The Heat Seekers

Not lately, Geren thought to himself. “I’ll make sure Janessa gets home safely.”

Dvontè gave Geren a man-to-man hug. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

Geren headed for the exit. He turned around, throwing one last look of disdain in Dvontè’s direction. “Don’t call Janessa anymore. Not until you get your shit together.”

CHAPTER 18

just two black chicks shootin’ the breeze

“i can’t believe they made you pay a quarter for a shopping cart,” Janessa said, shaking her head in dismay. “That woman had the nerve to get nasty with us, at that.”

“Isn’t that ridiculous? As if losing a measly twenty-five cents would deter someone from stealing a cart,” Tempest replied, equally disgusted.

She and Janessa had decided to stop by the Value-Added Supermarket on the way back from the gym because it was less crowded than Giant and Safeway on Saturdays. Janessa had reluctantly agreed to submit herself to another session of cardio-karate, and every muscle in her body was sore. They were both surprised when one of the employees told them they had to deposit a quarter in a slot to get a cart to slide out.

Janessa clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes in the direction of the frog-faced woman who followed them inside. She purposely raised her voice so the woman would hear her. “If peeps want to walk off with a cart, they’re going to do it regardless. I know. I did it once my damn self.”

“Really?” Tempest followed the direction of Janessa’s eyes and glared at the woman. “Is there a problem?”

The woman stopped dead in her tracks, sneered at them, and walked away.

“Yeah, Momma gave me this long-ass grocery list. I wasn’t about to lug all that stuff home on the bus, so I took a cart, strolled home, and got some exercise in, all in one shot.”

“Why didn’t you just call a cab?”

“A cab? The cabdrivers around here try to rip a sistah off. The last time I took a cab, bro man almost hit a truck, ran three lights, and then had the nerve to demand a tip on top of the eight-dollar fare.”

“Dang! You’re lucky you got home,” Tempest giggled. “Did you give him a tip?”

“Hell, yeah! I told him he needed to learn how to freakin’ drive. That was his mofo tip.”

Tempest and Janessa both snickered while Tempest picked up a box of instant oatmeal off the shelf and read the label. They only had one brand, a generic one, and Tempest decided against it, since Quaker Oats were her favorite.

“Besides,” Janessa continued, “Momma only gave me about twenty bucks for ninety dollars worth of groceries, so I had to come up with the rest.”

“That’s messed up.”

They went down the frozen food aisle, and Tempest was disappointed again to find out they didn’t sell the low-fat frozen dinners she liked.

“I wouldn’t mind if the food was for my parents, but Fred and his crew of fart-infested friends eat up the majority of the food at the crib.”

“Damn, not fart-infested?” Tempest chuckled.

“Mega-fart-infested!” They both fell out laughing. “I don’t see how in the world the sistahs they date deal with their funky asses. If they were smart, they wouldn’t let them mofos eat anything gaseous within two hours of bedtime.”

“What about Fred?” Tempest asked, already assuming the answer. “Does he have a woman?”

“Hellz naw! What kind of woman would date a skank, crater-skinned, elephantine, stinking troll like him?”

“Damn, sis!” Tempest shook her head, wondering how Janessa and Fred managed to reside in the same house without killing each other. “You sure are hard on your brother!”

“He did have a woman once, but that was way back in the day.”

“Word?” Tempest tossed a loaf of wheat bread in the cart. She’d never heard of the brand, but bread was bread, and she was down to the ends of the loaf at home. “I’ve never seen Fred with a woman, or maybe I just don’t remember her.”

“Well, I’ll never forget the desperate hoochie.” Janessa picked up a package of pecan twirls and threw them in the cart. Tempest wanted to tell her that eating sweets after a workout was defeating the purpose but decided to let it slide. She was just glad Janessa had been going to class and keeping her company. “She was about four-foot-nine, 360 pounds, high yella like me but she had freckles, an orange hair weave and more teef than a set of quintuplets.”

Tempest slapped Janessa lightly on the arm. “You’re so stupid!”