She leaned against the door. This was what she didn’t want to hear, but at least Dewayne Durham wasn’t out there on the landing with a couple of his boys now. She’d need to handle this with Mario alone, work it out and end it tonight.
Leaning against the door, she put the tip of her finger in her mouth while she let it all bounce around in her mind. Her mother had told her to take her finger out her mouth all the time when she was a kid, that it would buck her teeth. But the habit had never left her.
“Olivia! C’mon, girl.”
Finally she opened up the door. And when he stepped in, his fists all balled up at his sides like he was gonna get physical with her, she nearly laughed. Lookin’ like Lil’ Romeo or sumshit, wearin’ a Redskins jersey and a matching cap, like a kid would. Shoot, Lil’ Romeo had more heft on him that this little slip of nothin’ right here.
“Damn, Olivia, how you gonna let a man stand in the hall all night long?”
She motioned him inside, shutting the door behind him as he entered, one hand in his pocket, bobbing his head in that way he did, like it was mounted on a spring.
“So you found me.”
“Didn’t you think I would?”
“You want a drink or somethin’?”
“Nah, baby. I ain’t here to drink.”
Durham had forgotten how fine she was. She wasn’t tall, but she was put together right. And she liked to look clean, even just hanging inside her place. She had on a summer dress and some shoes, sandals with heels and no backs, on her feet. On her chest where the dress separated were a few black hairs. Girl had some hairs on her chest and around her nipples, too. But that was the only fault Durham had found in her. Other than that, she was all right.
Olivia walked over to a grouping of furniture and Durham followed. Music, that “Fiesta” joint by R Kelly and Jay Z, was up real loud, and Durham could smell blunt smoke mixed with her cigarette smoke in the room. The blunt smell was sweet, the good stuff, had to be his brother’s. Well, maybe she still had some of it left.
“Where your son at?” He moved toward her and she held her place. She was up against the arm of the couch.
“He’s stayin’ with my brother for a couple of days.”
“It’s good he’s not here. ’Cause you and me need to have a very serious conversation.”
“Ain’t no big drama to it, Mario.”
“Oh, yeah? Guess it wasn’t no thing to you. Including the thing we had together, right?”
“I was fixin’ to call you and straighten it all out.”
“When?”
“Look here, Mario, you gonna let me talk?”
He was nodding his head quickly and his eyes flared. It was comical to her, high as she was, watchin’ him act all overdramatic, like he was in one of those old silent movies. She bit down on her lip, but she guessed that her eyes showed that she was amused.
“Somethin’ funny?”
“Nah, it’s just… Look, I shouldn’t have left up on you like I did. I’m sorry for that. But it wasn’t workin’ between us, you know this. You know this, Mario.”
He was still nodding his head, trying to act hard, but Olivia noticed that the flame had gone out of him. She had wounded him now.
“Mark,” said Olivia, “he’s funny about having men around our house, and you got to understand, I put my son above everything else. I knew you wouldn’t understand. I didn’t know how to talk to you about it, so I just booked and came over here.”
“What about the hydro?”
“I didn’t steal it, that’s what you mean.”
“Explain what you did, then.”
“I gave it to this dude I knew, said he could sell it for a good price, only take a little off the top. He was a friend of a good friend, so I knew he wouldn’t do me dirt. And he didn’t. The herb got sold.”
“And you were gonna do what with the money?”
“Give half to you, the way we talked about.”
“Uh-huh. So you got the money now?”
“It’s coming,” said Olivia, folding her arms across her chest.
He knew it was a lie. She could see it in his eyes, the way they’d got hot again. ’Cause on top of what she’d done to him, stole from him and shamed him to his brother, now she was telling these stories to him, too.
“So the money’s comin’,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“Bullshit.”
And now what? she thought. More of these one-word sentences, prob’ly, and then he’d just flare his eyes some more and turn around and leave. Get his brother, but not tonight, which would give her time to book, gather up Mark and her personal shit and move on to something else. Wasn’t gonna be no fun, but then she’d known what she was getting into from the start. The important thing was, nothing was gonna happen tonight. You got down to it, what was this little man right here gonna do on his own, for real?
She looked down at his shoes and laughed. She didn’t mean to, but the chronic, it had fucked with her head. And this really was one sorry motherfucker right here. Couldn’t even afford no Jordans, had pair of “ordans” on his feet. And then he looked down and knew right away what she was laughing at. And he got this funny look on. Not acting mad anymore but mad for real.
He slapped her square across the face.
It stung her and surprised her. It surprised him. For a moment, Durham looked at his hand, the one that had slapped her. He had never hit a woman before. He had never hit a man. But when she had laughed, it was like it was all those people on the bus and everyone else who’d ever cracked on him was standing there before him, laughing. All of them, not just her. Well, he damn sure did have her attention now.
No one had ever looked at him before the way she was looking at him this minute. She was showing fear, and something else: respect.
She touched at the spot that had already reddened. Then, slowly, she stood straight and cocked up her chin. That look of fear, it had passed as quickly as it had come.
“That’s all you got?” said Olivia.
“I’ll give you more, you want it.”
“You dare take a hand to me?”
“Bitch, I will close my hand next time, you don’t mind your mouth.”
She chuckled and looked him over. “Oh, shit. Now Steve Urkel gonna act all rough and tough, huh?”