC I would quit in a heartbeat.
I spent the last couple hours at work watching Alice ask other reps if they would like to work that shift, then I left headed out to pick up my Sweet Pea from daycare. It’s a nice sunny day but as usual traffic is crazy southbound on I-15. Before I knew it, my mind fell back to when I was home for the summer after my sophomore year at UNLV. I was with Mark in Mr. Townsends old blue and grey conversion van with the black stripe down the side. We were on our way to Venice Beach in L.A. with my friend Shanice from college and her boyfriend Charlie that flew in to be with her for the summer. My grandmother passed away a few months before that summer and I was real depressed, so Shanice decided not to fly back to Boston to stay with me. A few weeks later Charlie flew out and we all had so much fun he stayed until Shanice and I went back to school. Since neither Shanice or Charlie had been to L.A., Mark who I had begun to be really close to that summer borrowed Mr. Townsend’s van. We rode down to L.A. in comfort lounging in the back, cracking jokes as Mark drove and Shanice’s boyfriend Charlie rode in the passenger seat amazed on how L.A. actually looked like the concrete jungle the rappers of the 90’s rapped about.
A brotha in a blue Dodge Challenger wearing a red Arizona baseball cap in the next lane brought me back to the present by blowing his horn continuously at somebody in a silver Escalade that cut in front of him. I could see a semitruck a little ahead of us stopped with its flashers on in the middle lane and all the cars going around, so I can see why the Escalade cut in front of the Charger.
It took another twenty minutes before getting past the stalled semi, but after that the freeway seemed to pick up and traffic started to flow a lot better. Fifteen minutes later I was about to exit at Nisqualli when my Cellphone rang, I already knew who it was before I even picked up my cellphone.
“Hey! You off?”
“Yeah. You need me to do something?
“Naw! Just wanted to know if I should go pickup Sweet Pea on the way home.”
“Oh. Are you gettin off at a decent hour today?”
“Not really, but I could get her if you were running late.”
“Well thank you, but I’m already getting off the freeway heading over there so we’ll see you when you get in.”
“Okay. I got a question for you before we hang up.”
I knew he didn’t just call about picking up Pascha.
“So, is Mark gonna be there?”
“I’m sure he will.”
“Don’t you think that will be awkward for me?”
“And why would you feel awkward?
“Don’t play with me Valencia. You know I don’t like you around Mark. Hell, their whole family for that matter.”
“You do know Mr. Townsend basically raised me, and Lashawn is like my sister.”
“I don’t give a damn bout that. You married to me.”
“Yeah, I’m married to you. And you knew about Mark before we were married. Now, all a sudden I’m supposed to cut off the only family I ever known because you got some insecurity problem with Mark being in the same room with us at this retirement party for his dad.”
“Well, how am I supposed to feel knowing he liked you back when I liked you in High School?”
“Look! Mark went to college and moved way over to another part of the state. He got a kid, a business and doing his own thing. Why are you still worried about something from back when we were all kids?”
“We might have been kids then, but I ain’t no fool Valencia. I know Lashawn and her daddy think you should have married Mark.”
“Hell, if we talkin bout people who think that, add Ms. Josie to that list.”
Ms. Josie is Eric’s mom. She’s seen Eric competing with Mark since we were kids. If Mark got new shoes, Eric had to have a better pair. If Mark got a new Bike for Christmas, Eric had to have a better bike. If Mark liked a girl in school, Eric somehow got interested in her too. It took Ms. Josie to point out, I was just the grand prize between two men. One, I don’t think he ever knew there was a competition. And the other only wanted me as a prize to hold over his competitors head.
“Fuck You Valencia! Fuck You!”
I pressed the button and ended the call before the first “Fuck You” came out of that bastard’s mouth. I probably shouldn’t have told him about his mother, but he had it coming.
Sometimes I don’t even know why I’m still in this marriage. If it wasn’t for Pascha my ass would’ve moved back to the house a long time ago. I only let my jail bird uncle Edgar stay and occupy the house his mom and my grandmother willed to me because his girlfriend Lydia promised to make sure the property taxes got paid.
A few minutes later, I got off the I15, crossed the opposite side of the freeway and made my way over to Bear Valley Road pulling into the parking lot of La Petite Academy of Victorville.