In the Life (23 page)

"Hey dude, what's going on? How you been?" He said enthusiastically when he saw Jackson. He clasped his hand and brought him in for a brother hug.

"Good," he replied. "What are you doing here? I thought you had moved to Indiana."

"I did, but I am back. I am thinking about calling Matthew to see if he still had a spot for me at Bennigan's. You still there?"

"Yeah, I am." Jackson couldn't help but grimace at the thought of his employer. He was next in line at the counter. Jackson put the punch on the counter and asked for a bottle of Bacardi Superior and a Grey Goose.

"Damn, you drinking like that?" Sherrod started to laugh.

"I mean, I can throw ‘em back like that, but one of these is for my roommate."

"Oh okay." Sherrod said as he paid for both of their items, he had a big can of Arizona Mucho Mango juice and a pack of gum.

"So you still talk to Jackie?" Jackson asked as they walked down the street catching up. Jackie had been another waitress that had worked with them at the restaurant. She and Sherrod kicked it from time to time and Jackie was not quiet about how good the sex was. She would tell everyone and their mama the size of Sherrod’s dick and how well he could use it.

"Naw. That girl was more trouble than she was worth." They reached Jackson's building and Sherrod walked up with him. Jackson didn't question him about following him up. He was happy for the reunion. As Jackson went up the stairs, Sherrod was right behind him, but something was not right with him. He was walking really slowly and had this puzzled look on his face.

"Hey, Jackson. Did you say you had a roommate?" Sherrod said once they had reached the door.

"Yeah," he replied as he fumbled through his coat for the keys.

"Wow, this is awkward. Uh, I think I have a date with your roommate then."

Jackson was at a loss for words. Had he heard Sherrod correctly? Had Sherrod just admitted to being there to see his roommate? That just couldn't be. This could not be the date that Alonzo had mentioned that was coming by. Sherrod must have the wrong apartment or something. Clearly he was supposed to be meeting one of his neighbors. Maybe it was Deja or Robin who lived in the apartment above them. No, it was most likely Lauren in apartment 2E. She seemed to be more his style.

"I don't think you have the right address because my roommate is a guy."

"Your roommate is Alonzo, right?"

"But…" Sherrod had once again knocked Jackson off guard. Now there was no denying what was going on. Still, Jackson was dazed and past confused. "I don't understand because that would mean… I mean, you can't be here to… Are you trying to tell me that… Wait, can you run this back by me again?"

"I met Alonzo online on one of those websites, you know. He has come over to my place and we have chilled a few times."

"Chilled? Y’all have chilled?" Sherrod nodded his head. Jackson stepped away from the doorway and headed for the kitchen with his bags. "I need a drink."

Sherrod closed the door and followed Jackson to the kitchen where he saw the alcohol already being opened. Jackson retrieved two glasses from the cabinet and put a few cubes of ice in each. He handed one to Sherrod and then poured himself a rum and coke. Sherrod followed suit.

"So I guess that you are surprised, huh?"

"Well, yeah! I mean, I normally have a good sense about these things."

"Oh, you mean a gaydar?"

"I guess. Well, it must be out of order ‘cause I sure as hell didn't see this coming."

"That's a good thing." Sherrod smiled as he brought the glass up to his lips. He took a small sip to test out the strength of his beverage. He reached for the Bacardi bottle and poured a little bit more in the glass.

"I can't believe that you really get down. You could knock me over with a feather right about now." Jackson walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. Sherrod stayed in his spot leaning against the kitchen counter.

"Well, I don't like the whole thing with labels, but I guess you can call me bisexual. Truthfully, I have not messed around with a lot of dudes. Alonzo is actually my first."

"Damn does he know that?" Jackson sat up in his chair convinced that he was about to hear a very amusing story about how Alonzo probably claims to be the driving force in converting Sherrod to the other side.

"Naw. He doesn't know. He does know, however, that I haven't messed around like that." Sherrod put down his drink so that he could take off his coat. Jackson realized that he too had never taken his coat off as well and quickly got a little more comfortable.

Sherrod walked over to the table and draped his coat over the back of a chair. Now with his outerwear gone, Jackson could marvel at this man's wonderful physique just as he had in Bennigan's. The white graphic tee that Sherrod wore complimented his muscular frame. Jackson involuntarily licked his lips as Sherrod took a seat next to him.

"So what is your story then? How did Alonzo of all people become your first? You ain’t never tried to mess around before?" Jackson was intrigued and hungered to know more about this man.

"My story, huh? Well, I never really thought about guys like that until maybe junior year of college. Before then, I had girlfriends and all and considered myself straight as an arrow. Not even midway into the school year, my dorm roommate moved out. He went to live off campus so that meant I had a single room. Or so I thought. The housing folk sent me a letter saying that I was getting a new roommate. I was extremely unhappy about that. And then I meet him, Kelton Cellars. He was this gay choir boy who at first really got on my nerves. He and his friend Antwone were always in my room singing and being loud and it was annoying as hell. But we got cool after a while."

"What do you mean by cool?"

"Oh, it was nothing like that. Like I said, Alonzo was my first. But Kelton was cool. When I had questions, he would answer them and everything."

"So, being roommates with a gay dude made you bisexual? I don't get it."

"No, but it did open my eyes to a few things. And walking in on Kelton getting his freak on didn't help." Sherrod laughed. "So what about you?"

"What about me?" Jackson finished his drink and contemplated getting another one.

"What is your deal? I had heard people say that you were gay when we worked at Bennigan's, but I don't believe things until I hear it from the horse's mouth."

"That's cool. Well, if you must know…"

"Hey, you started it. Fair is fair." Sherrod chuckled again as both he and Jackson got up to get another drink. Jackson did the honors of making both of their drinks.

"I knew I was gay when I was like twelve. My next door neighbor was so cool and I had the biggest crush on him. His name was Brian Drake. He was sixteen and always would treat me like a little brother. Well, one day, I was over at his house and we were just chillin. We were watching Soul Train on television and he got up and started dancing. He was good and I just watched. He asked me if I knew how to dance and I said no. He kept trying to get me off the floor and start dancing with him, but I didn't want to. I couldn't dance. Brian said that he would teach me how to dance with a girl so he cut the television off and turned on the radio. So here I am making a complete fool of myself trying to keep up with him and everything. I had two left feet. Then that's when Aaliyah's At Your Best came on and he decided to teach me to slow dance."

"Oh, I know where this is going!"

"Well, you would be right. One thing lead to another and before you know it, my virginity is a thing of the past."

"So what happened then?"

"We kicked it until he left for college. Don't really see him now."

Jackson was about to divert the conversation's attention back to Sherrod when he heard Alonzo coming through the front door. He headed straight for the kitchen as he took off his scarf and jacket.

"Hey wassup. So, I see yall have started drinking without me."

"Yeah, we were just catching up. We actually used to work together," Sherrod commented.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Alonzo said casually. He glanced over and saw the unopened bottle of Grey Goose. "I guess that one is mine."

"Yeah, there is some juice in the bag too."

"Fabulous," Alonzo said with a smile as he snatched up the bag and grabbed a clean glass.

"Thanks so very much. Sherrod, you can come back to my room."

"It’s been nice talking to you." Sherrod got up from the table and followed Alonzo who had already marched back to his room.

"Yeah, same here." Jackson was sad that their private time had ended. It had been cool. Sherrod looked to have felt the same way as he grabbed his things and headed to the back. Jackson grabbed the Bacardi and went to his own room. He drank the last bit off the rum as he heard some Trey Songz being played. Jackson knew what that meant and what was going on in there.

Chapter 2

Jackson did not know why he still worked at Bennigan's. The clientele was ghetto, the drive was long, and the money was complete bullshit. Although he lived in southeast Chicago, he drove every working day to Lansing which is five minutes from the Indiana border to go to work. He could have transferred to the Bennigan's downtown. It would have been one 20 to 25 minute bus ride rather than an hour drive.

"Why? Why? Why?" Jackson asked himself as he sat in traffic on the Dan Ryan interstate. He was going to be cutting it close, but he still thought he could make it to work on time. Music. He needed music to get his mind off of things and to enjoy the ride. After fumbling through some CDs in his side console, he found the CD that he had been looking for. A soft, melancholy sounding piano entrance mellowed Jackson out as Dru Hill began to sing
We're Not Making Love No More.

He arrived at work with three minutes to spare. After a quick check in with one of his managers, he was thrust into complaining ass, worrisome, give me water with a lot of lemon and sugar because I am too cheap to pay for an actual drink bitch ass customers. The restaurant had been unusually busy for a Thursday evening. Jackson was busy making drinks for his table of eight when his coworker Mykel came up to him.

Mykel was one of the only employees that Jackson was friends with outside of work. They were in the same training class when they started working there. After they had seen each other one Friday night in Boystown, they started to club together when they both were not held up at work. Unfortunately, since Friday nights are always busy, neither of them ever got to leave Bennigan's at a good time.

"Hey Jackson. You making any money?"

"Hell naw! I just got four dollars on a fifty dollar check, but I knew they weren't gonna leave shit. When will they teach niggas how to tip? 15% or more! Is that so much to ask for?"

"You preaching to the choir here," Mykel said holding up his hands. "So ummm, did you hear that Caramel Apples is back?"

"Caramel Apples?"

"Yeah, you know. Caramel Apples, Bubble Booty, Two Christmas Hams Shoved in the Back of his Pants… Sherrod! He came in here earlier and talked to Matthew about coming back."

"Oh, for real?" Jackson was pleased that Sherrod was indeed coming back, but he did not tell Mykel that he had already talked to Sherrod about it. He knew that telling the truth about how he had met up with Sherrod could lead to outing him. Jackson was not that messy. Even though he believed Mykel to be trustworthy, telling him Sherrod's business was not in good taste.

"Man, I gotta tell you that you bout to drool when you see him! It looks like he is sexier than ever. Our eye candy is back!"

"Yeah, I will have to wait and see." Jackson forced a smile on his face that he hoped looked genuine. He put all the drinks on his tray and went to his table.