Brothers and Wives (22 page)

I sit there listening to him and fuming on the inside. I don’t care to hear his phony-ass speech. If I could throw up I would, but I don’t even feel like wasting a good turkey dinner on this dude.

Scottie continues talking. “One of the best things about today is because of a young lady who’s in this room right now.”

I stiffen.
Uh-oh. Here it goes. He’s about to embarrass me. What have I ever done to him?

“And because of how I feel about her, I want her to do the honors of having the first piece of this Thanksgiving cake.”

“Cute,” I say and glare at him. “Funny how this cake looks just like you.”

“Dani, babe, open the cake pan and let me slice a piece for you.” Perspiration covers Scottie’s forehead. He laughs nervously, gawking at me like he really wants me to taste the dessert he’s made.

“Go on. Take a look at the cake, Dani.”

Annoyed, I place my hand on top of the cake pan, then lift it.

“Oh my goodness,” I shriek. Instead of a cake, there’s a sparkling diamond and gold ring sitting inside a ring box. “What’s this?”

Scottie looks from me to my mother. “Mrs. Frazier, I love your daughter very much….” I hear gasps in the background. “And nothing would please me more than to get your blessing. ’Cause I wanna marry her and I need to know it’s okay with you.”

“Scottie, stop it….”

“Neil, please,” Anya says, her voice rising. She sounds so seriously angry that Neil shuts up.

Oh my God
, I say to myself.
This is unreal. It’s crazy
. Brenda beams at me and hugs me in a tight squeeze.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” she beams.

“You knew?” I ask. “You just pretended to dislike him when you were complaining about him in the restroom?” She nods and blows a kiss at me.

“Yep, I know how much he cares about you, and no other woman,” she answers, glancing at LaNecia. “You lucked out this time, Yell. My baby sis is gonna have a hubby.”

Ma nods and claps her hands. She turns to Scottie, who’s anxiously waiting by her side. “I give you my blessing under one condition. Promise me you’ll treat my daughter right.”

“I promise.”

“If I ever hear that you’ve hurt her …”

“Then give me a call,” Sola interrupts smiling graciously at my mom.

I cannot believe Scottie’s mom is taking up for me. I mean, the lady has always been fairly pleasant with me, but I would never claim that she’s absolutely crazy about me. So her gesture touches my heart in a deep way. And, instantly, the stress and strain of the entire day takes its toll. I laugh, giggle, smile, and cough uncontrollably.

“Damn, the girl is gonna choke to death before she even says yes to getting married,” Brenda teases.

Soon everyone in the room is excited. Everyone except LaNecia. From across the room, she glares at me with the most hateful look I’ve ever seen.

As soon as Scottie hugs my mom and then Sola, he gets down on one knee and takes my hands in his.

“Babe, I know we haven’t known each other long, but I know what I want. And what I want is you. Nobody but you. So you wanna do this? You wanna take a chance with your boy and get married?”

“Scottie, don’t play. This is unreal.”

“It’s not fake, baby. It’s real. I love you, Danielle Frazier.”

“Go on, say yes,” Vette says. “You’re like family anyway.”

“I hear you and I know what you mean. And I am so touched and so moved, Scottie, believe me. I–I care about you so much, it hurts. And you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time.”

“So is that your long-ass way of saying yes?”

“That’s my way of saying ‘Um, I gotta get back with you on that.’”

“Eww, I knew that bitch was crazy,” LaNecia says and
storms from the dining room. Karetha gazes at me like she can’t believe what I just said. She leaves the room, too.

Scottie looks confused. “What did you say? You don’t want to marry me?”

“Yes, I do, I do want to marry you, Scottie.”

“Then that’s a yes.”

“No, it’s not. It’s a ‘Wait a second and let me think.’”

“What’s there to think about? I love you, Dani.”

“I know but …”

“But what?”

“Stop yelling at me. You’re confusing me. I–I just …”

Rushes of frantic voices fall on top of one another. I see mouths moving, but I can’t hear anything. My eyes remain transfixed on the ring. Three round shimmering diamonds are clustered in the center of the gold band. Scottie quickly snatches the ring off the cake pan and flees the dining room. The front door opens and slams.

My sister’s lips curl into a frown.

“You really fucked up this time, Yell. You see how big those diamonds are? Oops,
were?”

Scottie’s behind the wheel
of his Escalade speeding down Airport Boulevard. Where he’s going, he doesn’t know or care. When he sees the outline of a neighborhood patrol car, he barely hits his brakes.

Just go on and take me the fuck away. I don’t give a damn. I don’t care about anything or anybody
.

His cell phone rings incessantly. First the screen reads “Mom.” Then “Sister.” Then “Necia.” Then “Mom” again. Then his phone starts making bleep noises. Texts fill his Inbox.

One part of him feels glad that people are trying to get in touch with him.
But none of these is who I want to hear from
.

The Escalade glides along, going west. Scottie reaches the Beltway, turns right, and figures out what he ought to do.

She said she needs to think about it. If you love someone, there’s nothing to think about. Oh! Right! The woman doesn’t really love me. She’s been going through the motions. She’s been too polite to tell me she really ain’t feeling me like I’ve been feeling her
.

Scottie continues to think about where he went wrong. He knows that he and Dani have been experiencing good
times the past several weeks. Their daily routine has consisted of waking up in each other’s arms whenever he spent the night with her. But many times she’s told him to his face that he wakes up to go to work way too early for her tastes. Five-thirty sometimes. And she has to be at work at eight-thirty, sometimes nine.

“Honey, as much as I get a kick out of reaching out at night and feeling your hot body next to mine, I enjoy sleeping in. So you can’t spend the night all the time. Okay?” That’s the news she gave him not too long ago. He felt hurt, but he understood. He figured he needs to know as much info about her quirks and preferences as possible. Since he’s been planning on making Dani his wife, some things he just needs to know.

1. No matter how much she begs, try not to feed her anything that has more than ten grams of sugar in it. Her blood sugar will go up, and that’s no good for her health.
   

2. If he uses her toilet and lifts the seat up, remember to put it back down. And if he accidentally pees on the toilet, clean the shit up (her words, not his).
   

3. Please be a good guy and do things like taking out the trash from her apartment without her having to ask. That gesture means he cares about her and is willing to do those manly things that she’s always been forced to handle on her own.
   

4. If they get into a big argument, don’t even let his mind consider putting his hands on her. He told her, “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. I can never hit a woman.” She laughed and told him, “Yeah right. That’s what thousands of men have said. And the judge sentenced them
   to capital punishment, and now these men are sitting on death row thinking about their last meal.”
   

5. If you need to borrow money, skip over asking Dani. Dani told Scottie a man should never rely on a woman for money. He should be responsible enough, or have enough hustle to get money on his own without nickel-and-diming his girl. She told him, “If you can’t afford me, you shouldn’t be with me.” So he works as much OT as he can. And he’s picked up a few deejay jobs here and there just so he can make the kind of money it’s going to take to make Dani a keeper.
   

6. You are not Braxton’s father. You are not Braxton’s father. Dani has reminded Scottie of that fact a few times. He would try and discipline Brax, who sometimes insists on his way. When Dani would remind him, he’d insist, “I’m acting like his uncle, not his daddy.” Dani took one look at Scottie and said, “Hmm, I’ll be the one who decides that.”
   

7. Don’t even think about asking to move in. Dani told Scottie that she hates to bring up her past, but one time she met a man who she really started liking. Before she knew it, every time he came over to her place, he’d bring a shirt here, pants, razor kit, gym shoes, and some hand weights. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she told the guy one day when she noticed he’d stolen the extra key to her apartment as if he had a right to it. “If I ever decide that you and I should live together, it’s going to be a mutual decision. Not because you’ll argue that all your shit is over at my place anyway.”
   

8. Women. “I am faithful to you.” That’s all she told him a month ago. She said what she had to say, then walked away. Scottie read between the lines. He knows Dani
   has nothing to go on except her trust in him when he swears he’s not fucking LaNecia. But Scottie also knows that although she may not say it out loud, maybe it’s not only LaNecia she’s referring to. LaNecia isn’t the only woman with a pretty face, hot body, and a willingness to have sex with Scottie.
   

Scottie travels along the highway and drives until he comes to the Katy Freeway. Then he starts traveling west on I-10. He drives until he finds himself sitting in his vehicle outside Dani’s apartment. He sits and he waits.

Heavy eyelids and a wave of sleepiness fall over him. He’s sitting in the driver’s seat, leaning his head against the coolness of the hard window, when he hears a knock. He jumps and peers out somberly.

Dani struggles to hold Brax in her arms. Scottie jumps out of the car, takes Brax from Dani, and together they enter her apartment. Scottie carries his nephew to his bedroom; removes his clothes, shoes, and socks; and dresses him in his PJs. He tucks the boy in bed, gives him a kiss on the forehead, and secures a stuffed animal between his little arms, then closes the door.

Dani is in the living room, perched in a far corner of her sofa, hugging an orange-and-brown-striped accent pillow. Scottie, with his hands lodged in his pants pockets, sits near her.

“What you thinking about?” he softly asks.

“Us.”

“And?”

“I think you took things the wrong way.”

“How else do you expect me to take them?”

“If you want us to be together, you’re going to have to be patient and understanding.”

“I’m listening.”

“Understanding means giving me time to explain myself. Maybe I—I didn’t say it very well over there, but you gotta trust that I mean well. I dunno, Scottie. You absolutely caught me off guard. The entire day actually. My family coming in like that. My sister pretending like she disliked you. Then an unexpected public proposal, mind you.” She laughs, then turns serious. “It felt like a fucking dream. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna wake up, and it would be the day after Thanksgiving, and I’d be waking you up in bed, trying to explain to you this crazy dream I had.”

“So you think all of this is a game?” He stands up. “A man needs to be told point-blank. Men can’t catch hints, so don’t throw them.”

“I wasn’t throwing any….”

“If you don’t want me, tell me. I think that’s the best way to handle things.”

“See, there you go. You’re getting upset for no reason.”

“I made a complete fool out of myself. Did you see how happy Neil looked when you were fucking around back there, not sure if you wanted to be with me or not? I swear he almost came on himself. Maybe you ain’t over my brother like I hoped you were.”

Dani stands and stares at him incredulously. “Okay, now you’re wrong. I–I don’t care about Neil like that anymore. Life has gone on. Don’t you know that?”

“Do
you
know that?”

“Well …” She bites her lip. “Maybe you shouldn’t propose to a woman who has a child with your brother.”

“So that’s what this is about? I knew it. You’re still fucking in love with Neil.”

“Scottie, don’t say that.”

“Why not? Because it’s the truth?”

“It–it’s complicated, Scottie. Yes. I’ll admit that much. But it’s not what you think.”

“Then what is it exactly? Explain!”

“Well, in the beginning, it was kind of confusing and somewhat freaky, actually. I’d never ever in my life dated two guys from the same family. It felt weird. Then it felt all right because I developed genuine feelings for you. You are kind, funny, different. We click in a way I wasn’t expecting. I let down my guard.”

“But I didn’t compare to him, huh?”

“Scottie,” she begs. “Please. But then I got scared and started worrying. I wondered what I would say if I ran into anyone I knew. What would I say if they asked ‘Who’s this guy? How’d you meet?’ Would they be disgusted when they found out we met at Neil’s family reunion? Would they think I’m so desperate for a man that I will do anything to have one? Scottie, I could hardly sleep at night sometimes, I’d be freaking out about things so much, I–,” she says in a quieter, calm tone, “I even ran to the drugstore and bought a bar of chocolate.”

“You what?”

“Yes.” She nods emphatically. “The stress got to me so much I thought the only thing that would soothe it would be either sex or chocolate. You were gone, so sex was out of the question.”

“Hmm, well, that’s good to hear. I’d rather you turn to a Snickers bar than another man.” He laughs bitterly. “Especially if that man turns out to be my brother.”

“See, that’s my point, Scottie. I am hoping you’ve thought everything out.”

“You think I don’t wonder if you and I will have a big-ass fight one night, and you go crawling back to him behind my back?”

She nods, her bottom lip trembling.

“I have thought and thought about all this. Wondering if I should give it up, wondering if I’m being too hard on myself, trying to make myself into a better man.” He pauses. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s easier just to go back to being a manwhore and screwing the whole thing.”