“The house was a freaking pigsty!”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re lying. Mario was always so put together.”
Mario was somebody that she’d gone to grad school with, so she was the catalyst for the two of us meeting.
“First of all, the stanking stench hit you at the door.”
“What was the stench? Ass? Dookey? Roaches? Dirty clothes, or just an overall unpleasantness?”
“The damn dog. The smell of a wet, dirty dog, and the general uncleanliness of the place. Kels, that place needed aBig Mama is coming and she’s spending the nighttype cleaning. Every surface was . . . every surface needed attention. You know how I always have to pee?”
“Yeah.”
“It wasn’t happening there. I had to move an entire pile of clothes just to have a seat on his sofa. Anyway, I was ready to get out of there. I just asked him what I wanted to know, . . . straight up. I’m like, what are your intentions with me? Like, we can’t date without the . . . dates. What are we doing here? This guy, your friend.” I pointed at her. “Proceeds to tell me that he doesn’t believe in dates.”
“What?”
“Yeah. And I’m like, dates aren’t the tooth fairy, bruh. What do you mean you don’t believe in them? They exist. Like real life people are going on them . . . right now.”
She giggled.
“He said that dates are for optics. He told me that he didn’t get the point of spending two hundred and fifty dollars to eat food and drink wine, when he had food and drinks at his place. But then, in the next breath, he was telling me how he andhis fraternity brothers went toLuminaire & Chaofor their line anniversary—where he spent upwards of two hundred dollars on food and drinks. Never let it be said that Skyy Diamond House doesn’t understand an assignment. I bid him adieu and blocked his number.”
“So,you think this is it, huh?” my mother asked me as she folded the clothes she’d just taken from the dryer.
“You know you don’t have to do this, right, Ma? You know I’m a grown man, who’s fully capable of folding his own clothes.”
She waved me off in a dismissive manner. “I want to do this for you, Son. I don’t get to . . . take care of you anymore. And I came all this way to take care of you, . . . so let me!” She fake fussed.
I grinned at her. “You got that. Go ’head and lock all the way in. Pack my last suitcase while you’re at it.”
We both laughed.
“Answer my question. Do you think this is finally it?”
“I think so,” I admitted on a wistful sigh. “I think she’s finally ready to stop running. I mean, I know she’s still . . .”
I wasn’t going to . . . out Skyy’s real feelings to my mother. Skyy liked to present as badass and fearless at all times. And for the most part, she was. But when it came to sharing her heart with somebody that might not be worthy, she was scared shitless. I knew that. I understood. I had nothing but patience, but I had to admit that my patience was waning. I wanted my girl. I was tired of waiting.
“She’s still,” I began again, “trepidatious. But she knows we have an agreement. She’ll honor it.”
“And that’s the only way you feel you can get her?”
I knew my mother loved Skyy. She had watched her grow up. She also felt some type of way because she thought that Skyy was doing me wrong. As my mother, she couldn’t stand the idea of anybody doing me wrong. But Skyy never asked me to gift wrap my heart and hand it to her. Actually, she probably would’ve preferred it if I’d kept my heart to myself all these years. But there was no way. From the moment I started to notice girls in a . . . different way, I never . . . noticed any girl the way I noticed Skyy.
My mother posed a good question: Was the agreement the only way?
“Nah, it’s not the only way,” I said finally. “It’s just the way that will force her to move her feet.”
The agreement.
There was nothing complex, modern, or clever about it. It was actually simple, classic, and basic. It was an agreement that men and women had been making with each other probably since the beginning of time. It typically went something like, if we reach (this certain age, this certain level of status, blah, blah, blah) and we haven’t (fill in the blank), we’ll do it with each other.
Skyy and I agreed back on T.A.M.U.’s campus that if we got to be thirty years old, and weren’t otherwise entangled, we would see what was up with each other. While I couldn’t pretend that I lived like a priest in the eight years since we made the agreement, I could admit that I always left a piece of my heart off the table when dealing with women. There was always a piece of my heart that they couldn’t have, because it belonged to Skyy.
“Well, I’m praying that everything works out just the way it’s supposed to.”
“Come on, First Lady McKissick.Just the way it’s supposed to? You gotta do better than that. I need one of thoseGod is about to blow your mindtype prayers. Not only am I gonna be much closer to you, I’ll be playing ball with my closest road dog, and finally, finally making Skyy mine. You’re gonna get those grandkids you keep whining about,” I teased.
