Wednesday, 10/12
That morning I got a call from Nia.
"Hey, Mark! There's kind of an impromptu party at the House Saturday and I was hoping you could be my date?"
"Uh, sure, love. I should be able to get off a little early. What time do you think, 9? Maybe 10?"
"10 would be fine, or earlier if you can."
"I can almost certainly make it by 10, but I'll try for earlier." I paused. "Nia, will girls be bringing their boyfriends or...dates?" I still hadn't gotten over the idea that something crazy might happen to me at the sorority house, as in my nightmares.
"
Yeeees....?
" Like
, what kind of crazy question is that?
"Cool. Hey, what do guys, like,
wear
to these things? I don't really have any cool clothes..."
Sweet laughter from Nia, "Don't worry about it, silly! Just come as you are. Maybe like you were dressed when you picked me up Saturday."
"Sure, yeah, I can do that. Thanks." All of a sudden I was worried about having a girlfriend. Not because
she
would much care what I wore, but I didn't want to embarrass her in front of her friends.
"Great, I'll see you then!
Luhlike
you!"
"Luhlike you too. I can't wait to see you again. Bye."
Sounds great, right? Your girl calling you up asking you to be her date to her sorority house's party? But there's music at parties, right? And dancing? And now I was sweating bullets because
I didn't know how to dance
! At all. Oh crap, I'm going to embarrass her after all! Then she'll break up with me and we won't get married and go on that honeymoon to Jamaica and have beautiful biracial babies together and live in a nice part of town with white picket fences...
Slow down, buddy
, said the part of my brain that says such things.
You're an engineer. Figure this out, work the problem
. You're right, brain, I can do that...
Trey
! *He* can help me with clothes, and maybe even dancing. No, that's too gay.
The girls!
Yeah,
they
can teach me how to dance! And I should see them Friday night. The song
Lean Back
came out last year, and heck, I can lean back! Maybe that's all I gotta do...
That night at work: "Trey, I got a problem, man..."
"What's up, dog?"
"Dude, Nia wants me to take her to their house party Saturday."
"
Aaaand
....that's a problem,
how
? You need somebody to finish your shift? Man, that's easy."
"No, it's not that...." Then blurting it out, "I don't know what to
wear
!"
"Just wear what you wear, bro! Like Jagged Edge say in
Where the Party At
,
♪ In your white t-shirt or a three-piece suit, Don't matter what you wear, all that matters is who you with. ♪
" As he sang that he did the coolest little dance I wished I knew how to do. "And you're gonna be with ya girl, right? Man,
she
don't care what you wear: she just wants to be with
you
!"
"Yeah, you're probably right, but still..."
"Alright, playa, this is what you do..." I was all ears. "Get over to Tower Center Mall, you know the one I'm talkin' about, way out on West Grand River Ave? Right, so go in some of those stores, pick you up some Southpole baggy shorts, a Fubu shirt—" about here was when I went from keenly listening, almost taking notes, to realizing he was playing me, "—some high-top Timberlands, and a, uh, a
'do
rag! Wrap that around your head, playa, rock that look!"
"Very funny,
homey
. Man, I don't even know why I bother talking to you about serious stuff!" I said that half-playing/half-serious, but I guess I overdid the serious part, because Trey seemed a little hurt.
"Mark, I'm sorry, man. You know how I do, I didn't mean nothin' by it. But seriously, wear that old Rolling Stones shirt you wear and some faded jeans and you'll be fine."
"Thanks, Trey," and we did the cool black-guy handshake thing.
Thursday, 10/13
About 10AM I sent Candace a text. It broke my rule about not contacting them, but I figured she and/or her boyfriend would be in class so he wouldn't have to know.
Hate to bother you, but could you call me when you have a chance?
It's a semi-emergency. Thanks.
Five minutes later my phone rang, Candace's number. Sounding worried, she asked what was wrong, was I broken down somewhere? In the hospital?
What
?
"No, none of that. I'm sorry I scared you, but.... Well, Nia wants me to be her date at a ZP house party this weekend and—"
"
That's
your semi-emergency? I was imagining the worst, but sorry, go on."
Now I felt stupid for bothering her, and for upsetting her, so now I
really
didn't want to say why I'd wanted to talk to her. "It's nothing, never mind. You've put it in context for me, and that was a poor choice of words on my part."
"Mark. Tell me, please? I'm here for you, I apologize for how I reacted."
"It's not your fault, Candace, it's mine and I'm sorry. But okay, Nia wants me to be her date at the party, right? And there's music and dancing at parties, right?"
"
Yeeeaaaah
..."
"Well, I don't know, I mean, I've never, like...
danced
before..."
Good-hearted laughter from Candace, "Oh you poor thing! I can see how that would seem like an emergency to you. Let me guess: you don't want to embarrass Nia, do you?"
"That's it exactly! I mean,
she
wouldn't care if I could dance or not, but I don't want to look like some stupid white dork at the party who can't dance. I've heard the jokes, and..."
"Oh Mark, don't
worry
about it! Contrary to the myth, not every black person 'has rhythm' or whatever. And there'll be slow songs so you can just dance with Nia on those, that's easy and she can guide you so that no one even notices."
"Yeah, that's a great idea! But what if—I don't know, I've never been to a party like this—what if she wants me to dance to a faster song, or what if like everybody is dancing and just me and her were sitting down, that would look bad, wouldn't it?"
"Then just do the two-step, that's easy enough."
"But I don't even know what that
is!
Listen, the reason I wanted to talk to you was to ask if you and/or Keisha could show me some moves, maybe tomorrow night if I see you?"
Chuckling, "You're so cute, Mark, worrying about how you'll look in front of Nia's friends. And I guess the other guys who'll be there. I'm starting to get it now, and I apologize for minimizing your concern earlier. I think you may be worried about being the only white guy among a bunch of black people, is that it?"
"YES! Don't get me wrong, Candace, I think I 'fit in' well enough with black people [I got that from the Boys Home], but this dancing thing, I've just never done it before, never went to any school dances or anything, and I'm just...."
"It's okay, Mark, I understand." Giggling a bit. "We should be able to give you a crash course so you don't look like a total 'dork' as you put it (which you're not, by the way). How about tonight, are you free?"
"Yes, tonight would be great! I don't have to work or anything."
"Okay, let me check with Keisha, but I think we're free tonight and you could come to our place. I'll text you later?"
"Oh THANK you, Candace! I was so desperate I even thought about asking Trey...."
"But you thought that would be 'gay', didn't you?"
How does she
do
that??
"Yes, you read my mind again. But listen, last night when I kind of asked him about it he did this cool thing where—"
Giggling, "I'm sure he did, but we can't do dance lessons over the phone. So let me get back to you later, okay?"
"Okay. And thank you so much
again
." Then we said our goodbyes.
Woohoo! The girls were going to teach me how to dance. I probably wouldn't learn it
well
, but at least enough to not look like a total spaz when I was dancing with Nia.
Back in the room in the afternoon I flipped back and forth between MTV and VH1, trying to see people dancing, see how they did it. Trying to do their moves myself (Jake was out) but feeling like an uncoordinated doofus. Oh, and BET too. Which I'd never really looked at before, but there were some
fine
honeys in those videos.
>9:00 okay?
>>>Perfect! Thank you!
Told Jake I'd be out late, don't wait up, wink wink. Ordered a large thick-crust half Italian sausage and mushroom (their favorite), and half beef and black olive (mine). Plus a 2-liter of Sprite, which is what I usually saw at their house.
Picked up the pizza and was knocking on their door at 9PM sharp. When the door opened I went into my Dominic-the-classless-delivery-guy schtick, "Yo, I got a pie here for a
Ms. Candace xxxxx
..." Looking up from reading the label, "Whoa, it's youz two again! Didn't get enough of Big Dom last time, Candace? Or maybe your friend there wants a turn?"