A Good Dude (6 page)

He grinned. “The whole city is called ‘Cowtown.’ They used to do cattle runs right down Main Street. Back in the day, there were cowboys everywhere. The stockyards still look like that. Everyone’s got on boots and big hats.”

“You lived here your whole life?”

“Yeah. It’s cool. Most parts. I’d love to travel one day. I’ve never even been out of the state.”

“You definitely need to see more places,” Candace agreed.

“I plan to,” he said. “I know I don’t look like much, but I’m going to be a doctor.”

“You’re pre-med?”

“Not till I get to Texas Lutheran. I’m working on my basics now. That place is expensive.”

TLU was the largest and most prominent university in the city. Famed NFL running back LaDainian Tomlinson hailed from the prestigious school.

“Pre-med is hard,” Candace said.

“What’s your major?” he asked.

“Physical therapy.”

“You wanna be a tech?”

“No. I want to be a physical therapist.”

He smiled. “That’s cool. Everyone wants to be a respiratory
tech
, or a dental
tech
. No one wants to do the real thing anymore.”

They approached her car. Candace pulled her keys from her purse and disabled the alarm. The stranger’s eyes grew big when he saw which vehicle chirped for her.

“This is your car?”

“Yeah.”

“
Man.
” He shook his head. “I was going to ask you out, but now I know I can’t afford you. You wanna know what I drive? Never mind. I’m not even going to tell you.”

Candace laughed and blushed, glad to finally know what he wanted.

“Okay, I lied,” he said. “I’m still going to ask you out. You probably won’t want to go in my car, but we could get lunch in the cafeteria, after classes if you want to.”

She chuckled. “I don’t even know your name.”

“I didn’t tell you my name? I planned this whole conversation out in my head over and over. I can’t believe I forgot that. My name is Celestino. Celestino DeLeon. My friends call me Tino.”

The only time a Latin accent showed up was when he pronounced his full name. He sounded like Ricky Ricardo when he said that.

Celestino. Celestino DeLeon.

“You
planned
this conversation, Tino?”

“For weeks,” he admitted. “That sound stupid to you?”

“No. Not really. It’s sweet, but—”

“No. Please don’t say ‘but.’ Nothing good ever comes after
but
. Well, some butts are good. Yours is—
God, did I just say that
? I didn’t mean it. I promise I’ve never looked at your butt.”

She laughed. “Tino, you’re a trip—”

“Okay, I look at it sometimes.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Okay, every day.
Dammit
! I can’t help it. But I don’t stare at it. I just, I just think you’re awesome.”

Today Candace wore a gray sweater with tight blue jeans. She wondered how long Tino had followed behind staring at her lady lumps before he spoke. She was devoted to Rilla, but couldn’t help feeling excited about Tino’s advances. This guy was handsome, smart, and charming as hell.

“Tino, I have a boyfriend,” she said almost grudgingly. His smile fell for the first time. “Damn. I knew you were going to say that.”

“I’m sorry,” Candace said. “Honestly, I think you’re pretty cool. You make me feel special. If I didn’t have a boyfriend, I would definitely go out with you.”

“Really?” His smile was back now.

“For real,” she said.

“Cool,” he said and took a couple of steps back. “You’ll go out with me if y’all break up?”

Candace giggled. “Sure, Tino.”

“Will you tell me when y’all break up?” he pressed. “I want to be first in line. There’s a lot of guys here who like you.”

That was news to Candace. “Who?”

“I’m not telling you,” Tino said as if this was common sense. “Some of them look better than me.”

She laughed again. It felt good to be happy.

“All right. I’ll see you later, Candace,” he said. “We’ve got Economics tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there,” she promised.

“I really look forward to seeing you,” he said and turned to go.

Candace got into her car, smiling big. She was still cheesing when she made it to her apartment complex.

* * *

LaTrisha Turner was a twenty-four-year-old mother of three boys. Four-year-old Peter was the oldest. Little Sammy just finished potty training, and Willie Jr. was still on the bottle. All of these children had different fathers. Petey and Sammy’s dads were locked up, doing big time for dope pedaling. Willie’s father found himself on the wrong side of a .44 Magnum two days before his son was born.

Trisha was unemployed and unmotivated to do anything to better her position. She was the woman Rilla said Candace should go to with her baby-rearing questions. She would also have helpful information on getting doctor visits and government aid. Candace never thought she’d be in need of such help, but, unless she called her parents, that was the only help she was likely to get.

Trisha thought she should man up and bite the bullet. “It’s gonna have to be done sooner or later.”

“Who says it has to be done?”

They sat in Trisha’s living room, each girl with a baby in her arms. Candace held Little Sammy. He was too old to be running around topless, but such was the case. He was also too old to get toted around, but the two-year-old had a thing for Candace. Whenever she visited, he managed to get in her lap within minutes.

At one o’clock in the afternoon, Trisha still wore a nightgown and robe. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but the roots were fuzzy and unkempt. She was dark-skinned with a red tint, the color of mahogany. She had large eyes, a pudgy nose, and thick lips. Candace didn’t think she was attractive, but at least three guys felt differently.

Trisha breastfed Willie Jr. openly. Her boob was huge. The baby gobbled on her nipple so hard that Candace’s were starting to hurt.

“
I
say you gotta call them,” Trisha said. “That’s they grandbaby. You know they’ll help if they know you’re pregnant.”

“They didn’t sound like they wanted to help last time I talked them,” Candace reported.

“When was that?”

“I only talked to them once, when I first got here.”

“What’d they say?”

“I talked to my mom first. She was crying, trying to get me to go home, but then my dad took the phone and started talking crazy. He’s not even my real dad. He’s my stepdad.”

“What’d he say?” Trisha asked.

“He said I was stupid. I was disgracing the family. He said if this is the life I wanted to live, then so be it. Don’t ask them for shit.”

“You’ve been gone a while,” Trisha noted.

“Almost eight months,” Candace confirmed.

“Yo daddy said that long time ago, girl. You need to call them back. I’m telling you, it’ll be different now.”

“Why?”

“Cause they miss you more. Especially if they knew you were pregnant.”

“I don’t know,” Candace said. “I wanted to call and talk to them when things were good. So I could tell them I was doing all right. I don’t want to call with problems.”

“Why?”

“Cause they gonna say, ‘
I told you so
.’ I don’t want to hear that.”

“You don’t want to raise a baby by yourself, either.”

“I’m not by myself. Rilla’s happy about it.”

“You finally told him?”

“Yeah, this morning. He was excited.”

“Girl, all men is like that. They be like, ‘
Ooh, I can’t wait till you have my baby, my little Raul
.’ ”

Candace laughed. “That’s
exactly
what he said.”

“I already know. This boy’s daddy,” Trisha patted Willie Jr. on the head, “he called everybody he knew to tell them I was pregnant. And this was two in the morning.”

“Rilla didn’t do all that,” Candace said.

“Did you tell him about CC?” Trisha asked.

Besides Candace and CC (and whoever else
he
might have told), Trisha was the only one who knew about the CC connection.

“No,” Candace said. “And I sure as hell can’t tell him now. You should have seen how happy he was.”

“You shoulda told him when it first happened,” Trisha said. In retrospect, that probably would have been the best course of action, but hindsight is 20/20. “Do you think CC’s gonna tell him?” Trisha asked.

Just the thought of it made Candace’s heart drop.

“I don’t know. I feel like he won’t . . . . If he was gonna tell, I think he would have done it as soon as Rilla got out.”

“He was probably scared to tell,” Trisha ventured. “He would have had a lot of explaining to do.”

“Not really,” Candace said. “He could just tell him I came on to him.”

“But you still not supposed to sleep with yo homeboy’s girl. Even if they throw theyself at you.”

Thinking about that incident made Candace sick to her stomach.

“Whose baby do you think it is?” Trisha asked. Candace knitted her eyebrows. “How am I supposed to know?”

“You should know,” Trisha said. “You should
feel it
.”

“It’s Rilla’s, then,” Candace said. “I feel like it’s Rilla’s.”

“Then leave it like that,” Trisha said.

But how impossible was that? Was Candace supposed to take her assumption and run with it like it was fact? The awful truth was she really believed CC was her baby’s father. In the eight months they were together, she and Rilla had quite a few
accidents
, but never were there repercussions. After only
one night
with CC, Candace was suddenly with child. That didn’t prove anything conclusively, but it was one hell of a coincidence.

Too much of a coincidence, in Candace’s opinion.

* * *

Trisha was the only person Candace knew who didn’t keep her doors locked at all times. This was because her hands were always busy with a bottle or a dirty diaper. She didn’t feel like getting up to answer it, so friends were free to come and go at will, giving her apartment a television sitcom atmosphere.