“Who wants their pops to be a pimp?!”
“You got some fuckin’ nerve looking down your nose at me. All that blood on your hands,” Ernie grumbled, as the men walked into the diner, both with a scowl. Ernie found his booth and sat down, turning his back to his son, looking for Remedy. “Where the fuck is Remedy? I don’t want to sit here with you.”
Erys groaned in frustration. The waitress roamed over after a few minutes of silence and Erys’ attention back on his phone. Studio times and arranging an appraisal for his father’s home. It was clear he couldn’t live on his own anymore and he needed far more help than he’d assumed. At some point, he was going to have to break it to Ernie and Remedy that an assisted living home was in his near future.
“What can I get you two handsome men,” she flirted, taping the ballpoint pin against the notepad.
“Only one of us look like something,” Ernie muttered. “And then there’s his ugly ass.”
The waitress giggled, looking over Erys. “He’s not that bad. I think he’s handsome. Just like you.”
“Eh, even if you threw your pussy at him, he wouldn’t know what to do with it. Look at him, he probably don’t even know his way around it,” Ernie stated as Remedy walked in.
“I can show him,” the waitress replied.
Erys wasn’t giving her the attention she was vying for. “We’ll take three waters.”
“And an orange juice with ice,” Ernie spoke. “Extra pulp. He’s paying.”
Remedy walked in with a noticeable scowl. The moment Ernie spotted her, he stood, allowing her to slide into the booth.
“You don’t even like orange juice,” Erys responded.
“You right about something. She does,” Ernie spoke as Remedy stared at the phone screen. “While you here, get me an Around the Way platter, with biscuits and gravy. For my friend, the Piedmont.”
The waitress nodded, jotted down the order and then looked at Erys who hadn’t given her anything to cling to. “What about you, handsome?”
“I’ll take the egg whites and wheat toast,” he answered, his attention attempting to be stolen by Remedy’s presence. The waitress switched away hoping he was paying attention.
Ernie and Remedy shared a look of disgust. But Ernie voiced what Remedy was thinking.
“Egg whites? You don’t eat meat, nigga? What has your mama done to you?”
“This is what I’ve ate for fifteen years. Or oatmeal,” Erys said.
Ernie grumbled. “Or oatmeal. You ain’t had a nigga breakfast in fifteen years. What the hell you eat for dinner?”
“Something lean and green,” Erys answered, prompting Remedy to comment.
“That’s why you’re like that.”
He cut his eyes to her. “Like what?”
“Up tight,” she said and Ernie chimed.
“Dick up the ass.”
“Wound up,” Remedy buzzed.
“Drawls tight as hell,” Ernie shot back. “Y’all young niggas wearing them tight ass colorful tighties not letting your nuts breathe and it fuckin’ shows. This why a woman can’t raise no man. Call yo’ mama so I can tell her about her bullshit.”
Remedy shook her head before saying, “Ernie, here, play something nice for me.”
She handed him five dollars and he smirked, grunting as he stood and started his walk to the jukebox the owners kept just for him. The two sat there in silence until Remedy broke it.
“I don’t like you staring at me. Stop it.”
The thing was, Erys didn’t know he was staring. He refocused. “You don’t ever want something else to do other than being around him all day?”
