Out of Control

“And with CeCe gettin’ ready to drop a baby, and you down here fuckin’ everybody, you’d just end up doing it again.”

“Bobby! I know.”

“So what’s Wanda talkin’ about?”

“Wanda really don’t talk to me. I mean if I call her and ask a question she’ll answer me. But if she has something to say to me, she calls Meka. Which is gettin’ inconvenient since Meka is in Europe.”

“What’s she doing in Europe?”

“Putting together a communication deal in the old soviet block countries. And she’s trying to stay away from me. She likes Cee and she feels guilty about what we did.”

“Best place for her,” Bobby said and held up his bottle.

Black tapped his bottle against Bobby’s. “I’m sayin’. Anyway, when I talked to Nick last week he said everything’s fine and I got nothing to worry about.”

“We should go up there.”

“Naa. Cee is getting ready to drop and she been sick a lot. I need to stay close to her.”

“Does she wanna get married?” Bobby asked.

“The M word hasn’t crossed her lips. And why should it? Everybody calls her Mrs. Black anyway.”

“What you gonna do if she does?”

“I’m gonna get drunk and watch you fish.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The following evening, Black sat alone in the office at The Grill, waiting for his meeting with Harry Walker. He was thinking about what he said to Bobby about his feelings for Cee and what he had done with Jada West when there was a knock at the door.

“Come.”

Vonetta stuck in head in the door. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Black, but there is a woman out here that would like to speak to you.”

“Thank you, Vonetta. I’ll be right out.”

Black got up and came out on the floor expecting to see Deidra Walker waiting for him with Harry. Instead he saw Jacara Delbridge seated at a table. He wasn’t all that surprised to see her there. When CeCe told him that she was on the island he knew that eventually Jacara would find her way to The Grill to see him in spite of CeCe’s warning to stay away from her man.

“Hello, Jacara,” Black said as he sat down and signaled for a waitress.

“Hello, Mike. How have you been??

?

“I’m doin’ great, Jacara. Can I get you something?” Black asked as the waitress arrived at the table.

“I’ll have a Sea Breeze with a twist of lime,” Jacara said and the waitress departed.

“So, what brings you to Nassau?”

Jacara looked at Black thinking that was the same question, asked in the same tone as CeCe. When she heard it from CeCe, Jacara knew that she wasn’t welcome on the island. Now she wondered if Black felt the same way. “Oscar hired a new singer to open for me a couple of months back. She was young, younger than me anyway, had a nice voice, nothing that would blow you away but nice. Then a couple of weeks ago, five minutes before the show starts, he tells me that she was going to close the show.”

“They fired you.”

“I wouldn’t put it quite that way, but that’s the way it worked out. So I knew it was time for me to move on. So I thought I’d come here and check things out.” The waitress returned with her drink. “So how’s business here?”

“Business has been very good since we took over the operation.”