“Odell, I want you to meet my baby,” Mr. MacPherson said, grinning from ear to ear. When they got in front of me, he let go of Joyce’s hand. I noticed how she sighed with relief and moved a couple of steps away from her daddy. My guess was that this poor creature let her parents control every move she made.
“This is your daughter?” I said, smiling so hard my jaws ached. I was impressed because Joyce was nothing like I expected. From the way Buddy and Sadie had described her, I had pictured a mule-faced giraffe in my mind. Shoot! She didn’t look nothing like that! She wasn’t even close to being as “mugly” as they’d made her out to be. Joyce was no beauty queen, but she was attractive in her own way. She had a cute narrow face and nice black eyes with long thick lashes. I preferred women with real long hair. Joyce’s only came just below her ears, but it looked good on her.
If I had met her in a jook joint or on the street, I would never have approached her because she wasn’t my type. But then I got to thinking about one of the things Buddy and Sadie had told me about her. According to them two busybodies, Mr. MacPherson and his wife were desperate for Joyce to get married and have a few children. That piece of information had really got my attention and even more so now that I was meeting her in person. And since she didn’t have no brothers or sisters, she’d inherit everything when Mama and Daddy kicked the bucket. If that wasn’t enough incentive for her to be my type now, I didn’t know what was. I couldn’t think of nothing better than me stumbling into an unmarried woman that had so much to offer a man who’d been down on his luck as long as I had. All I had to worry about was getting her to like me.
“Joyce, this is Odell,” Mr. MacPherson introduced. He was beaming like a lighthouse. “What’s your last name again, Odell?”
“It’s Watson, Mr. MacPherson,” I answered real quick.
“Boy, didn’t I tell you to call me Mac and my wife Millie?” Mr. MacPherson said in a gruff tone. “We like to be real informal around here,” he added.
“Okay, Mac,” I said, grinning. I looked at Joyce again and gave her the biggest smile I could manage. “I’ve heard so much about you, I couldn’t wait to meet you,” I told her, extending my hand. She had such a tight smile on her face, I didn’t know what to make of it. I hoped my good looks didn’t intimidate her. One ordinary-looking woman that I’d tried to get my hands on last month told me—with the same kind of tight smile on her face that was on Joyce’s—that she didn’t want to get involved with a man that was prettier than her. Was the itty-bitty smile on Joyce’s face a sign that she felt the same way? I hoped it wouldn’t take long to find out.
“Hello, Odell. I’m glad to meet you. Daddy just mentioned you to me yesterday,” she muttered. I could tell by the way her hand was trembling when I shook it that she was nervous. She seemed so sweet and ladylike, I actually liked her already!
“Mr.—oops, I mean, Mac, I been working for you since last week. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for hiding this beautiful girl from me all this time,” I teased. I was good at a lot of things. One was using the right words when I wanted to impress somebody. Suddenly there was a huge smile on Joyce’s face. Her eyes got kind of moist, and her body seemed to relax. I could tell that I’d just impressed the hell out of her.
“Heh, heh, heh,” Mac laughed. “She ain’t been hiding. She got a full-time job, so she don’t get over to the store too often.” He paused and let out a loud sigh. “She don’t like to come here too often no more on account of we used to make her work the cash register after school when she was a teenager. And she came kicking and screaming.” Mac squeezed Joyce’s shoulder. I could see how much he loved his daughter. He looked at her like she was made out of gold. “She wanted to sit at home and read books instead. Now she don’t come up in here until she need a few items, or unless she coming to meet me or her mama for lunch.” He snorted and with a dry look on his face, he said, “Would you believe this gal ain’t been on a date since last year? October to be exact.”
“Mac, I know you lying!” I accused. I folded my arms and blinked at Joyce.
“No, I ain’t lying. Honest to God,” Mac insisted. “Ask her and she’ll tell you herself.”
Poor Joyce. She looked like she wanted to crawl away and hide behind the racks where they hung the pinstripe suits a few feet from the shelves I’d just stacked. I felt even sorrier for her now and was willing to say anything that would make her feel better. I slapped my hands on my hips and said in the sternest tone I could push out of my mouth, “I’m going to do something about that, starting with supper at a nice restaurant this evening.”
She gasped, and her eyes got as big as saucers. “M-me?” she stuttered in a voice so low I had to lean forward to hear her.
“Yeah, you!” Mac snapped. “What’s wrong with you, girl? Me and you the only
