Another Man Will (5 page)

C
HAPTER
5

Crystal

I
wa s ready to go pick up my babies. Being home alone and listening to the sound of nothing was boring. It was only nine, but I was ready for bed. The sound of Syreeta saying, “You're just a whore-ass baby mom” was still ringing in my ear. I started thinking of everything I could have said back to her but still couldn't think of anything that would have hurt as bad.

I needed to go somewhere, get out of the house. The only friend I had was a girl name Portia, whom I went to middle school with. We talked here and there. Whenever I ran into her, we would always exchange numbers and she would always say I needed to go out with her. Maybe she was out and I could meet up with her. I called her, and Portia answered with all this noise in the background. I could barely make out what she was saying over all the loud music. I asked her where she was and what she was doing.

“I'm at Rascals. Come down. We're having a fish fry for Jeremiah's football team.”

“A fish fry? That sounds so very country.”

“It's not country at all. We're raising money for the team's new uniforms, and it is Wagner's unofficial reunion. You should come down, too.”

“I probably won't remember anyone from Wagner, girl.”

“That's why I have my yearbook. Come on, Crystal! If nothing else, come out and support my son. Get a platter and leave.”

“All right. Okay. I'll come down. Let me get dressed.”

 

 

An hour later I was walking through the door of Rascals. Rascals Lounge was what most people would consider a hole-in-the-wall hood bar. It was crammed with people and had loud music and the aroma of fried fish and fries. A thick girl with a silver ball piercing right over her lip was collecting money. I paid fifteen dollars; she gave me a ticket and pointed in the direction of Portia. As soon as Portia saw me, she rushed over and gave me a hug.

“Who did you come with?” she asked.

“No one.”

“Okay. Then come over here with me.” She had envelopes filled with tickets and dollars hanging out of them. She was multitasking, talking to me, texting, and greeting other people as they walked by. Over the music she leaned into me and asked me if I wanted a drink.

“No, but thanks. I'm going to get this food and probably leave.”

“No, you have to stay out for a minute. I need someone normal near me.”

“Why you say that?”

“Girl, everybody here I see from Wagner looks so old and fat. I'm, like, ‘I know we didn't go to school together.' Anyway, you look good. You can't tell you had three babies.”

“Thanks, but I feel like it.”

A skinny older man approached us both and said, “Ladies, I got that MAC lip gloss and some smell goods.” He pulled an assortment of lip gloss and an array of perfume out of a yellow plastic bag. I was thinking,
Who would buy lip gloss off a man in a bar?
when Portia pulled out her money and bought a bottle of perfume and some lip gloss. The man thanked her, and right after he left, a girl with a big belly came over. The big-bellied girl had a brown drink in her glass. It didn't look like soda, either.

“I know you not drinking and you pregnant, Rhonda,” Portia said.

“Please. All my kids had a sip, and they're all fine. It's okay to drink when you pregnant, just not every day.”

“Right. If you say so. Well, thanks for coming out and supporting my son, girl. Make sure you get a platter. Take one home for your husband.”

“Yeah, I might as well get him one, too.” She paid for her platter, gave Portia a hug, and walked away. As soon as she turned her back, Portia whispered to me that Rhonda's baby was going to come out with twelve toes. We laughed, and then Portia tapped one of the bartenders and told him not to serve Rhonda anymore.

Everyone was approaching Portia like she was the queen of the bar. We talked about our kids and jobs and then she saw someone she knew.

“I haven't seen him in years. Tap that guy for me,” she told me.

I tapped him, he turned around, and I said, “She wants you.”

He looked over and said, “Portia Stevenson.”

“You can tell when you went to school with somebody. They always yelling out your first and last name,” said Portia. “What's up, Rell? Where Shareef at?” They leaned into one another and gave each other a quick friendly hug.”

“He doing good. Got a wife and a son.”

“For real? When you see him, tell him I said, ‘What's up?' ”

The man said that he would, then Portia told me she would be right back and the guy turned his attention to me. He asked how I had been.

I didn't know him, so I said faintly, “Fine.”

“So now you going to act like you don't know me? I sat behind you in sixth grade, and we had Mr. Hafler, the science teacher that had that real bad dandruff. Tell me you don't remember that.”

“Yes, I remember him, but . . .”

“But what? You don't remember
me?
Terell Glover? How can you forget me? We used to go together.”

“We did not,” I said, laughing.

“We did. You were my girl for, like, a week. You broke my heart, but I got over it.”

“I didn't. You are lying.”

“No, you was my girl. But, anyway, you're still looking good. Pretty as ever. No more big plaits in your hair, huh?”

I laughed some more, wondering how he remembered the ugly big braid my mom would give us when she didn't have enough time to do our hair. “You have a very good memory.”

“What? The Turner girls? How could I forget? Y'all always were sitting on the steps with y'all's pop. He always had that look, like, ‘Don't look at my daughters.' Your older sister was real, real pretty. What was her name?”

“I don't know. Now are you going ask me about my sister?” I asked playfully.

“No, hold up. I remember her name. It was Colette.”

“No, you're wrong. It's Yvette.”

“Okay, so I'm talking to the sister I always wanted, anyway,” he said, flirting with me.

And I fell for it, because I started to blush.

“Do you still live around here?” he asked.

“No, I live in West Philly now.”

“So what are you doing with yourself?”

“Like work?”

He nodded yes.

“Uh, I work downtown at ACR Cable Vision. I'm a customer service rep. How about you?”

“I just got out of the army. I did two tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan.”

“Wow. How was it?”

“Really hot. Just think of the hottest summer day times ten.”

“Whew, that's hot.”

“I just got out about a year ago, broke up with my girlfriend, and moved home. I was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. I was going to stay down there, but I missed being home with my family.”

“Really? I think I would love to move outside of Philly, see something different. I've never lived anywhere else.”

“Yeah, but it gets lonely. So do you have any kids?”

“Yeah, I have a son and two daughters.”

“Wow, three kids. I knew someone would marry you.”

I snickered quietly. “Kids, yes, but I'm not married, and me and my children's fathers aren't together.”

“Oh, okay. I understand how sometimes relationships just don't work out. I don't have any kids yet, but how old are yours?”

“My youngest just turned three months.”

“Three months. So you just had a baby.”

“Yup, I did,” I said self-consciously. Judging by his facial expressions, I knew what he was probably thinking.
You just had the baby, and you not with the dad already.

“
Well, I'm about to get a drink. You want one?” he asked.

I let him know that I was okay, and he walked to the other side of the bar and told me he would be back. However, I knew he wouldn't be back. Who would be interested in someone with three kids?

Surprisingly, Terell returned with his drink and my platter, which Portia had sent over with him. I ate my food, and for about an hour we reminisced about back in the day, and he insisted on making me remember who he was.

“I bet you remember my cousin. She was two grades ahead of us. Octavia Glover. She used to always fight everyone.”

“Oh yeah, now I remember you. You were short.”

“Yeah, I grew up. I prayed every night, ‘Please let me be taller than Octavia.' We were her cousins, and she would try to fight us, too.”

“What is Octavia doing now?”

“Now she is beating prisoners up. She is a corrections officer now in New York.”

“That's good. Well, Rell, I didn't plan on staying this long. I'm going to find Portia and leave. It was nice seeing you again.”

“You, too. I can walk you to your car if you like.”

“Okay.”

Terell Glover escorted me to my car, and then he gave me his number and told me I had to call him to let him know I had got in the house safely. I called him, and we were on the phone for the next two hours. He was funny and interesting, but I was becoming sleepy. I let out an uncontrollable loud yawn.

“Am I that boring?”

“No, I apologize. I'm just so tired. I had a long day.”

“I understand. Well, good night, Crystal Turner. I wish I could see you before you go to sleep.”

“See me where?” I asked.

“Come see you at your house.”

“You just saw me and talked to me two hours straight. You're going to come to my house at four in the morning? It's too late.”

“You are right, but it would have been nice,” he said in a little boy voice.

“Well, if you really want to see me, I guess that would be okay.”

“All right. Text me your address and I'll be on my way.”

I texted him the address and began to straighten up my home. I was a little nervous about seeing Rell again, but actually kind of happy to have some male company.

About twenty minutes later, I peeked out the window and saw a black Dodge Charger pull up in front of my house. Rell got out of the car. I opened the door.

“You got here fast,” I said as I turned on the television and the fan and he sat on the sofa.

“I didn't want you to fall asleep on me.”

“I wouldn't have fallen asleep on you.”

“I couldn't tell, the way you was yawning. I didn't want to take any chances.” Smiling appreciatively, Rell looked me over. “You still looking pretty, I see.”

“Thank you. I couldn't have changed that much. You just saw me.”

“You most definitely didn't. So are your kids asleep?” he said, looking around the living room at their pictures.

“No, they're with my parents. I have to pick them up early in the morning.”

“Oh, so I don't have to be quiet?” Being silly, he raised his voice.

“No, you don't have to be quiet.”

“Well, where your baby's pop at? Y'all really not together?”

“Nope, we not together. What about you? I know you had a girlfriend down in North Carolina.”

“I did, but she got rid of my baby and didn't tell me about it.”

“So you broke up over that? Why did she get an abortion?”

“I have no idea. I'm not sure she knows why she did it. I think she was just used to being with dudes that didn't care or didn't want any kids. But she should have known better than that. I would never leave my baby, like my dad left me.”

“Your dad left you?”

“Yeah, he left my mom while she was pregnant with me. I don't care about him. I never met him. My mom kept it moving and raised me and my brother on her own. So, anyway, after she did that, I couldn't look at her the same. We started having problems, and we just broke up.”

“Well, my daughter's father kind of did the opposite. He begged me to have my daughter and then demanded a blood test. I gave him one, just to shut him up.”

“Yeah, he sounds like a clown, just like her. After all that, I just left her everything, even my car. I just knew when I got back here, I would start over and rebuild everything. I'm staying with Mom and driving my brother's car for now.”

“You left her with everything? Should have at least taken your car.”

“I probably should have taken the car. I regret it a little, but it's nothing for me to get everything again. I'll have another car and be on my feet in no time. I do have some money saved up, so don't worry—I'm not a bum.”

“I didn't think you were, but what kind of work are you going to do now?”

“I have a few things lined up. My brother is trying to get me in with his job. He works at Seisman Bread Company. I already had one interview. I'm just waiting for them to call me back. It's one of those companies where you have to know someone to get in, but once you in, you can make so much money. My brother's wife went to college, and he makes more than her now. He be killing it with overtime. They got a nice house and three cars.”

“Yeah, companies like that are good to work for. My dad just retired from the Tastykake factory. He did make good money.” I noticed him look in the direction of the fan. “Are you hot? I can turn the air on.”

“No, the fan is fine,” he said as he took his shirt off. I was able to get a look at his muscular arms. He had just enough muscles to make my mind wander. As vulnerable as I was feeling, it probably wasn't a good idea to have him in my house, sitting next to me on my sofa. I hadn't had sex in six months. Three months before Kori was born and the past three months, because I was going through all this with Kenneth.