“Tyhedra Crawford, sexy as hell, long black hair?” I asked, hoping he’d say no, but knowing that he wouldn’t.
“Same chick.”
“Damn. You fuck her?”
“That night at the club. She’s the one I wanted to introduce y’all to, but she was gone. You fuck her?”
“Yeah.”
“You think she knew?” Tavarus asked.
“I don’t know, but I doubt it. I mean, we never really talked about any of my friends.”
“Now that I think about, I don’t think I ever mentioned you and Chris to her, either. We used to talk about music, the subject of my friends never came up.”
“I’m gonna need another drink behind that one,” Tavarus said, and headed for the kitchen. “I hope Chris got some weed.”
I followed Tee into the kitchen. “I’m gonna need a double. He keeps the weed in the cabinet over the refrigerator.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Chris
I followed CJ outside to see what she wanted. I had to laugh a little. I could tell by the look in Tavarus and Zack’s eyes, that they were surprised to see CJ there. I didn’t think anybody needed to know that she had been staying here. And she is, just staying here. It had been a few weeks since she left Manny and I still haven’t told her how I feel about her. But it’s been great having her here. CJ had him served with the divorce papers last week and as expected, he’s contesting it. For what, I don’t know.
In the meantime, me and CJ have been having the best time. Other than the fact that we worked in different places, we are inseparable. We’ve done every museum and art gallery we could find. Now we’ve started cruising Black art stores. We’ve been bowling, to the comedy club, we even went to hear Tee play a couple times. We sat in the back to be sure he wouldn’t see us.
We’ve just been having fun together. Like one day we were out riding and I challenged her to do something she’s never done before. She agreed, but only after I agreed to do it with her. So despite the fact that neither of us has ever played, we tried our hand at tennis. We drove to the nearest Wal-Mart, brought two rackets and a couple of cans of balls. It was the funniest thing you ever wanted to see.
We cook together, eat together, and clean up together. We do everything but sleep together. And we talk. We talk all the time.
“What’s up, CJ?” I asked, and followed her to her car. CJ walked toward me.
“Chris, I wasn’t trying to listen to your conversation earlier, but I heard what Zack said. How come you never told me that you were in love with me?”
“Because you’re married, CJ. I never wanted to get in the way of that.”
“Try again. What I heard him say was ‘Kind of convenient her living here since you’ve been in love with her since the first time you saw her.’ That is what I heard him say, wasn’t it?”
“Okay, CJ, I’m guilty. That’s what he said and he said it because it’s true. I have been in love with you since the first time I saw you.”
“How come this is the first time I’m hearing about this? Usually when you love somebody, you tell them.”
“I was arrogant and stupid.” I hated admitting it out loud. Being stupid I mean. “I—I—” I shifted my weight from side to side. I was nervous and I didn’t know why. Here I was telling CJ what I always wanted to say to her, and the words weren’t coming. I took a deep breath. “CJ, I was—you see, when I met you, I could feel something between us. I thought you felt it, too. But instead of pursuing you I waited, like a fool, for you to come at me.”
“I did feel like there was something between us, too.” CJ smiled. “Boy did I feel it.” She looked at me with those beautiful eyes. “But I didn’t think you were interested in me. You said you just wanted us it be friends.”
“That was only after you started going out with Manny.”
“We went out one time before you told me that.”
“I don’t like competing. And now, I didn’t think that with all you’d gone through, that you needed me bum-rushin’ you with how I felt about you. I want to be with you, CJ; I always have wanted us to be together. I knew you were kind of vulnerable right now and I thought that you needed me to be your friend. If it was gonna be, it would come in time. I waited this long to be with you, a few months, a year, whatever, wouldn’t make that much more of a difference. But I wasn’t going to let you get away again. I love you, CJ.”
CJ hugged and kissed me on the cheek. “Go talk to your friends. We’ll talk about this some more when I get back.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s it. You waited this long to have this conversation, you can wait a little longer.” CJ got in her car. I stood there while she started her car and then rolled down the window. “I will tell you this.”