“Yeah, yeah, me and Carmen are back together.”
“When did this happen?”
“We talked that first night the band played at the club. Which reminds me, did y’all see her at the show that night?”
“No. I know I didn’t see her. I can’t speak for Chris, but I know I didn’t see her.”
“Carmen said she got there before the two of you. Said she saw y’all come in.”
“Why didn’t she say something to us?”
“Carmen thinks y’all don’t like her.”
“More like Carmen don’t like us ’cause we cut into her time with you. I mean, that was your basic complaint with each other, wasn’t it?”
“So far, that hasn’t been a problem. It’s like I spend less time with her than I used to before we broke up. I mean, all I do now is work, practice, and play; but now she’s cool with it.”
“That’s because you’re not hanging around with us. I think that might have something to do with it,” I said.
“You may be right, but for the time being, Carmen is cool. But I was just thinking about how everything in my life is coming together.”
“How so?”
“Things are moving forward for me with my music. You said it yourself, me and Carmen are made for each other, and we’ve found common ground. She’s trying hard to respect my need for space, and I’m trying to be more understanding of her need to be with me and feel like she’s an important part of my life.”
“Is that wedding bells I hear in the distance?”
“Let’s not get that far ahead of yourself here. I said for the time being, we’re cool and we’re trying. That’s a long way from wedding bells.”
“I’m just fuckin’ with you, Tee,” I said, but I knew it was just a matter of time.
“All I’m saying is that things are good now, and if we’re able to get some kind of business off the ground and it be successful, it would be like a dream come true.”
I thought about Tyhedra and her saying those words to me. “You know, I kind of feel the same way. I never told this to anybody, but me and Angelique have had some issues over the years—”
“Stop. You and Angelique, problems? The only problem between you and Angelique is that you’re a ho,” Tavarus said, and laughed.
“Yeah, well, there’s a reason for everything and things aren’t always as black and white as they seem.”
“Excuse me?”
“What I’m saying it that somebody told me that you gotta have a dream if you wanna make a dream come true. I just couldn’t see it, and I was too selfish to ask. That night after the show, me and Angelique, without going into any detail, found s
ome common ground, too. It made us stronger than we ever were. I thought my dream was one thing, but in reality, it was something else. So like you said, if this thing comes together with us in business, it would be like a dream come true. Doing something that matters and building something that would benefit not just me, but all of us.”
“It’s a beautiful thing.”
“Yeah, it is. I gotta call Tyhedra and tell her,” I said.
“Who?”
“Tyhedra. She’s the one who told me that you gotta have a dream if you wanna make a dream come true.”
“Tyhedra, Tyhedra Crawford?”
“You know her?”
“Yeah, I know her. She’s the one who got me back into playing my horn. She told me the same thing: that you gotta have a dream if you wanna make a dream come true.”