Page 10 of Keeping Busy
“Basically, and some distraction while you and Coach Ron were dealing with the photographer.”
“Is that what you do with your dance students?”
“All the time.”
We were both quiet, but after a few seconds, she spoke again. “So, as far as this whole pretending to be your girlfriend thing, I’m not sure how you want to do this, and you probably aren’t either.”
I appreciated her saying that. It was insightful, because she was spot on. I had no idea how to do what I was supposed to be doing. I just knew that I needed to do it, and I needed to get it right. I was thankful that she understood that we would be making it up as we went along. I relaxed a little. And I mean, seriously, just a little. The whole situation still had me fucked up.
“Maybe you want to talk to your rep about it, what’s her name?”
“Sydnie Whitmore.”
“Did Sydnie tell you how and when we’re supposed to start?”
“We can’t start soon enough for Sydnie. She just really wants me to start with being as public as possible with you, as soon as possible, as often as possible. So, maybe dinner next week at Bistro MKC?”
“Uhm huhm. Okay” She agreed.
“And I’ve gotta text Sydnie your info and stuff tonight. They have to - vet you.” I sighed. “Yo Mecca, this is so fucking awkward.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, it is.”
“I mean, we grew up together, but…”
“But not really.”
“Right. So, I don’t want to be all in your personal business, but if you think something is gonna come up in this background check that Sydnie’s gonna run, I will not hold you to this. I don’t want you to get embarrassed or feel exposed. I don’t want you to get burned in any way from trying to help me out.”
“I don’t have an unsavory past, Busy. I feel pretty confident that I’ll come back clean. You know I work with children, so I mean, I’ve supposedly been run through the FBI’s database. I don’t know what database your people are putting my name through, but I think it’ll be fine.”
We were both quiet, but I could feel her gaze bore into the side of my face. We were at a red light, so I made eye contact and gave her my undivided attention. “What’s up?”
“Should we address the elephant in the room now, or should we wait until later?” She asked me.
“What’s the elephant in the room?”
“The fact that we grew up together, but not really. We’ve known each other forever, but I don’t know you, Busy.”
“It’s weird that you would say that, and then call me ‘Busy’, because the only people who ever call me that, are people who’ve known me since I was a kid.”
“Well, your grandmother called you that, and I knew her. I was close to her.”
I nodded in agreement. The person behind me started to honk their horn. Chicagoans - they were impatient as hell on the roadways. I pressed the gas pedal.
“What was the deal with you treating us the way you did growing up?”
“How do you feel like I treated you and your cousins growing up?”
She sucked her teeth, and even though I couldn’t see it, because I was watching the road, I knew she rolled her eyes. I could feel it. “You don’t know what I’m talking about?”
“I do.” I admitted. “I know that we weren’t friends…”
“You completely ignored us.”
“So, we’re doing this.” I muttered mostly to myself, but with her proximity to me, there was no way she didn’t hear what I said.
“Don’t you think it’s time? I mean, especially if we’re gonna pull off this whole ruse. Because right now, I don’t even know if I like you.” She paused. “That’s a lie, right now, I feel like I don’t like you.”
