The Atonement (10 page)

“
I don’t think it’s been
that long,” she said as she got up out of her seat and he came
around to face her. Tamiko couldn’t believe how well he looked in
his dark suit, blue shirt and burgundy tie. The color combinations
made his hazel eyes sparkle like polished citrine. His thick,
curly, brown hair had grown out a bit, but it had been styled
rather than gelled back. In addition, he’d finally gained all his
weight back, reminding Tamiko of the lacrosse jock he was when they
first met. Tim flashed a brilliant smile at her and she couldn’t
help but smile back.

“
It’s been long enough.
Don’t I get a hug?”

“
Of course.”

Their embrace lasted a little longer than it
should have and as they pulled out of it their eyes met. His gaze
was tender yet intense, full of a warmth and affection that stirred
her heart. She could feel the blood rising to her face as her
cheeks burned and she didn’t know if it was due to excitement or
fear.

“
So…” she said trying to
regain her composure. Tamiko tried to say more but the words
wouldn’t come out. “Oh, come on Tamiko,” she scolded herself. “It’s
only Tim.”

“
So what have you been up to
in all this time?” Tim asked, trying to be casual.

“
I think I should be asking
you that question. I’m not the one who’s always been missing from
our get togethers lately,” she said as she finally managed to rein
in her emotions.

“
Trust me, the only thing
I’ve been doing is working. And yes, I realize that I’ve been a
little out of touch, but, as you can see, I’m making an effort to
have some balance in my life,” he said as he followed her to take a
seat in the booth.

“
I guess being a business
consultant is pretty intense, hunh?”

“
Intense, but gratifying. I
mean, I feel like I’m finally doing what I was meant to, and I’m
learning a ton of new skills. I actually look forward to going to
work nowadays. And what about you? I know the new school year has
started already. How’s that going?”

“
In some ways better and
some ways not. I mean now that this is my third year, I know a lot
more than I did before, so my classroom is running smoothly. So
far, so good, the kids are doing fine, I mean there are always a
few that aren’t doing as well as the others, but even they’re
moving along. My biggest worry is with the changes in the system
overall. There’s going to be a new curriculum called ‘Common Core’
and a new teacher evaluation system and my school is in the pilot
program. This means new methods of teaching, new books, new
criteria for evaluating the kids and the teachers. It’s like just
as I was getting the hang of things, they change everything. In
some ways I feel like a first year teacher all over
again.”

“
I know it probably seems
overwhelming right now, but try to look at the bright side. You get
to be in the pilot study. You’re getting a front row seat to the
preview, while teachers at others schools have no idea of what’s
coming. Second, because it’s a test run, your evaluation most
likely won’t impact you as much, plus you get to give feedback that
can influence how this thing rolls out eventually. Trust me Miko,
you’re in a good place.”

“
You’re probably right,” she
said as she began to fidget with the charm bracelet she was
wearing. “Any new social developments I should know
about?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Like have you made any new
friends at work or at church lately? I know you haven’t been around
us much recently, but I’m not silly enough to think you don’t have
anyone else to keep company with. Who knows? Maybe you’ve even met
someone special?”

“
Miko is this your
roundabout way of asking me if I’m seeing someone?”

“
Are you?”

“
No, and I’m not really
looking for anyone at the moment,” he said before taking a menu and
flipping through it.

Tamiko swallowed hard before she
continued.

“
I don’t necessarily think
it would be a bad thing if you were. You know, Tim, I was thinking
you shouldn’t let what happened with Mya keep you from being open
to other people.”

“
I’ve been over that for a
while now. It doesn’t have any bearing on my decision to fly solo
at the moment.”

“
Just so you know, I’m
hosting a Singles mixer as a fundraiser for the church next month.
I’m sure there’ll be a lot of nice young ladies that would love to
get to know you – that is – if you change your mind.”

“
I don’t think I will, but I
must say, I find your sudden fascination with my love life
interesting. Any reason why you want to see me coupled up with
someone?”

“
It’s not that at all. I
just don’t want you to feel like you have to punish yourself for
one mistake and I don’t want you to feel like I’m going to judge
you if and when you decide to start dating again. You’re entitled
to try to find the love of your life and be happy, and as your
friend I want to you to know that you have my support.”

“
Thanks, Miko, but I’m
pretty happy by myself, right now. Anyway, where is everyone? I
thought I was running late when I got here.”

“
You know Richard. The
others are probably just running late. Maybe there was some last
minute emergency at the hotel. Davis would never just not show up
without calling first.”

“
Speaking of Davis, how are
things going between you two? I heard you’ve been spending a lot
more time together lately.”

“
We’re still just friends,
Tim.”

“
Sounds like you’re
disappointed about that.”

“
I’m fine.”

“
That face doesn’t say
‘fine.’ And you were worried about me?”

“
Really, Tim, I’m
okay.”

Before, Tim could probe deeper, the subject
of their discussion arrived. He was still in his work uniform that
was stained from his hard day. His face was flushed and he seemed a
little out of breath. Tim and Tamiko rose to greet him.

“
Hey, Tim! Good to see you,
man. We missed you at the movies the other day.”

“
Nice to see you, too, Dave.
I really wanted to go, but you know how it is.”

“
Yeah. Hey,
Miko.”

“
Hi, Davis.”

“
Sorry I’m late. But we had
a flood in one of the rooms. You have to excuse my appearance, I
didn’t have time to change.”

“
No worries, dude. Have a
seat,” said Tim moving out of the way so that Davis could enter the
booth. Davis sat down and slid over to make room for the
others.

“
After you,” said Tim to
Tamiko thinking she would want the seat next to Davis.

“
No, you go ahead. I’d
rather sit on the outside.”

Davis merely rolled his eyes.

“
Oooo-kay,” said Tim eyeing
both of them strangely before taking a seat next to Davis with
Tamiko sitting next to him.

“
Since we know Richard is
going to be late, I say we should just get this started. We can
always give him the run down later. Hopefully it shouldn’t take
that long.”

“
What about Allen?” asked
Tim.

“
He had to go to class, so
he wrote out some things that he wanted me to run by you guys, if
that’s alright,” said Davis taking some notepapers out of his
jacket pocket.

“
Right. I forgot about
that.”

“
The Chairman of the party
committee has now arrived!” a voice bellowed.

They knew who it was. Richard had just walked
in wearing a long-sleeve black t-shirt with a Miami Heat jersey
over it and baggy black jeans. He decided to top it off with a
paper party hat from the dollar store. He also had a noisemaker
hanging from his mouth like a cigar. He blew it a few times to make
them all laugh.

“
Rich, you’re too much,”
said Tim.

“
And it’s not a party, it’s
a celebration,” said Tamiko.

“
Call it whatever you want,
as long as everybody gets to have a good time,” said Richard as he
took a seat at the end of the booth near Davis. Shortly after, they
all ordered their food and Davis began to start the
meeting.

“
By now you guys know Jim’s
coming out on Saturday, so we don’t have that much time. Let’s try
to get the most important stuff planned tonight,” said
Davis.

“
Yo, after everything that
Jim’s been through, we gotta big this up,” said Richard. “We could
rent some space at the community center, my cousin Malik could DJ
and then we could get one of those wicker chairs – you know, like
the ones that they use at the baby showers and tape dollar bills to
it and…” began Richard.

“I don’t know, Rich. Based on what I’ve seen
of Jim, I don’t think he’s going to be in the mood for a big
spectacle with lots of people,” said Tim.

“But he was like Fitty, yo! He took 20
bullets and survived! Who wouldn’t want to live it up after that?!”
said Richard.

“Exaggerating a bit, aren’t we? It was more
like 2,” said Tim.

“C’mon man, I’m tryin’ to build the urban
legend – get the brother some street cred” Richard replied.

“I’ma have to agree with Tim on this one.
Speaking from personal experience, when you get out of the hospital
after something like that, the last thing you want is to be around
a lot of excitement. If anything he’s probably just going to want
to sleep,” said Davis.

“But if Jim’s feeling down, maybe we should
make it kind of festive – if just to cheer him up,” said
Tamiko.

“Even Al was thinkin’ we should keep things
on a small scale. We came up with the idea of having a backyard
barbecue. He wants to do it at his folks place, so we gotta keep
the guest list short,” Davis responded.

There was a pause in the conversation as a
waiter came to deliver their food to the table. Everyone took their
plates as they continued to develop their plans.

“A barbecue in October?” said Tim.

“I know, but Al said Jim’s favorite food is
barbecue, and so far it hasn’t gotten that cold yet. We’re praying
God will give us some good weather. If not, we’ll just eat inside,”
said Davis.

“You think we could invite my man Mike and
them from the Bronx,” said Richard before he took a bite of the
burger he’d ordered.

“Are you kidding me?!” said Tim.

“No – absolutely not!” said Tamiko.

“Who’s Mike from the Bronx?” asked Davis.

“Trust me, Davis, you don’t want to know,”
answered Tim.

“But Mike don’t even smoke weed no more and
Dollar sold most of his guns in the buy back program Bloomberg had
out there,” said Richard.

“Yeah, well, let us know when he’s sold all
of them,” said Tim, “cause he’s not welcome until he does.”

“Then it’s only gon’ be like five people and
most of them are already sitting here!” said Richard.

“Callie’s not here. Then there’s our other
friends from church,” said Tim.

“And don’t forget our special surprise guest:
our cousin Riley!” squealed Tamiko.

“Is this the cousin that Al said used to
torture him and Jim?” asked Tim.

“Riley was just horsing around with them. She
wasn’t really being mean,” said Tamiko.

“How she got a name like Riley? That sounds
like a boy’s name,” said Richard.

“Uncle Henry said when she was born, she
looked a lot like his mom, Florene, and he wanted to name her that,
but his brother, Allen’s other uncle William, had already named his
daughter Florene, and he didn’t think it would be a good idea to
have three Florenes in one family, so he gave her his mother’s
maiden name, which was Riley,” explained Tamiko.

“I think she lucked out. If I were a girl,
I’d rather be a Riley than a Florene,” said Tim.

“She cute?” asked Richard.

“Richard!” said Tamiko.

“Just askin’, I’m not sayin’ I’m gon try’ to
get wit’ her or nothin’. Red is the one you gon’ need to watch,”
said Richard.

“Wrong! I have no intention of hitting on
Allen’s cousin,” said Tim.

“Tim, please. Let’s be real. You know you
can’t kill that playa – don’t even try,” said Richard, taunting
him.

“People can change you know. That’s not who I
am anymore,” said Tim.

“So what happened to that Beyonce lookin’
sister you was skipping around town with? I heard after the fun,
you was done,” said Richard.

Tim didn’t respond. He just looked down at
the table and stirred in his plate.

“Okay – Now you’re crossing the line and
you’re just being rude,” said Tamiko “So just drop it and leave him
alone!”

Everyone was stunned silent by Tamiko’s
response. Even she seemed to be a little shocked when she realized
how forceful her words were.

“Sor- ry,” said Richard, looking at her
strangely, “I was just playin.’”

“Not everything’s a joke, Rich,” said Tamiko,
now lowering her voice.

“Guys! Let’s stick to business, aiight,” said
Davis to get everyone back to the purpose of their meeting. “Al
also gave us assignments for what we’re supposed to be working on.
Richard, you and I are going to be doin’ food and drinks, while Tim
and Tamiko will be doing decorations and entertainment. Is
everybody cool with that?”

“Hold up. If we’re over the food, does that
mean we cookin’?” asked Richard.

“No. We’re just buyin’ it and bringing it to
the house. Al’s Dad is going to grill it before the celebration
starts and his mom is going to do the rest. I got the list of stuff
we need to get right here,” he said handing the paper to
Richard.