Page 14 of Absolute Fulfillment
“Astrology. As a matter of fact, let me guess.” She then put her finger to her lips like she was deeply pondering.
“A Taurus?” she finally responded, bringing a chuckle to my lips.
“Nah, you close. I’m a Gemini.” I watched as shock filled her features.
“When is your birthday?” she then asked.
“June twenty-first.”
“Impossible… because so is mine.” She looked astonished, which made me laugh.
“How old are you?” she asked. I could never put my finger on it fully, but from the first moment I looked at shorty, I had been intrigued. I didn’t know if it was her chill to a mill nature or the fact that within seconds she could come off so nonchalant that you questioned if you existed. She had me intrigued from the first moment I looked at her, and now sitting across fromher, I saw it. Her eyes were indeed the window to her soul. They housed questions, dreams, contentment, unconformity, and every necessary component to get lost.
“Rennix, did you hear me?” she asked, peering at me for an answer while I was looking at her with obsession.Shit.
“Yeah, I heard you. I’m twenty-eight. You?”
“You’re not supposed to ask a woman her age.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s an insult.” She wrapped those thick ass lips around the straw. Shorty was two mimosas in and had fully warmed up this morning.
“Are you insulted?”
“No.”
“Aight then. Now slow your ass down on them mimosas before I be carrying your little ass up outta here.”
She giggled. “I can hold my liquor, Rennix. And plus, this is just champagne with a bunch of orange juice.”
“Mhmm. Why are you in therapy?” I asked the question that had been burning in my mind since she told me she was in a healing stage the other night.
She tilted her head to the side, confusion evident. “How do you know I’m in therapy?”
“Some of your jargon. Not to mention the fact that you told me you were in a healing stage. What put you there?”
She nodded. “Accepting what was given to me rather than what I deserve. A deadbeat father that in turn made me a deadbeat magnet. Believing that all lost souls attracted lost souls, rather than realizing I attracted lost souls because something in me was kindred with them. I want more for my son, so I gotta do better.”
I nodded. “My pops is a drunk. Been that way his whole fucking life from what I understand, but what I could never understand was why my moms kept laying down with his drunkass knowing who and what he was. Growing up I never got that, and in turn it made me look at her a way, because even after him it was another bum. Lady kept a man who either wanted to go upside her head or talk to her foul. So believe me, I get it.”
Her hand found my arm as she nodded, seemingly sobering up. “Is he in your life?”
“Hell nah, well he pops in from time to time. The last time he popped up was to tell me he was dying and had two other kids and a possible out here.”
“Damn. How is your mom?” Her grip on my arm let me know she was genuine and I didn’t know how to take it at first, because I wasn’t used to sharing things like this with anybody. I said Rem was the emotionally constipated one when deep down I knew it was me.
“She died a few years back.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be. At least she ain’t getting her ass beat down here no more.” I shrugged it off as she scooted closer to me, wrapping her arm in mine.
“We are friends, right?”
“Why do you ask that?” I quizzed, looking down at her.
“Because you don’t gotta do that for me. If we are friends for real, you can say whatever and it’ll never make me look at you any different.”
