“No, this is not the same thing! How dare you compare her to your mother? I just ran into her and her friends at the diner, and she is nothing like my Emmy, rest her soul. Emmy was a beautiful woman with elegance and grace, and you know it.”
“Dad, you’re closed minded. Tameka is beautiful just like Mom; she’s feisty and caring…all the things I love,” I admitted.
“But she’s a—”
“Don’t say it! I don’t know why you even bothered coming over here today, if all you’re going to do is say the same things you’ve been saying. I understand you’re not changing your position on me marrying Tameka. Fine. But I’m not changing mine either. She’s going to be my wife. Now, deal with it!”
My father stood from his seat, glaring at me before he meandered toward the doorway looking like a battle beaten soldier. “Don’t call me when her attitude kicks in and her gang banger cousins are ganging up on you about to whip your ass because you’re white.”
I almost chuckled over the absurdity of his comment, but I didn’t. Everyone I’d met in Tameka’s family was cordial and welcoming, well, except for Rodney, but he was her ex. I had gotten past the mighty blows of Tameka’s resistant attitude, and it only made me desire her more. I was battle tested and ready for whatever the future held for us.
“If I do have to deal with her cousins, I can handle them myself as a man. I don’t need your help with her family, and I never asked you for it,” I told him.
What I needed was to have my father back, but it was obvious from him turning his back on me and walking out the door that that need would unlikely be fulfilled.
“Fine. I guess this is it for us, Jeb. I did my job raising you,” he said as his last ditch effort to get me to see things his way. “Now, you have to go out here and learn things the hard way.”
“I guess so,” I said, my heart lurching out of my chest at the thought of never seeing my father again. How in the hell could this be it for me and my father? The man who taught me everything it is to be a man. The same man who was obviously devastated that his lessons of hate had been overruled by love.
“Bye, Son. Have a good life.” He walked out of my office door with his slumped shoulders making him look a clear four inches shorter than his usual six foot two stature.
“Dad—” I wanted to call out to him, but it only came out as a faint whisper before I slumped in my seat and exhaled.
It was all said and done. My relationship with my father was over. I held my head high like he taught me to do and walked out of my office and back to work.
***
As soon as I got home from work, I looked for her. She was sitting on the sofa reading a book when I went over and sat beside her. “How was your day today?” I asked.
“It was fine. I ran into your father when I was out with the girls,” she said, and I could hear the change in her tone, which held a bit of trepidation. “The guy that was with him was rude to me, and your father pulled him away.”
I stood up from my seat, ready to head back out to find out who’d disrespected my woman. “Who was the guy?”
/> “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. He had red hair and a tattoo on his neck. Kemara said it was the brotherhood tattoo. Thank God, you got that god awful thing removed before you met me.”
“Yeah, was he a tall guy. About my height,” I probed.
“Yes.”
I walked toward the door. Tameka sprang to her feet and ran behind me. She grabbed my arm and made me face her.
“Wait, Jeb, where are you going?”
“I’m going to talk to Dirty Neil about the way to address you the next time he sees you. He’s the only fool I know that has the tattoo on his neck, and he’s bad news. We already have that stalker that’s running around here trying to get in Alise’s house, and now this.”
“Wait, the man tried to get into Alise’s house?”
“Yeah, Bruiser told me about it right before I came home. That’s why I have to address Neil right now. You don’t know him like I do.”
“No, you can’t do that. I don’t want you getting into fights with everyone who looks at me wrong. That would only make our situation worse,” she said, tugging at my arm to try to get me to come back into the house.
I didn’t budge. “Tameka, as a man, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to sit around and allow men, who know I will beat their asses, to disrespect you? These men in the brotherhood, some of them, have been dismantled by me before, and now they think I’m soft and want to try me by mistreating you. I can’t let that happen.”
“Jeb, how do you know it was Neil? It could have been someone else,” Tameka asked, and I knew she was bringing that up again only to stall me out.
“He’s the only piece of slime that has the tattoo on his neck, and you said he has red hair and was hanging with my father. It’s him. I’ll be right back babe.”
“I’ll get married in Hawaii!” Tameka tossed out as she looked at me as if she was ready to give in. “I will. If that will stop you from going over there to fight with that man, I will do it in a heartbeat. I don’t want you to have to fight every time someone disrespects me.”