“I don’t mean to sound over confident, but I intend to make you mine.”
Tyhedra smiled and laughed a little. “Is that right?”
“Yes, it is. And I am prepared to spend all my time, all my energy, and all my resources to do it. Let me take you away from here now. We can find a nice quiet place where we can talk. Get to know each other.”
“No, Tavarus.”
“Tell me what you want to do and that’s what we’ll do. I just wanna talk to you, Tyhedra. I wanna know everything you want me to know,” I said with a confident half-smile. “I wanna know what makes you cry. And what I can do to make you smile.”
“You don’t smile much,” Tyhedra said leaning back.
I had her scent now. “Neither do you,” I replied, drawing her back to me.
“Maybe I don’t have anything to smile about.”
Half of my mind said, Hey, slow down. But the beast in me was in control. I laughed out loud. “That’s why you need to be with me. Come go with me.”
“No, Tavarus.” But I could tell she wanted to go or at least she was thinking about it. “You don’t waste any time, do you?”
“When one has little time, one can’t waste it. So have dinner with me tomorrow?”
“No, Tavarus.” Tyhedra looked at me. “Not tomorrow. Thursday, seven o’clock at Sylvia’s. Please, be on time.”
Tyhedra left me standing alone on the floor. I smiled and watched her walk away. After Tyhedra left the spot, I went back to the bar and had a couple more drinks before calling it a night and heading to the condo.
On the way there, I thought about what I was going to do about the situation between me and Carmen. According to everyone who offered an opinion, the solution was simple: spend all of my free time with her, which at this point in our relationship, I wasn’t willing to do. I hadn’t been inside long enough to take off my jacket before the phone began ringing. Of course, it was Carmen.
“Hello, Carmen.”
“Oh, so you do know me? I was beginning to think that you had put me out of your mind,” Carmen said, with more at
titude than I was in the mood for.
“What makes you say that?” I said, and sat down in my favorite chair. I picked up the remote and flipped on the TV.
“Oh, well, let me see . . . It probably has something to do with the fact that you haven’t called me all day, and when I call you, I get voice mail and no return call. Yeah, I think that sums it up nicely.”
I flipped to highlights on ESPN. I was a bit too buzzed to be having this conversation and was about to tell her that and ask if we could have this little chat some other time, when Carmen started up again.
“Where have you been all night, Tavarus?”
“I stopped after work to listen to that jazz band I told you about. Had a few drinks and I left.”
“Who did you go with?”
“I went there by myself.” Which was the truth; I did go there alone. Telling Carmen, that while I was there I met Tyhedra, was not the thing I wanted to do right at that second.
“See, Tavarus, that is exactly what I’m talking about.”
“What’s that, Carmen?”
“Did you ever stop and think that I might want to go with you?”
“No. You’ve told me on many occasions and in no uncertain terms, that you don’t like jazz. So why would I ask you to go with me to a jazz club, to listen to a jazz band?”
“To be with you. To do something, anything with you, that’s why. But that is the one thing I can’t get you to understand: I want to be with you. Do things with you. Be a part of your life.”
“Carmen, you are a part of my life,” I said, and massaged my throbbing temples.