Nasty Girls (29 page)

I tittered.

“Y'all behave around company,” Big Ma snapped. “Casey
brought his new girlfriend home, and y'all acting like y'all don't have no home trainin'.”

“Sorry, Big Ma,” Travis apologized.

“Hey, Big Ma,” Casey greeted, giving her a hug and kiss on her cheek.

“Hey, baby. I'm glad you came.”

“You know I couldn't miss spendin' Thanksgivin' with you and my family for the world,” Casey proclaimed.

For the next hour, I was introduced to family and friends, and they all made me feel at home. I'll admit: Being with Casey's family, for sure made me forget about my problems at home. I never had a Thanksgiving like this. It felt like the
Brady Bunch
up in here.

The aroma coming from the kitchen made my mouth water. I couldn't wait to eat. That soul Thanksgiving dinner was calling me, and I hadn't eaten anything all day.

“Okay, everybody—dinner is ready,” Tracy broadcast to the family.

“A'ight, that's what I'm talking about. About time we get to eat. I done lost twenty pounds waiting fo' y'all to serve us,” Travis uttered.

“Boy . . . you be quiet,” another family member spat at him.

The table was set up beautiful and superb. We began to take our seats in the family room, where I sat next to Casey. The long dining room table seated ten and was draped in a long white cloth with Thanksgiving dinner spread out across it. I stared at macaroni and cheese, yams, greens, mashed potatoes, rice, stuffing, sweet potato pies, and the main meal—a giant brown turkey that sat in the middle of it all. The children sat at a nearby table and was just as hungry.

“Okay, before we eat, grace must be said. So I want everyone to stand up and say what they're thankful for,” Big Ma said. She sat at the head of the table, looking at everyone including me.

Big Ma began first, as she went into being thankful for being able to spend another year with her family, and how the Lord blessed her with her health for so long and beautiful and loving children, and grandchildren. She also thanked Casey for coming, and then she peered at me, and said, “Also, I'm thankful fo' him bringin' home such a beautiful young woman. Jade, welcome to our family, and may you have many more holidays with us.”

I blushed and damn near choked up. “Thank you,” I returned.

After Big Ma, Tracy spoke, and then they continued around the table until they came to Casey. Casey stood up, cleared his throat, and began his quick speech.

“First of all, I'm thankful fo' my lovin' and crazy family. Wit'out y'all, I don't know where I'd be right now. I'm thankful fo' my career in law enforcement. My health. My son. My good looks,” he joked, causing quick titters around the table. He then looked down at me and continued with, “I'm also thankful fo' meeting such a lovely young woman. Welcome to the family, Jade.”

I was so caught up and stunned. I smiled, looking up at Casey, and thought he was something else.

“Your turn, miss.” Big Ma was referring to me.

I was nervous—these people had so many kind words to say about me, and they accepted me so easily into their home that I was lost for words. But I stood up, peered around the room, and began with, “I'm so glad to be here right now, y'all are truly a blessin'. I mean, I never had a Thanksgiving like this; my family is not as tight as y'all. But I love this, and I want to definitely be
a part of this. So I'm very thankful fo' spendin' some time wit' y'all right now.”

“We're glad to have you here,” Big Ma proclaimed, and everyone else agreed.

I took my seat, and Casey took my hand into his. He peered at me and smiled. “You did nice,” he whispered in my ear.

After me, the children spoke, and then it was time to eat.

“It's about time,” Travis said. “Y'all took so long that I thought the turkey was goin' to get bored, wake up, and bounce.”

There were a few quick laughs, and then everyone dug in at the table fixing themselves a quick plate. Oh, God, the food was delicious. The mac and cheese, the yams, and the stuffing were the best. I had seconds and thirds.

“So,” Aunt Jerry began, interrupting our meal, “tell me, Jade, how did the two of y'all meet?”

The question caught me by surprise. I looked at Casey, not knowing how to answer. But Casey looked at his aunt Jerry and replied, “I met Jade durin' my shift. There was an incident in her buildin' which I had to take care of. Before I left, Jade and I locked eyes, and let's just say, we took it from there.”

“Ah, that's nice,” another one of Casey's cousins uttered out.

“So, Jade, what do you do fo' a livin'?” Big Ma asked.

Another question I wasn't prepared to answer. I didn't want to be honest and say I lived off my man, or now my drug-dealing ex-boyfriend. So I lied and told them, “I'm in school now.”

“Oh, that's nice. What school?” Big Ma continued to pry.

“York.”

“Oh. Tracy, you went there. What semester?”

“Big Ma . . . ,” Casey chimed in, “these yams are great.”

“I know, baby. Tracy made them.”

“Fo' real? Tracy, you startin' to burn in the kitchen like Big Ma now.”

“You ain't tried nothin' yet. Wait till y'all get a whiff of my dessert,” Tracy said. “I got cheesecake in the fridge.”

“Cheesecake—girl, you better bring that bad boy out here,” Travis said. “You know I love me some cheesecake.”

And like that, Casey managed to get the subject off me and had his whole family hyped up over some cheesecake. Casey glanced at me and winked his left eye, assuring me that I was in good hands. I smiled and continued with my meal.

By evening, I had a full belly and didn't want to leave. Most of the guys were crowded around the TV, watching football, and the women chatted it up in the kitchen as they cleared the table and began washing dishes, with the children running around the house.

“You okay?” Casey asked.

“Yeah, I'm good.”

“I'm goin' outside fo' some fresh air. You wanna join me?” he asked.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” I retrieved my leather jacket from the closet and followed Casey out the front door.

I zipped up my leather as the cold air pinched at my skin. “Damn, it got kinda cold out here.”

“It's a'ight,” Casey said. “This that manly weather. Get your skin rough and shit.”

“Please, I'm a tropical sista. I ain't fo' the cold. All the cold does fo' you is make your skin ashy.”

“You wanna go back inside?” he asked.

“No. I'm okay fo' now. We can walk. Beside, gives me some time to spend alone wit' you.”

We walked down the quiet suburban block and continued talking under the canopy of stars. “Thank you for that inside,” I mentioned.

“Nah, it ain't a problem. My peoples can sometimes become a little nosy. But they will look out fo' you if they like you.”

“I wish I grew up around a family like yours. Maybe things would have been different fo' me,” I mentioned.

“Why you say that?”

“I don't know. I feel my life is so fucked up. My mother, she's down south, and she don't come to New York anymore. Shit, we hardly talk. The last time I saw her, I was nineteen. And my father never been around. I don't know the bastard, and I don't care to know him now. I've been on my own since I was seventeen, Casey. I don't have any siblings, but I got a few cousins. And my family ain't tight like yours.”

“How did you meet that asshole?” Casey asked, and I know he was referring to James.

“When I was seventeen, when I was on Jones Beach during Greek Fest, and I thought I was so in love with him. I moved in with him a year after we met. I thought I was so in love at the time. James couldn't do no wrong,” I admitted.

“That's how it be sometimes. . . . Cowards like him, they so smooth, so charmin', and always quick to flash money and cars to catch a woman's attention. But soon when they hook you, that's when things change. Jade, I've been around many men like James, and I see the terrible things men like James do to women. And we can't lock 'em all up. And when we do, the women don't wanna press charges, or try to forget that the abuse ever happened.

“Jade, promise me, if things don't work out wit' you and I, that you will never go back to him. Stay away from him,” Casey advised. “All he's gonna do is cause you more trouble, and it will get worse.”

“Oh, believe me, I'm so done wit' him,” I said.

“Yeah, I heard a few women say that 'bout their abusive mate . . . that they were never goin' back, but eventually, more than a few do end up goin' back, thinkin' things are gonna be different the next time around, and feelin' their mate has changed. But most of these men never do, and these women more than often find out the hard way, sometimes endin' up in the morgue,” Casey stated.

We walked a few blocks down, and I continued to listen to Casey. He had a lot to say. It was so beautiful on Long Island that I wanted a home out here for myself. It was away from everything, and it felt like a whole new world from Jamaica, Queens—quiet and away from the bullshit that saturated my projects at home. The moon shimmered down on us, and it felt like we were the only ones on earth.

“Jade, I'm gonna be honest. When we got that domestic call and you opened the door fo' my partner and I, it was like déjà vu.”

“What you mean?”

“You look and remind me of a similar female.”

I smiled. “Who?”

“Three years ago, my partner and I received a similar call when I worked at the Seventy-fifth Precinct in Brooklyn. She was a young woman—about nineteen, twenty—and her husband was beatin' on her. When we got there, her face was bruised and battered, so we arrested the son of a bitch. The next day she bailed
him out, talkin' about she didn't want to see the father of her kids end up in jail. I tried reasonin' with her, sayin' she didn't have to be scared and to press charges, but her husband had her naïve mind brainwashed. He got bailed out. Two weeks later, she's callin' the cops on his ass again. We responded to the call, but her husband wasn't home that time, and her face looked bashed in, much worse off than before. I went searching for that asshole, but unfortunately the case got dropped, and he was free to go again.

“A few months passed, and we got another call from the same address. I remember it was cold and raining out, and the day seemed to drag by so slow. When we arrived to the projects where she lived, I noticed her four-year-old daughter wanderin' around in the lobby. I asked her, ‘Where's Mommy?' and she told me that her mommy was hurt. My partner and I rushed up to her apartment, and saw the victim lyin' dead in her apartment. Her husband stabbed her ten times in the neck and chest, in front of the children, and he left her to die.”

“Ohmygod,” I uttered.

“It fucked wit' me fo' a minute. I remember thinkin' I could have done more fo' her. I shouldn't have given up on her so easily. Maybe she'd still be alive today. We caught and arrested her husband a month later. He was shacked up wit' his mistress in Staten Island.”

“You did everything you could for her. If she didn't want to press charges or leave him, then that's on her,” I said.

“I know, but sometimes I wish it woulda turned out different. Now, when I see you, I swear y'all could have been sistas. . . . That's the scary part about it.”

“I see, so you're lookin' out fo' me because you feel guilty about not savin' her.”

“Somewhat. When you closed the door in our faces wit' that attitude that day, I knew I just couldn't walk away from you so easily. But I like you, Jade. I'm serious. And I know you're used to the finer things in life, like Gucci, Fendi—and with me being a cop and on a budget, I can't do fo' you like these hustlers can.”

“You already did enough fo' me, Casey,” I said. We stopped, and I peered into his lovely hazel eyes. “I've been around the hustlers, pimps, pretty thugged-out boys who pushed the fancy cars and always flashed a wad of bills all my life. I grew up around them and dated a few. But what you did fo' me tonight, lettin' me have Thanksgivin' wit' your family—I will never forget this. I love this, Casey. I never had family. It was mostly my mother and myself. And my homegirls, Camille and Shy.” My mind thought about Shy. I wanted to hear her side of the story, but then thought,
Fuck that bitch.

“Well, you're family now, Jade. See, I told you my people would love you.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

“I wanna see you turn out a'ight.”

“I am now. And what you mean when you said, ‘If things don't work out between you and me?' They are already workin' out.” I softly affirmed. Casey took both my hands into his and gazed at me gracefully. He smiled and then leaned forward for a kiss. I accepted him, wrapping my arms around his neck and taking in his warm embrace. The cold no longer bothered me, and for a moment, I felt like an entirely new woman.

We kissed for a moment, until a gust of wind picked up and smacked across our faces. “Wow!” I exclaimed, catching the chills again.

“I think it's time to head back,” Casey said.

“I agree.”

We rushed back to the house hand in hand, and I was thinking, if this is how it's going to be like with him, then fuck James and every other thugged nigga I dated before him. Casey was different, nice and cute. I could get used to him and definitely his family.

I said to myself that it was definitely time for a change. A change in scenery, my lifestyle, the men I've dated, and reluctantly, friends too.

B
y now, I'm sure everyone knew, because don't nothing stay a secret in the projects for long—nothing. But fuck 'em, I thought. I didn't need 'em. And Camille—fuck her too, trying to be up in my business and running things like she the muthafucking government, and thinking her shit don't stink.