Glorious Sunset (8 page)

Violet's eyebrows went up and she noticed the plastic rustling behind Brenda and asked, rib in mouth, “Dwess?”

“It's right here. I'll wait 'til you're finished to give it to you. It goes perfect with the flowers I ordered.”

Violet swallowed rib meat and said, “Isn't it customary to be fitted for one of those things?”

“Yes, but it's okay. I know what size you are. A ten, right?”

All eyes looked at her and Violet wanted to cross the table and pimp slap Brenda. Sure, a ten when she was prepubescent. Brenda obviously wanted Violet to admit to the whole table that she was actually a fourteen. Witch. She looked at the dress and did a double take. “Cripes, Brenda, is that orange?”

“It's melon. It's the in color this year.”

“Good God, did we or did we not take the same fashion class that taught us that what is in fashion is not always what is most flattering? And is that . . . Gosh darn it, Brenda, are those sleeves or balloons?”

“Sleeves, silly. Chiffon. And the top is satin and the skirt blouses out.”

“Like a dang on Southern belle on crack.” Violet tried to hold in her horror, truly, but this humiliation was too complete to keep her quiet, even in front of her genie. “I am going to kill you. I'm going to put your head down in your fiancé's soup and hold it there until the life drains out of you.”

“I knew you'd like it! I told you she'd like it, Gary.”

She supposed there was some value in the fact that Brenda never took any of her threats seriously. It would be one of those cases where, when her lifeless body showed up floating in a bathtub, with a bridesmaid dress–colored melon slice shoved in her mouth, people would say Violet just snapped; nobody ever saw it coming.

Jerome looked across at Taka under hooded lids. “When you getting married, man?”

“I have been married. I am a widower.”

Brenda gasped loudly, concern on her face. “I am so sorry. That's terrible.” She then stopped and seemed to remind herself that she couldn't trust a thing he said. “You almost got me there. I almost believed you.”

“I do not lie,” he said sternly.

“Violet, is he lying?” Brenda asked her.

Violet rewarded her with a hiss. “He is not a liar. If he says he is a widower than he is. For pity's sake, can you please leave the man alone?”

Jerome asked Taka, “What'd she die of?”

“Jerome!” Violet yelled.

“It is fine, Violet.” Taka raised a calming hand to her and turned to Jerome. “She was murdered. But she fought all the way. She fought like the wife of a warrior with the spirit of a queen, spirit that can surpass any misfortune. She lived a short life on this earth but that life was as grand as the highest mountain and as precious as the most delicate of flowers. I yearn and long for her every single day with every fiber of my being.” The table fell quiet for a moment and then Gary interrupted the peace.

“So how was she murdered? Knife? Gun? Bomb?”

“Good God, Gary,” Brenda said, scandalized by her fiancé's lack of tact.

Violet agreed. “How tacky can you be? You are all embarrassing me to death. I am embarrassed right now to know you all.”

Jerome said wryly, “And yet, here you sit.” He laughed.

Gary joined in, remarking, “She couldn't be too embarrassed. She dated both of us; she must like something.”

“You got that right!” Jerome declared.

“Oh, for heaven's sake.” Brenda blushed. “Cut it out you guys. That's just as tasteless.”

Taka took it all in as Violet ate, seeming to avoid eye contact with him. He'd caught her eyes before and he knew she felt something. Knew it. Now, he could feel a barrier around her. She was shutting him out. She was blinding herself to what she knew was madness. These people, this situation; it wasn't just her treatment of the help that was beneath her. He felt hurt and let down. He felt further betrayed and lonelier than he ever had.

For a moment, almost as if she felt his sadness she looked at him, but he was no longer in the mood to look at her.

Violet felt a stroke of hurt when Taka looked away, again. She wondered at the disappointment she saw in his eyes. She wondered why suddenly the eyes that had lit a fire earlier were now so cold. She looked at her messy plate of ribs and over to Brenda's neat little salad and lost her appetite. It wasn't until she heard Jerome that she realized he had taken in the whole transaction.

“Hey, man. You sitting over there glaring at folks, you need to lighten up,” Jerome said.

Gary agreed wholeheartedly. “He's right, man. You way too uptight.”

Taka grimaced with the effort to withhold his temper. How dare the man intrude when he was having a “staring-avoiding-staring” match with his wife?

“Now, see, here's what you need to do to release some of that tension.” Jerome leaned across the table to Taka in a conspiratorial manner. “You see that honey over there at the bar? What you need to do is go over there, tell that honey what you're all about, and go hit that.”

Gary laughed.

Violet had lost any amusement she might have had and watched as the two men in her life goaded the genie. Bringing him had not been a good idea.

Taka looked at Jerome. “Hit that? What does that mean?”

Gary snickered as Jerome leaned closer to whisper the explanation in detail. Violet's eyes widened as Taka finally understood and . . .

 

 

A half hour later Violet helped Jerome through the door of her apartment as he leaned against her, still groaning over his newly blackened eye.

“That dude is crazy,” he whined while Violet tried to soothe his bruised ego. Taka came in behind them, ignoring them both to sit on the sofa.

Violet glared at him. “You didn't have to hit him. We'll never be able to eat there again.”

“A man who speaks such filth deserves to be hit. And you, how could you enjoy the company of such a cretin?”

Jerome straightened. “What'd you call me, man?”

“Oh, shut up, Jerome. You know he'd crush you like a bug,” she told her beloved. He smartly backed down, looking indignant.

“I must relieve myself,” Taka said heading to the bathroom without looking back. “I expect him to be gone when I return.”

Violet's eyebrows rose. Wasn't that some crap? The man was stalking around giving orders like he lived there or something. Bad enough he'd tried to ruin her night, now he was giving orders? She would have to set him straight sooner rather than later, but right now she had to take care of Jerome, the big baby. She helped him to the sofa and went into the kitchen, filled a plastic bag with ice, and returned to put it on his eye. Her ministrations and small kisses on his wounded eye caused him to turn to her with kisses of his own. She pulled away and he groaned.

“Come on, baby. It's been a week.”

“I have a guest.”

“That crazy mother? He shouldn't even be here. Why can't he stay at a hotel?”

“He's family.”

“Then you come home with me. Come on, what's going to happen in one night? He can't watch himself, he gotta have you around all the time?”

Violet looked at the door. She didn't know if she should lose more time but she needed a break from the genie and his eyes. The man was always watching her. “I don't know.”

Jerome kissed her again and she felt a small flutter in her belly. It had been a week and she had needs. It didn't help that Taka was a good-looking son of a gun. She was only human; she wasn't blind. After spending the day with him she'd noticed more and more, like the size of his hands, the firmness of his jaw. When she'd picked out the outfit he now wore she'd pictured his body in the clothes, never dreaming he would fill them out the way he had. Who could have guessed beneath his nondescript clothes was a body sculpted to near perfection. Shoulders so wide she could hang curtains on them, a chest so broad and well formed it would put bodybuilders to shame. Abdomen tight so that the sweater swung free just where she longed to slide her hands underneath.

Was it wrong to get hot over a genie? She looked at Jerome. “Maybe an hour or two, then bring me home.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He gave her a long, promising kiss.

“I mean it. An hour, two at the most; that's it.” She had to get back to wishing.

“Yeah, yeah, let's go.”

“Wait, I want to say good night.”

“Come on, Violet.”

“Go wait in the car! I'll meet you there in two seconds. Go!”

He groaned, but got up and left. Violet waited for Taka to return, his ferocious expression relaxing when he noticed Jerome was gone.

“That was fun,” she said. “If I had known you would punch my boyfriend I would have had you two meet sooner.”

Taka pulled his shirt off and stretched. Violet sucked in a breath and felt a moment of dizziness at the sudden sight of his bare chest. Just as she'd imagined: covered in bittersweet dark chocolate skin, begging to be warmed by her mouth, his arms veritable logs of corded muscle, and his back . . .
Breathe, Violet, breathe!

“It is good he is gone,” Taka said, sitting on the sofa to pull off his shoes. “He is a pain and a distraction. He has ruined my evening.”

Violet came to her senses, shaking herself out of her lust fog before he could notice. She sounded almost like herself when she spoke again. “Cut it out with the complaining. You sound like Jerome.”

“Bite your tongue woman. That worm and I have nothing in common.”

“Bite
your
tongue. That worm is going to be my husband.”

He looked at her, confusion on his face. “Why would you bind yourself to such a creature?”

Violet laughed. “He's not a bad guy. You made him jealous, is all.”

“Then where is he? Where I come from a man does not allow another man to reside in his woman's hut if he is indeed in love with her.”

“Not that way; he thinks you're my cousin.”

“Then there is little reason for him to be jealous.”

“He's not jealous of you and me. He's jealous of you as a man. And who would blame him? You question his manhood and stalk around like you own everything.”

“He should be man enough to withstand the presence of another man without feeling threatened.”

“Like you? Look, genie, I've had three cosmos so I really don't want to do any serious thinking tonight. Let's just agree to disagree. We can continue in the morning.”

“You should not drink so. It gives you a headache.”

“Yes, mommy,” Violet snapped. She couldn't imagine how he knew about her cosmo headaches.

“What do you mean, calling me ‘mommy'? I am not your mommy.”

“Then stop acting like you are.”

“Ah, I'm exhausted. I'd forgotten how tiring a mortal life can be, and all I did all day was eat and entertain. My friends would chide me for being soft. My men would wait for me to sleep and then roll me in clay and feathers for my weakness,” he said, somewhat fondly. He yawned while stretching on the sofa, pulling a throw onto his bare chest and then looked at her expectantly over the back of the sofa.

“Why are you standing there? Will you not change for bed?”

“I'm going out for a little while.”

“Out? Where? For what?”

“It will just be for a little while. Jerome and I need to talk. He needs a little push in the right direction.”

“I do not even want to know what that means,” Taka said, anger finally taking its release. He'd done what she'd asked. He'd put up with nonsense. He'd worn her clothes. He'd gone shopping. And now she was off to play some games with some worthless man.

He reached over, fumbled a couple of times, and finally managed to click off the lamp. “Do not wake me when you return.”

Violet tapped her foot impatiently, hands on her hips. If this wasn't a full-blown tantrum she didn't know what was. She thought genies were supposed to be wise. “Boy, it didn't take you long to become a modern man.”

“What do you mean? What are you saying?”

“Nothing. Go to sleep.” Violet threw him one last look in the dark and gave up, slamming the door soundly on her way out.

Taka stood, clicked on the light, and began pacing. Then he walked to the door, opened it, and slammed it himself, just for the sake of it.

A surge of energy and a popping in his ears and he didn't have to wait to know he was about to get a scolding. Before Aniweto arrived he was already on the offensive.

“I do not want to hear it! I do not need you tonight with your lectures and recriminations. I am not in the mood to chat, friend.”

“Yet you pace like a caged cat. Why?”

“Why? Why? Were you there this evening? That charade of a meal; we might as well have been dining with the traitorous murderers who did us in four hundred years ago! She cheapens herself with fools and surrounds herself with people who would do her harm as quickly as look at her. Her friends are as good as her enemies and the exasperating woman will not listen. Why?” Taka put a hand to his forehead feeling the unmistakable sign of a very real headache. He'd forgotten how wonderful those were.

“It's lunacy,” he continued, pacing again and trying to rub the pain from his forehead. “Insanity. Does a mouse need its tail snapped a thousand times before it realizes the cheese is rigged?”

“Humph. May I make a correction?”

“Correct all you want; you will not make me understand the point in her actions.”

“Aghh.” Ani threw up his arms, dramatically, in disgust, and began a pacing to match Taka's own, rubbing his forehead like a mimic. “Lunacy, I tell you. Four hundred years locked in a brooch and he still doesn't realize he's not the one who died all those years ago. You were never ‘done in,' Taka, she was. Along with all the rest of your people. She doesn't have the luxury of centuries of hindsight. She doesn't have the memory to put this into perspective. Perhaps she wants to never remember again. Can you blame her?”