slid her hand away, picked up her fork, and began to pick at the food on her plate once more.
“No. Not at all. I’ve got full custody of Aiden. She’s been trying to give me grief about that lately, but I know it’s because of money. At first she didn’t want to pay child support and didn’t seem to care, so I told her to just forget it. Just come and see him regularly. She couldn’t even do that shit right.” He was itching for a cigarette but noted the ‘no smoking’ sign on one of the windows. “Anyway, I shouldn’t do this…”
“Do what?”
“They say you’re not supposed to talk about your old lovers or exes on first dates. I honestly don’t give a shit about rules like that. I probably should’ve heeded it though because I don’t have nothing good to say about her, Lauren, so I guess I shouldn’t say anything about her at all, as my grandmother would say.”
“Why not speak about her? You asked about my husband. You don’t know if he and I had a good relationship or not. You just know he passed away prematurely.”
“Well, since you bring it up, did you? Did you have a good relationship with him?”
“Honestly? I did.” Her shoulders slumped, and his stomach knotted. The more time passed with her, the more he liked this woman.
That’s why you don’t ask questions of women you just want to fuck and walk away from. If you start asking questions, liking their answers, things can get complicated. I can see we’re entering the complicated zone…
“I’m going to go to the ladies’ room. I’ll be right back,” she said.
She got up, excusing herself, and he was left there with his rambling thoughts.
This is more complicated than I would have liked. I’ve got opposition. Who was he competing against? A ghost? Wasn’t no winning against a spirit. They always had the upper hand. They could enter one’s dreams, toss fond memories like glitter and stardust that would make one laugh and cry all at the same time. A ghost could surf different worlds and disappear whenever they wished.
I’m going to have to fight a ghost. Not the real one, but the one in her mind. Women like Lauren you just don’t meet every day. None of this was planned. I damn sure wasn’t looking for this sort of thing, but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. This is an opportunity. I want to get to know this woman more, no doubt about it. She has me mighty curious. She said his name was Nehemiah…
He found himself a real good woman and settled down with her. They didn’t even have any children together. I wonder how long they’d been married? They didn’t break up; there was no official ending. That is what makes this trickier. On one end, there is not an ex-husband to deal with, but on the other, there IS a husband to deal with. He’ll always be alive, in one way or another. I have to compete with air, shadows, and cold chills. I have to compete with vibrations, memories, grief, legacies and old, familiar energy. ’Cause she still loves him… She’ll always love him. I could see that in her eyes. He’s probably always around her, like I sometimes believe my grandmother is always around me. Who’d want to let a pretty little thing like this out of their sight? Now I sound just plain nuts… but it’s true.
I don’t play second fiddle to anyone, but I’ll just sit tight, see how this goes. Nehemiah, if you’re around right now, I don’t mean you any harm, but I like your woman and I’m planning on taking her on more dates, talking to her, getting to know her, picking her mind because she has good ideas. And as soon as I can I’m going to… Never mind… but you can probably read my dirty mind right this second, so you know my intentions…
I’ve been having thoughts about Lauren for a while now. Wait a minute, can ghosts read minds? No, that’s a psychic. Ghosts aren’t psychic, are they? I think Grandma had said demons are. Angels, too. But not ghosts. Now I sound like my crazy ass child. Aiden brings up shit like this, watching all of those damn horror movies that rot his brain out. Anyway, enough of that shit. Lauren is sexy… I like thinking about her. I wonder what’s taking her so long in