Page 7 of Free to Love You
He followed me again. “You’re not married?” When I shook my head, he smiled awkwardly. “No disrespect, but I read that Amish females get married like in their early twenties. I’ll assume you older than twenty-two, twenty-three.”
“Um, I’m thirty years old,” I confirmed. “Yes, that is true that most get married young, but I’m different. I wasn’t very desirable in my community.”
His eyes bucked a little. “The hell! What do you mean that you weren’t desirable? Did those white boys see you? I’ll assume they were white.”
That pulled a slight giggle. I have never in my life heard the term white boy as much as I have here. Oh, and crackers is one that I’d never heard at all. Every time I heard it, I laughed on the inside. “Yes, they saw me, but again, a black Amish girl is a phenomenon. They didn’t want to bother with being linked to a phenomenon.”
He sucked his teeth. “They’re crazy as hell. You seem like a cool chick. Quiet as hell but cool. I guess the quiet shit is to beexpected with the whole Amish culture. I can tell through your long ass, hot looking dress that you got a lil body.”
My gasp was loud. I lowered my head to my dress, then up to him. His hands went up in surrender before he told me that he didn’t mean to offend me. “No, you didn’t offend me. No one has ever said that to me before,” I mumbled.
“Considering where you came from, I can understand that. I’m gonna go over here and jump on this spades table. Thank you for cooking for my baby’s birthday party. She’s over there in a rib coma now,” he joked.
I smiled. “You’re welcome! Anything for that sweet little lady as she’s told me to call her. I guess it’s a good thing that her father is a doctor if she’s in a coma.”
He chuckled, then winked. “I guess you’re right.” With that he just walked off, leaving me frozen.
When I heard giggling behind me, I turned toward it. Ms. Beauvia and Beyuna stood there staring at me. I thought I had done something wrong. “It looks like my son got a lil crush on someone. Let me find out.”
I think my eyes fell out. “No, no, he would never be interested in a simple girl like me. He was just being nice.”
“Girl, have you ever had a man flirt with you?” Beyuna asked. “I know my cousin and he’s not about to be that invested in what you have going on if there wasn’t some kind of interest there.” She pointed out in the yard. “All his baby mama’s friends are here dressed like this isn’t a kids’ party. Even though they shouldn’t want his attention since they are his baby mama’s friends, they’re still out here being pressed. My cousin could entertain them, but he’d rather be over here asking you a million questions.” She smirked then crossed her arms over her chest.
I had to use context clues to understand what she said. Pressed, I assumed, meant that they wanted his attention badly. I took the time to look out into the yard of people. There wereso many people and children who wore smiles. The kids played on the playground that was in the yard while the women sat in a group talking. The men congregated between three tables where dominoes and card games were played. It was such a different experience than I was used to, and I felt bad to say that I loved it.
“What’s up wit ole girl?”my best friend Beyon asked.
He was my ace and had been since we were in the sandbox. His daddy and my mama were brother and sister. He was also Beyuna’s older brother.
I slapped my ace on the table to cut that king. My face scrunched when I glared at him. “What you mean, what’s up wit ole girl?”
“What you mean, what I mean? You was over there for a lil minute. I know y’all ass wasn’t talking about Jolly Ranchers and Starburst,” he joked.
Everyone at the table chuckled. “Shit, she Amish so we ain’t know what they been talkin’ about. Her quiet, weird ass mighta been talkin’ ’bout that shit,” my homeboy Scat said.
My forehead creased and my brows knitted. “Aye, Scat, watch ya mout’ about dat one there. Keep ya mout’ off her.”
The game paused and all eyes fell on me. The eyes of my partners that were just around within earshot stopped what they were doing to gawk at me.These niggas.I knew it was about to be some shit. I couldn’t remember the last time I defended a female.
Scat lifted his hands. “Oh shit! My bad, my dude. I ain’t know e been like dat.” No smile appeared on his face. They knew when I meant business.
My life outside of the hospital was different, but in some ways the same. Out here, I had to demand my respect too. Niggas thought because I was a doctor that I was soft. It was crazy they thought that when I had never been soft. When I was in high school, college, and medical school, I was on the block getting it in. The difference between me and these niggas out here was that I had the guidance of my uncle Beaunir. He taught me how to move differently and to stay dangerous to survive outchea.
Beyon’s head vigorously nodded. “Yep, my dog about to make her his gal. I ain’t seen you defend a girl since yo ass was wit Hope’s ass. Hell and that was only like the first lil bit of y’all relationship.” He looked behind me. “Damn, speak of the baby mama and she will pop the hell up.”
We resumed our card game. Hope and I were cool as fuck. We weren’t on that drama shit and co-parented like champs. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that we didn’t break up on bullshit. I didn’t cheat and she didn’t cheat. We just knew that we weren’t the end all for each other.
“What’s up, y’all? Who winning?” she asked.
I met her when I was at University of South Carolina at a party. She wasn’t a student, but she stayed on campus to do hair. She came here from Maryland to go to Columbia College. A yearinto school she realized that the school thing wasn’t for her. Now she had her own shop that was extremely successful. Yeah, I took care of her, but she could take care of herself with no issues.
I looked up at her. “Now you already know we cuttin’ they ass.” Beyon and I were the players to beat.
“I’m already knowing.” She patted me on my shoulder. “I see you got a new lil friend. She’s cute, baby daddy.”
I chuckled. “Man, hush. I’m chillin’ playing cards.”
“Don’t act like that. She’s actually a good look for you. Way better than the other bitches that you like to frolic with,” she said with a giggle. “Plus, Ayriss loves her.”
