“Wait here,” Davey said. “I’ll ask them if you can come in.”
That seemed crazy to Vince. Utterly nuts! But there was a reason she left home when she was eighteen and never wanted to return.
“You can’t just walk into your own home?” Vince asked when Davey went back inside.
Ricki looked at him. “Can you just walk into your parents’ home?”
“I don’t want to walk into their home.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was left in a trash can when I was first born. A homeless man found me and called the cops. They took me to Foster Care. And it was some horrific places they put me in. I left when I was thirteen and never looked back. I don’t know where my parents live, and I don’t care. They tossed me in the trash. My decision to run away from Foster Care was my way of tossing them in the trash too.”
Ricki exhaled and shook her head. “We aren’t the Huxtables, are we?”
“Neither are the Huxtables,” Vince shot back, and both of them managed to smile.
“What I’m saying is that my parents do things their own way,” Ricki tried to explain. “And I’m telling you right now that you aren’t going to like it any more than I do. But don’t be up in their confronting my father or trying to prove any points. That’ll just make everything worse. You hear me, Vince? Please let me handle them my way. Not your way.”
Vince could see a look in her eyes that was nothing short of pure fear. What had these people done to her?
“Do you hear me, Vince?” she pleaded with him.
“Yes! Damn. I’ll behave. Whatever that means.”
She knew she should have come alone, but having a supportive partner like Vince by her side was something she’d never had before. And she found that she loved it and didn’t want it to go away. Although she knew it would because Vince, like every man she’d ever been with, would go on about his business soon too. And leave her alone again and in that same dustbin of life he found her in.
“What are their names?” Vince asked her.
Ricki found that an odd ask. “Why do you need to know their names? I’m not going to be hanging around here.”
“Just answer my question, Rasheda.”
He infuriated Ricki sometimes. But she answered his question. “Mamie and Hershel Richardson,” she said.
“Was that so hard?” Vince asked her. “Well was it?”
“No.”
“I want you to work on that attitude,” he said.
She looked at him with pure attitude in her eyes. “What attitude? Because I don’t let you dominate me I have an attitude?” Then she frowned. “Fuck you!”
Vince smiled when she said those two words. Then his smile disappeared and he got tough with her again. “That’s the Rasheda I know and love,” he said to her. “That’s who you are. You’re a fighter. You don’t take shit from anybody. So drop this scared kid routine and behave like you are who you are in front of your parents too. You hear me?”
Ricki stared at him. He said the word love, but she was certain it was just in a throwaway sense. And she also knew he didn’t understand how tough it was to even face her folks. But he was also right. At some point she had to let all of that military bullshit she lived her childhood under go. She had to let it go. “Yes sir,” she said, and saluted him.
He slapped her hard on her ass. She jumped, surprised, and then smiled. He smiled too. There was a playfulness about her he loved. And as they stared at each other they remembered that morning. And how wonderful it felt to get to know each other in that intimate way, and how both of them desperately wanted to do it again. Especially Vince. He couldn’t get over how it felt to finally be inside of her. He was burning to get there again.
But then they realized why they were standing at that door in the first place, and that it was because of poor Erica. Their smiles, and lusts, disappeared.
They waited while Davey was inside speaking with the parents. It felt like forever to Ricki, but it was only a couple minutes. But even that was too long to Vince. Their daughter was in town after years away and wanted to talk to them. Why the delay?
But eventually Davey came back out and opened the screen door wider for them to walk through. But he pressed his hand on Vince’s chest when Vince was following Ricki inside. “Who are you?”
“Your worst nightmare if you don’t remove your hand,” Vince replied.
They stared into each other’s eyes. But then Davey, who was not a confrontational man although he was young enough and big enough to easily take Vince down, backed down, removed his hand, and allowed Vince to walk on in too.
