hungry?”
“Starving.”
“What do you have a taste for?”
Travis looked at Me’shelle. He wanted to say “You.”
“I was thinking about Italian,” he said.
“I know a place that has the best Italian food in the world,” Me’shelle said.
“Really? What’s it called?”
“Mario’s.”
“On Arthur Ave. I know the place, and yeah, the food is good there.”
Traffic on the way back to the Bronx was just as heavy as it was coming. The long ride gave them time to talk. Me’shelle asked about his trip, and Travis told her about everything he did in the Caymans. He did, however, leave out the part about Veronica in the pool the night before. Then Me’shelle asked Travis the inevitable question. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No,” was Travis’s simple and quick answer.
“Okay. Since I know how you men are, I’ll rephrase my question and ask it again.” Me’shelle smiled and Travis smiled back. “Are you currently having sex with anybody?”
Travis considered his answer before opening his mouth. “Currently, no,” was his answer. “What about you, Me’shelle? Are you dating somebody now?” he asked before she could get out the next question.
“No, Travis, I am not dating or having sex with anybody.”
“Why not?” Travis asked quickly.
“The last guy I was dating decided that we should see other people.”
“You mean he wanted to see other people.”
Me’shelle smiled. “Exactly.”
“Which is why you want to take your time with me. You want to make sure that I’m not the same kind of asshole.”
“You are so smart,” Me’shelle said. “Now, tell me what ‘currently no’ means. Oh, you didn’t think that I forgot that gem of an answer, did you?”
“No, Me’shelle, I know you’re too sharp to let one slip by you.”
“So, why’d you try it?”
“Just to see.”
“And the answer is?”
“I’m not currently having sex with anybody, because I decided to stop seeing the woman I was having sex with. I didn’t think it was going anywhere,” Travis answered.
“How come? Sex wasn’t good?”
“No, the sex was good, but that’s all there was. You know what I’m sayin’? I mean, we’d talk when it was necessary, but mostly we’d talk about having sex.”
“If that’s all there was, then why did you keep seeing her?”
“I don’t know if you know this about men, but we’ll go through a lot of things we normally wouldn’t for good sex.”
“You men are so shallow like that,” Me’shelle said and rolled her eyes.
“I guess you’re sayin’ that women aren’t like that?”
“No, that’s not what I’m sayin’. I know women who will jump though some flaming hoops for some good dick. Excuse my French. But not all of us are like that. If a woman has a good man and the sex ain’t that great, she’ll stay with him because he’s a good man.”
“But then she’ll creep on him with the guy with the good dick. Excuse my French.”
“Touche.”
It was after 11:00 by the time they reached the Whitestone Bridge. Since it was going to be too late for Mario’s, Travis asked Me’shelle to take him straight home. He’d pick up a couple of slices from a place around the way. Once they got to Travis’s house, he turned on some music.
“That’s what I missed the most while I was gone.”
“What’s that?”
“Jazz.”
“Who are we listening to?” Me’shelle asked with a bit of a frown on her face.
“Wes Montgomery,” Travis replied proudly as he sat down at the dining room table and prepared to eat his pizza.
“Never heard of him.”
“He’s on guitar. I take it you don’t really like jazz.”
“Some of it’s okay. I mean, like Kenny Gee, David Sanborn, stuff like that. But this is-I don’t know.”
“This is real music. Guys like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, these guys put their whole heart and soul into their music. Kenny Gee wishes he could play the sax like Coltrane.”
Me’shelle laughed. “If you say so. I guess I’d have to hear some.”
“Stick around and you will,” Travis said. “I almost forgot.” He went and got the small box out of his pocket. He returned to the table and handed the box to Me’shelle. “This is for you.”
Me’shelle looked at the box and knew it was jewelry. She opened the box. “Travis, it’s beautiful.” The necklace Travis bought her was platinum with a half-carat diamond. “Is this the little souvenir you said you were bringing me?”
“Yup,” Travis said with his mouth full of pizza. “Do you like it?”
“Yes, it’s beautiful. Thank you so much. How did you know I love platinum?”
“I didn’t. I just thought it would look beautiful on you.”
“When you said you were bringing me a souvenir, you know, I was expecting a T-shirt with some stupid sayin’ on it or a bag of sand or whatever.”
Travis got up, took the necklace from Me’shelle and put it on for her. “I was right. It does look beautiful on you.”
“I don’t think the words ‘you shouldn’t have’ are enough for this, Travis. How much did this cost?”
“A gentleman never tells.”
Chapter Eighteen
Early the next morning, Travis called Freeze. He wanted to find out what was going on before he spoke to Ronnie and Jackie. Freeze told Travis to met him at Cynt’s at 1:00. Since he wanted to talk to Freeze alone, he called Jackie and told her to meet him there at 2:00. Then he called Ronnie.
“What’s up, Ronnie?”
“It’s about time you came back to the real world. When did you get back?”
“Last night,” Travis said.
“How was the island?” Ronnie asked. Travis noted the cool tone.
“It was great. Weather was nice. I had a good time.”
“Did you meet Veronica?”
“Yeah, we hung out a couple nights. She was real cool.”
“Well, what does she look like?” Ronnie asked.
“Yo, she doesn’t look anything like she sounds. She’s a big, juicy, fine-ass muthafucka.”
“Really? So, I know you had a good time with her. I know you like them juicy. Which reminds me, your girl Mystique has been askin’ for you every time I go to Cynt’s. Said you don’t call her no more,” Ronnie said, trying to sound like a woman.
“What you tell her?”
“Not a damn thing,” Ronnie said and laughed. “She gets real funky when she don’t get what she wants, don’t she?”
