Page 52 of Lady Sings the Blues

Since Dawna passed, there’s only one other old lady in the higher echelons of the club aside from Elise, and that’s Trisha, Sneak’s wife.

She’s a pretty thing, bombshell blonde, tall and lean but not overly curvy. Not a secret given my old lady, I like curves. But she’s still pretty and as sweet as they come, teaches third grade over at Lafayette Elementary. Recently cut that long, lush hair of hers into a pixie cut. Sneak wasn’t happy about it, that’s why I think she did it, to piss him off. Trish came to the club and found him in close proximity to a piece with that same hair. He wasn’t cheating. The man’s not stupid enough to throw away something so good. She was just a brazen piece and a case of bad timin’. I was there. He already had his hand up to push the bitch away when his woman walked in.

Trish’s blue eyes sparkle when she sees us, not havin’ had the chance to meet Elise before all that shit went down.

“Oh my goodness,you are real.” She squeals, reachin’ out to pull a stiff as a board Elise in for a hug. “I thought you were like a unicorn or Leprechaun, or the product of a bad acid trip.” And then, with my woman pressed up close and personal, she laughs out. “I’m Trisha, by the way. Sneak’s old lady. Wife, actually.” After which the crazy woman releases Elise.

Elise, for her part, rubs at her upper arms. “Have I met Sneak?”

“He was at the house,” I tell her. “You just didn’t see him.”

“Hence the name Sneak?”

“I can already tell, we’re going to be great friends.” Trisha beams at her, and Trisha’s beaming is infectious, spreadin’ to both me and Elise without us havin’ any control over the situation.

Staring back and forth between Trish and me, Elise pulls a conversational one-eighty. “Do you have a grill here?”

“Out back, why?” she asks.

“Oh, because Boss here promised me steaks for dinner, and I am starved. Anyone else hungry?”

Several voices pop up from brothers around the common. “I’m hungry,” and “I could eat.” I didn’t even know they’d been listening.

“Darlin’, why don’t you make a list of what you need from the store? I believe you promised me deep fried onions and creamed spinach.” Then I look to a prospect named Blue, whose truck she’d inadvertently jumped into at the red light yesterday. “You’re goin’ to the store for Elise.”

“You got it, Boss.” He answers without hesitation, fishin’ keys from his pocket.

“I gotta keep my woman happy.”

“Then we all gotta keep your woman happy.Hey Elise.” He winks.

“Yeah but.” I get in his face the same as I did Levi. “Only the ways I tell you to. Got me?”

“Come on, Bossman. You know I’d never go there. I might wanna father children someday. And fuck if you wouldn’t make that shit hurt twice as bad. We know the rules, no fucking with another brother’s old lady.”

“The way you’re salivatin’ thought you might need a refresher.”

Elise held her tongue during the whole exchange. Thatain’tin her nature, which means I’m in for some shit. She still don’t even acknowledge me when she turns to hand off her list to Blue.

“Thank you, Blue,” she says. “Excuse me for a minute Trisha.” Again, pretendin’ I don’t exist, she retreats to my room, well, our room now. I follow her out of the common and down the dark hallway wonderin’ how long she’ll keep it up.

I flip on the light switch and shut the door securely behind me.

She turns, a hand holdin’ her elbow, rubbin’ her forehead with the other. “Why am I here?”

“What?”

“Why am I here?” She repeats.

Leanin’ back against the door, I cross my arms over my chest and give her a stupidly defiant answer. One I know I’ll pay for. “Because we’re living here for now.”

She shifts on her hip, losing patience. I know by her long, exaggerated sigh. Received and not appreciated. “Yes. But why would you want to live with someone you clearly don’t trust? I thought it was cute, that you were just being funny with Levi. But now I’m just insulted.”

“Not following, darlin’.”

“You’re making me sound like the whore the town accuses me of being. Do you think I’m a whore, Beau?”

“You know I don’t. But the men—”

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