Page 66 of Blind Spot
Everyone turned toward me, and cheers went up from my male cousins and Joaquin, who jumped up and rushed me. He slapped me on my back and pulled me close. “Wassup, boi!” he greeted heartily.
“You, my G. Good to see you, Bro.”
“Glad you came through,” he whispered as we rocked. My big brother released me, and I greeted my cousins before I greeted Uncle Chris and then my father.
“Maybe now we can get something to eat. Your mama knows you’re here, boy?” my daddy asked.
“She knows. She just kicked me out of the kitchen, so I don’t think you’re about to get anything to eat any time soon, old man. Looks like you can stand to miss a meal or two or three,” I declared, rubbing his slightly extended belly.
My father chuckled and looked at Uncle Chris. “This young buck’s got jokes, Chris.”
“He ain’t lying,” Uncle Chris stated as he worked on a chicken bone.
“I thought you said y’all hadn’t eaten yet,” I stated, looking back at my brother Joaquin.
“We haven’t. Your greedy ass uncle Chris stopped by Freddie’s Fried Chicken on the way over. Talking about ‘he ain’t lying.’ Nigga, your gut looked like you swallowed the whole hog, never mind the chicken,” my daddy declared, causing everyone in the room to erupt with laughter.
Uncle Chris licked his fingers clean, tossed the bone into a box on the side of the chair he sat in, and looked at his older brother. “The women ain’t complaining.”
“You ain’t got no woman, nigga,” Daddy retorted.
“I don’t know, Uncle John. A few ladies have been ringing my dad’s phone lately,” Tobias, my cousin declared.
“They’ve been ringing his phone because they’re trying to come work for him and clean up that bullshit he be on.”
Everyone started laughing again, but my eyes went to the other side of the room where Ramon sat. His eyes were on me, but he was silent. I jerked my head in acknowledgment of my brother, and he did the same.
I meant what I said. There was no way that I would show my ass and mess up everyone’s holiday today, but that didn’t make things right between us. I took a seat near my daddy and got into the game as we waited for my mama to announce dinner was ready.
She called everyone to dinner about twenty minutes after my arrival. Prayer, dinner, and dessert went over without a hitch. It wasn’t until we were preparing to leave that things became uncomfortable.
I had hugged everyone and had returned to the family room to say goodbye to my dad and Joaquin. I noticed that Ramon wasn’t in the room with them anymore. After I dapped everyone up, I headed back to the front door where I had last seen Charly. She had told me she would meet me at the car.
When I stepped out onto the lawn, I saw Ramon cornering her by my car. I walked up behind him, checking her composure and his demeanor. She didn’t appear to be afraid, but she also didn’t appear to be extremely comfortable.
Ramon stepped back a few steps and shoved his hands in his pockets. He was shrugging his shoulders and saying something to her that I could not hear from my distance.
By the time I approached them, Charly looked up at me with wide eyes, and Ramon spun around.
“Oh, hey, Bro.” He greeted me like everything was all good between us.
“What’s up? Everything good, Char?” I asked.
“Yeah, baby. It’s good,” she replied softly, looking hesitantly between my brother and me.
“It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“I don’t know what to think, G. I watched you avoid her all afternoon and evening. The minute that I’m not around, you creeping around. What’s up with that?” I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets and walking closer to him as I hunched my shoulders forward.
“Dominic, I spent two years of my life with this woman. And while it may not be right in your sight or anyone else’s, it doesn’t change it. I never had a chance to say goodbye to Charly. I never got a chance to apologize or make things right.”
“And you don’t need to worry about it now. I’ve made sure that she was all right.”
He bobbed his head. “Yeah. I get it. Charlyse,” he stated, turning back to her, “I only wanted to apologize to you tonight. It’s the least that I owe you for what I took your life through over the last couple of years. Or at least the last year. You didn’t deserve any of my issues, putting my hands on you, making false accusations, or any of that. I made you a victim by pulling you into this unspoken beef that I had with my brother. I’m sorry. And I’m sorry for what I did after you left me.”
Charly crossed her arms over her chest and leaned into me. I wrapped an arm around her and squeezed.
“I accept your apology, Ramon, because that’s what my parents taught me to do. But you and I can never be friends again.”
