Page 32 of Pride and Protest
Deya tapped her shoulder. “Now tell me his complete nameso we can google the hell out of him.” LeDeya pulled out her phone. Her cracked screen, fluffy dangling charm, and ornate jeweled case were almost painful to look at for too long.
“Deya, this is none of your business—”
“I’m better at this than you, and I know you’ve already tried. You search the overall social media scene, butIbe researching their DMs and subtweets. I’m on another level.”
Liza looked up sheepishly, letting her curiosity cushion the blow to her pride. “William Isaiah Curry.”
All four women stood over a small screen with their opposite ears touching.
“Okay, so you know he’s from Philly. You know he’s with the Black Israelite movement.Ew, does he scream at people on the side of the road?” LeDeya scrolled. “Gross. Not much info about it, though.”
“Keep scrolling,” Janae said. It surprised Liza to see her sister so interested.
“You too?” Liza rolled her eyes.
“Oh, look. He atted DFitz about a year ago.” Janae, Chicho, and Liza all looked confused. “Mr. Congeniality himself, Dorsey Fitzgerald,” LeDeya clarified.
Liza’s eyes widened. She would never think that those two could ever be atting each other. “What does it say?”
“ ‘This is the new CEO of Pemberley Development? #unfit #trainingwheels.’ ” It was a grainy photo of Dorsey, surrounded by women, smoking what looked like a blunt. His eyes were low. Liza smirked. Mr. Cool and Collected was a womanizing troll. She was actually relieved to see these photos. Her stomach could stop dropping when she thought of his hand gripping her thigh.
“See if Dorsey responded,” Liza said almost frantically.
“Nope, no response.”
“Can’t defend himself,” Liza said.
“Nah, I think it’s like Jedi deep.” LeDeya stretched her arms out.
“It’s not Jedi deep, it’s just arrogant. It is exactly the reason he can put luxury midrise condos up in the poorest part of Southeast. People like us don’t matter to him.”
Maurice, now also crammed into Liza’s bedroom, shrugged. “Your pretty boy WIC started it, if you ask me,” he said. “If you come for the king, you best not miss.” He quotedThe Wire, but Liza wasn’t sure if the boy had ever really seen the show. That was so like Maurice, using a thing in the right context yet with so little understanding.
“Look at you, already standing up for your WIC.” LeDeya pushed Liza with her shoulder, but Liza did not allow herself to smile.
Her WIC.
SEVEN LIFETIMES
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Four weeks later, on a crisp November morning, Dorsey was counting himself lucky. He had scarcely thought about Liza’s sugary-brown skin all day and hadn’t stalked her Instagram in thirteen hours. And moreover, for three days, he hadn’t lingered on that one picture where her shorts hugged her ass. An ass he had pushed out of the way. He sat in a DC municipal building with Virginia State Corporation Commission’s chair, Christopher De Berg. Representatives from Maryland also crowded thetable, but the way they genuflected to the senator, it was like the president had walked in. When he spoke to Dorsey, the clamor hushed.
“People are looking into your developments in DC. This whole gentrification chatter is getting louder.” He had a forty-inch computer monitor in front of him. Dorsey didn’t know if it was tech-savviness or Luddite tendencies that would make a man purchase a monitor this obscene, then lug it around for meetings so he could fact-check in real time. There was no privacy. Dorsey could see an email from Lighthouse Marriage Counseling: “36 Questions to Bring You Closer.” The senator also bet on fantasy football quite a bit. When someone at the table asked him about the gigantic screen obstructing their view, he replied, “I like my own data, and I don’t know what the hell a cloud is.” Everyone chuckled, except for Dorsey. It must have been that absence of a chuckle that drew the senator’s attention. De Berg’s white hair, probably once blond and thick, was slicked back and clung to his collar. He inexplicably wore golf shirts year-round and had prominent front teeth that made him look like a member of the British royal family.
“What are you going to do about the chatter, Fitzgerald?”
“I’m not sure there is much Icando. People have a right to protest. I have a right to build. One thing shouldn’t prevent the other.”
“I think you could play up the social media component of this.” The senator clicked through a few images on his screen and turned the monitor. It showed the two viral memes of him and Liza. Dorsey unbuttoned his jacket in an excuse to look away.
