Brown Eyes Blue Smile

Shanice waited tables at a Deli over on Charlton Street. The work was menial and the money and tips were modest enough till whenever she figured something better came along. She said goodbye to her friend and her daughter when it was a half hour towards noon and took off the Deli. She arrived with ten minutes to spare and went round the back to change into her work clothes before returning to attend to the costumers.

Almost an hour later, just when the place was getting filled with rush hour commuters, she was returning with someone's order when she saw a face seated at a table that immediately brought a dark cloud to her features. He too had seen her and offered her a smile as she approached him. He wasn't alone. His typical three-man crew hoods were with him, all of whom also had their eyes upon her.

She was about walking past him to deliver the meal she had when he caught her arm, holding her back; she looked at him as one would look at a something they wish would up and vanish before their sight.

"What're you doing here, Chris?"

He gave her a lopsided grin, something she once used to melt for but not anymore. "Just thought I'd stop by to see how my baby-girl's doing. You're looking so fly every day, girl."

"I ain't your girl, Chris. And I would appreciate it if you stop coming here looking for me."

"What? Ain't nothing wrong with me stopping by to see my lady, is there?"

"You and I have got nothing more to talk about anymore."

Chris made a sad face. "Aww ... come on, girl. What do I have to do to make you forgive me for what I done said to you then?"

"Nothing, okay. Nothing except stay the fuck away from me. Now let me go of my arm."

She pulled her grip from his arm and went on to deliver the meal to whom it was meant for. She didn't bother looking at him as she went on with her work while he and his goons kept their eyes glued to her. Her boss, observed what had occurred from behind the counter and signalled her over.

"You know those group of boys, Shanice?"

She nodded and said she did.

"They come to give you any trouble? You know you can tell me if that's what they're after."

"No sir, no trouble at all."

She went on with her work. She was barely aware of when Chris and his gang got up from their table and left.

Her phone rang a while later and she asked one of the other girls to stay in for her while she rushed out back to answer the call. She recognised the number that was calling her -- once again a smile that had formerly left her face when she saw Chris returned to her lips.

"Hi there, white boy," she said into her phone.

"My Goodness, don't tell me that's what you've reduced me to," Eric's voice spoke into her ear. "Surely you can think of something nicer than that."

"Sorry, I can't think of any for now."

"And you think I'm going to just lie low while you start calling me names. You're in for a belt flogging when next I see you, young lady."

"Oh really? And whatever gave you the idea I'd want to spend another hour with you?"

"Simple: you're too in love with me not to want to see me again."

Shanice laughed. "Keep dreaming, white boy. Just keep dreaming."

"Alright then, at least allow me the benefit of taking you out for dinner tonight."

"What type of dinner -- lunch fries and a pizza takeaway?"

From the other end, Eric burst into laughter. "I wish. No, I'm talking about a real dinner date. Something I should have taken you out to rather than to see a movie."

"You know you're taking up much of my thoughts."

"Really? And I thought it was just me."

A dimple glowed on her cheek. "No, I too have been thinking much about you. I keep thinking about last night."

"Same here. I can't seem to get the smell of you off my thoughts. I ought to turn you into a bathing soap and have you clean me up every day."

"Get outta town!" she laughed.

"Now I'm being serious you're the one who doesn't want to believe me."

"I'll believe you when next I see you."

"Your place at seven tonight. I'll be there and we'll have dinner. You game?"

"You bring your ass over at seven, white boy, and then we'll see."

Chris was waiting for her outside her apartment building when she returned home around past five. This time he was alone, and he had a scowl on his face as she watched her step out of her taxi. Shanice was still basking in her upcoming date with Eric and really wasn't in the mood for unleashing any tantrum, especially one that comes with a nasty headache like Chris. She came to a halt before him, sighed.

"What do you want with me, Chris?"

"The fuck you mean what do you want? What do you think I could possibly want from you, Shanice? What do you got to treat me so mean, disrespecting me even in front of my boys?"

"Well if it hurts you so much, the least you can do is take a chill pill and remember what you called me the other day over on the phone."

"Look babe, I done told you how sorry I was about that, and really I am --"

"No, you're sorry, Chris. But I'm not. My mother never raised no hoe or cheating bitch in her house, and I'm not going to sit and take your stupid antics any more than I should. I'm moving on, Chris. I suggest you do the same."

She tried to walk past him but he held her. "Look, look, hold up, Shanice. Where's all this anger coming from? I ought to know me by now. Fine, I do act kind of stupid sometimes, especially when it's about you, but babe, that's just part of the love I've got for you. I act crazy sometimes, but that's 'cause I've got deep feelings for you, and I don't want to see anything bad come to you, you know what I mean. Why can't we just look past what's happened and move on with what we have?"

"That's just it, Chris," she said. "I can't, not anymore."

Chris turned angry at this. "Oh so now what -- you're going to up and dump me just like that? Is that what you're trying to tell me here, Shanice -- that I time with you is done, and you're going to be all by yourself now? Or have you got some other guy on the side?"

She looked at him. She didn't want to dare herself in saying what she would only regret afterwards.

"I want you to look me in the eye Shanice, and tell me right here right now. You really got somebody else on the side?"

"Goodbye, Chris," she said to him with a flat voice and then walked past him up the stairs into her apartment building.

There came a knock at her door. Shanice was just done applying a final pencil to her eyebrow and paused to check the result of her features in the mirror before heading out of her room to go and answer the door. She held her breath as her fingers worked on the lock and only released it when she opened her door and found Eric standing there and not Chris, whom she'd been afraid was planning to make her another visit.

Eric appeared casual in a jacket and open shirt with his hands folded behind his back and a smile on his face.

"Hi there beautiful," he said to her.

"Well, hi there white boy," she returned his smile. "You're right on time."

"I'm glad about that. Are we good to go?"

"Oh yeah, just about."

Shanice wore a dark purple dress that very much complemented her figure; Eric couldn't help soaking up the sight of her, seeing how different she looked now from the former night. She'd locked her apartment door and was about draping a scarf over her shoulder when Eric stopped her.

"No, let me get that." He came from behind, taking the scarf from her hand and acted like a gentleman and draped the scarf over her shoulder, at the same time presented her with what he had hidden in his hands when he appeared at her doorstep -- a white Rose.

"Oh Eric, you shouldn't have."

"I know, I just couldn't resist. It's just a little something to mark your beauty."

She was immensely touched. A warm glow light up her cheeks as he slipped the flower into her hand. She couldn't resist kissing him. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Thank you for being beautiful." He gave her another kiss and then led her out of her apartment building to his car that was waiting for them downstairs. He opened her side of the car door for her to step into become coming round to his side.

"I never knew you had a ride."

"I did, just don't enjoy taking her out much of the time."

"So where are you taking me to?"

"Someplace cool and classy and by the sea. You'll love it."

He started his car and drove into the evening traffic.

More than an hour later, while Shanice and Eric were having fun with their evening, Michelle was in her own apartment's kitchen having a late night coffee. Her daughter had gone to bed less than a couple of minutes ago; she'd just left her room after reading her a bedtime story. Michelle sat there in the comfort and quietude of her apartment, thinking, listening to the silence, and thinking. Thoughts too random to be called anything else flirted around her head. She couldn't put a pin to them, though she thought she caught a hazy portrait of what they were waving before her.

Lincoln.

It's been four months since she'd been with him. One morning he'd woken up and disappeared from her bed and sight. Except for a lone letter he'd left for her, explaining how he needed to get some things taken care of, she hadn't heard no word, not even gotten a phone call from him. But what was most hard on her was that she kept telling herself that she was done with him. She held unto this belief in her heart that he was never going to return to her anymore ... and still she was even more afraid admitting that to herself.

Lincoln had been a lot of things to her. He'd been her best friend -- whenever Shanice wasn't around -- her husband to her daughter (even though they were miles away from thinking about getting married, though it wasn't like she'd given up entirely on it), but most important, he'd been her rock ... though that had been tempered down when he developed himself a drinking problem. She many times she'd tried to help him, and each time he pushed himself further and further away from her. She realised that the moment was fast approaching when she'd either have to keep waiting on him showing up or moving on without him. It was going to be hard for Monique to come to terms with that ... but all things will heal. In time she knew they would.

Done with her coffee, she washed her mug in the sink and left it off dry and then turned off the light. Her next destination was her bedroom. There came a knock on her door. Wondering who it could, she asked first who it was. Getting no answer, she cautiously unlocked her door and pushed it open. There was no one standing there ... except for a plain envelope lying on the floor by her feet. The corridor was empty. She picked the envelope up and locked back her door.

There was only her name written on the envelope's back, and the sight of it brought a sense of déjà-vu to her eyes. The handwriting ... something familiar about it, she thought. Her hand ripped through the envelope and out fell a plain sheet of paper with this written on it:

""You're still looking lovely.

Alleyways, tomorrow at twelve

I will wait for you.

- Lincoln.""

She could immediately feel her heart beating fast. She reached out and pressed her palm against the wall, thinking she was seeing things; thinking that she was dreaming. Her eyes read the words over and over again, and then she realised it was no dream.

"Oh my God," she muttered to herself. "Lincoln."

Dinner over, they decide to go for a walk. They drove down to their pier; Eric parked his car close to the pier where they'd walked their first date and stood looking out at the harbour. He couldn't stop admiring the way the cool wind ruffled her dress, letting her scarf flutter behind her neck till eventually she had to take it off. Eric offered her his jacket to keep from the cold; they stood beside each other silent for a moment, each contemplating what to say next.

Eric decided to break the silence. "You looked absolutely beautiful tonight."

She looked at him. "You've said that more than fifty times already."

"I'll keep saying it for another fifty if it's possible."

She had something on her mind. Eric could sense she was struggling with her words and opted not to hurry her about it.

"Tell me something, Eric. Do you really want to be with me?"

"I thought I'd answered that question already."

"I need to hear you say it."

He turned to face her, taking her hand in his. "Well then hear me now as I say this: I really, really want to be with you, Shanice."

She was silent for a moment, soaking in his words, and then: "You know prior to when I met you, I was going out with someone. His name is Chris. I'd broken up with him that night you and I met."

"He cheat on you?"

She shook her head. "I can't really say if he'd done that before. No, he just ... let's just say he's the sort who refused to grow up. The funny thing is, if he were cheating on me, I think I could have handled that. What I can't handle is someone lying to me, especially about something they ought not lie to me about. So Eric, now that I'm here, are there any lies or secrets in your closet I ought to know about? If there is then please jus tell me right now, whatever it is. If you've got some woman on the side ... now's the time to come clean about it."

Her eyes bore into his. She searched for the lie he might be hiding behind his pupils at the same time searched for the truth. Her heart beat fast against her chest nervously.

Eric raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "You're all I want, Shanice. I don't have anything aside from you."

"Is that the truth?"

"It is."

She felt her heart release a sigh as she came forward and rested her head on his chest. "I can't help myself from wanting to love you, Eric."

He touched her cheek and raised her head. Their lips met in a kiss, sensuous and loving. The kiss seemed to mould them into one being. Into one heart beating in two separate bodies.

"Want to go back to my place?" he asked her.

"I can't. I've got an early shift tomorrow at work. I can swing by your place later in the day though. I'll bring some pizza along."

"Sounds lovely. Bring a movie too."

"I thought that was on you."

"Alright, it's on me."

He wrapped an arm around her and together they walked back to the car. She rested her head on his shoulder even as he drove her back to her home. He arrived in front of her apartment building ten minutes later. She pulled his head towards her and gave him a lengthier kiss.

"I'm so reluctant to let you go tonight," she muttered.

"Same with me. But we have the rest of tomorrow to look forward to. I can't wait to see you then."

"I can't too. Goodnight, darling." She gave him a final kiss before stepping out of his car.

Eric waved at her as she climbed up the stairs of her apartment building; she too waved back before stepping inside. Neither of them was aware of the figure of a man hiding behind a tree across the street from them, watching everything that transpired between them.

Chris stood there seething with rage as he watched Shanice disappear inside her building and watched as the guy whom she'd been out with drive off. He'd stopped by her place a while ago, still with the intention of apologising to her and wanting her to take her back but had met her door locked. He'd strolled down the block to kill time with one of his guys, figuring that by the time he returned she would be back. Now he knew why she'd been acting all heated up with him since -- she'd gone and gotten herself a white boy to be with. He raised his jacket's hood to his face and walked away, smiling to himself now he knew what she was about. Women, he thought sourly to himself, nothing's ever too good for them.