“You look familiar. I just can’t put my finger on it. Gemini, who is this beautiful woman that you brought with you?” my grandma asked, eyes on Amina, as if she was really trying to see where she remembered her from.
“Girl, he said that’s Gianna’s best friend. I think it’s a little deeper than that,” Gail’s messy ass said, trying to whisper it, butI heard her loud and clear. My grandma turned to look at Gail, and she smiled.
“Oh, it’s definitely deeper,” she responded to Gail, and then focused her attention back on Amina.
“You sure are Gianna’s best friend. I remember seeing you a couple of times at the house when you were younger. How are you doing?” my grandma asked Amina.
“I’m doing well. How are you? You have a beautiful home,” Amina complimented her.
“Thank you, baby. I appreciate that. I know the two of you have to be starving. Gem, show her to the restroom, so that you two can wash your hands, and get something on your stomachs. Amina, we gotta talk. Gemini, we’re definitely going to talk,” my grandma let us know. I already knew that was coming. I wasn’t surprised at all.
I led Amina back into the house. I showed her the way to take for the guest restroom. While she stood inside to wash her hands, I stood outside the door, posted up on the frame, with my arms crossed. I could tell that she had something heavy on her mind, as she scrubbed her hands with the soap.
She eventually looked up at me and sighed.
“Don’t tell her about the kiss, okay?” she asked. This was the first time that we’d talked about the kiss. I’m telling you, we really moved on from that shit like it never happened.
“Why would I tell my grandma that we kissed?” I asked her.
“I’m not saying you will. I’m just saying… don’t. I know she’s going to want to find out about me. I’m sure I’ll tell her what happened in London, and how it landed me on the truck with you. I just don’t want her to judge me, you know? I was just engaged to another man, and here I am kissing you. I think it’ll make me look bad,” she said, and I sucked my teeth, not agreeing with her.
“You gotta sit down and talk with her. When you do, you’ll see that my grandma isn’t the judgmental type. She’s hella opinionated, but she not going to judge you. She doesn’t have shit to judge you about, either. If you do decide to share with her what happened in London, it’ll make her respect you. Your ex was a lame that started having doubts. Instead of staying, trying to prove to him to choose you, you left. She’ll give you your credit because of that,” I let her know. I could see the uneasiness still in her eyes, so I was going to keep going.
“She also won’t judge you because she sees you here with me, which shows that you have good taste in men this go around. She knows the kind of man that I am. So, with you being here with me, it says a lot about your character, and your taste,” I said, and when I finished, she laughed, while pulling paper towel off the roll, so that she could dry her hands.
“Oh negro, please. My taste in men? I told you that I liked you?” she wanted to know, cocking her head to the side.
I pulled down on my beard, walking into the restroom, so that she could walk out. I had to get to the sink to wash my hands.
“You didn’t have to say it. The way you kissed me told me everything that I needed to know love,” I went on. Instead of her walking out of the restroom, she stood here. She turned around, and she was face to face with me.
“There you go. Wrong again. I can’t help it if I’m a good kisser,” she said, not trying to admit that she was feeling me.
“It don’t have shit to do with you being a good kisser. Our kiss had passion. You can’t fake that kind of passion. So yeah, I stand on what I said. You chose right this time around. Your taste in men is right where the fuck it’s supposed to be this time around,” I was final with it, putting my hand on her hip, so that I could gently move her out of the way, and get to the sink. I needed to wash my hands.
It’s almost like my words took her breath away. She didn’t have shit else to say after that. Usually, she had all this slick shit to say, but this time around, she didn’t. She knew that I was right.
I finished washing my hands, and I dried them with paper towel. Amina and I walked back through the house, and we were back in the backyard. We went for the tables that had all the food. I picked up two plates, keeping one for myself, and giving the other one to her. I went around, pulling the foil off the pans, trying to see what was inside each pan. Just seeing the food caused my mouth to water. It was BBQ chicken, ribs, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, candied yams, pigeon peas and rice, corn on the cob, and so much more. There was another table that held finger foods and appetizers. That table had deviled eggs, hot wings, meatballs, crackers and cheese. I damn near started drooling once I saw the dessert spread. Peach cobbler, banana pudding, sweet potato pies, and poundcake. I knew that my grandma didn’t cook all this food on her own. Her, and her friends could cook, so I’m sure that everyone was in charge of something.
It was so much food for me to get it all on one plate, so I started off with my first plate, just putting the things on here that I really wanted, and once I finished, I would come back for seconds.
I’m thinking that I was going to sit at one of the tables, and kick it with Amina, but my grandma requested her, saying that she wanted to talk to her, so that’s where Amina went. I found a table where some of the men were. Men that I knew. My grandma was known for having these get togethers at her house, so I’ve seen a lot of these faces plenty of times in the past.
“What’s up G? How you doing, man?” Richard, one of my grandma’s neighbors said to me. Richard was cool. His wife wasn’t too far away, sitting at another table with the women.
“What’s up Richard? How you been, man?” I asked him, putting the plate down on the table, so that I could reach my hand out and shake his. I did the same thing with the other men that were at the table.
They had a game of blackjack going on. As soon as I finished eating, the plan was to hop in a game with them
“The last time we saw you, man you were going on and on about the bachelor life. Talking about how you lived a calm, peaceful life, where you didn’t have to answer to anybody. I see things have changed. Who that is that you brought with you?” Jamie asked me.
Jamie went to church with my grandma. Cool dude. I felt like his ass was crushing on my grandma though. He was just one of those niggas that was always going the extra mile when it came to my grandma. She wasn’t fuckin with him on that kind of level though. Every time I asked her about him, she would tell me that he was just her friend, and she didn’t see him as anything more than that. Even with my grandma being an older woman, that didn’t stop the niggas from being on her body. With that beautiful skin, her southern charm, her intelligence, and the grace and class that she possessed, she had all the old heads trying to get at her.
“Man, my life still calm and peaceful. Ain’t nothing changed. Don’t worry about who that is that I got with me. Worry about getting your thoughts in order with this game because as soon as I finish with my food, Ima beat all ya’ll ass in it. If ya’ll playing for money, I’m about to take all ya’ll money too,” I went on, making all of them laugh.
These old heads were nosy as hell, still trying to get me to open up about who Amina was to me. I wasn’t giving out that information to them. I kept it simple, letting them know that she was my sisters best friend. Just like Gail, and my grandma, they looked at me as if I was full of shit, and like they weren’t buyingit. I was glad when they decided to drop it though. I was able to catch a vibe, bobbing my head to the music, while I ate this delicious food, and watched the men play.
Every blue moon, I would look to the right of me, where I could see my grandma and Amina, chilling up under the gazebo. Neither of them saw me when I looked in their direction because they were so engrossed in their conversation. I didn’t have to be over there to know how the conversation was going. Both were strong women that knew how to carry a conversation, so I’m sure that it was flowing.
