The Reason Why (17 page)

Pam shook her head. “Oh hell no! It has to be something flier than that!”

Chino grabbed her, pulled her close, and wrapped his arms around her. “How about we call it Pooh's?”

“Boy, please!” Pam pulled away and turned to face him. “Be serious!” Mocking a fake customer, Pam jibbed, “Girl, where you get yo hair done? I got my hair done at Pooh's.” They both laughed. It sounded ghetto as hell.

“Okay, since that's out, how about Divas?” Chino suggested.

“Divas. Hmm . . . ,” Pam said, mulling it over. “Maybe. We'll keep that one in mind.”

“How about D'Elegance, like the Cadillac?”

“I think not!”

“How about Eloquence?”

Pam shrugged and pursed her lips. “Those are stripper names, Chino!”

Chino burst into laughter because she was right. “Okay, how about Turning Heads?”

“Turning Heads?” Pam smiled. “I like that. I like it a lot.”

“How about Lasting Impressions?” Chino spit out.

“Yeah, but those names are kinda ghetto. I wanted something more classy.”

“Call it A Touch of Class,” Chino suggested.

“That's real ghetto!” Pam said. “I want it to be classy and
sassy and urban, but without being ghetto . . . something eloquent.”

“That's it!” Chino grinned from ear to ear.

“What's it?”

“Eloquent. We'll call the shop Eloquent.”

Pam pondered for a moment. She liked the name but there was something missing. “Not just Eloquent. It needs to be jazzier than that.”

“What if we just played on that word?” Chino suggested. “What if we called it L O Quent?” he said, pausing between the syllables.

A smile spread across Pam's face. “I like it. L O Quent,” she repeated. “In fact, I love it! That's what we'll call it! L O Quent Beauty Salon.”

A car pulled up to the shop and stopped. It was a blue Cutlass Supreme with black faces inside. Out of pure instinct, Chino whipped out his strap.

“Chino!”

“Hold on, baby!” he said, waving Pam out of the way.

“It's just a group of females!” Pam shouted, seeing the girls exit the car, laughing and walking toward a Chinese takeout restaurant two stores down.

“What?” he asked. He heard her, but didn't.

“They were females.”

Chino looked out the window and saw the last of the girls enter the Chinese food place. After a deep sigh, he tucked his pistol back into the small of his back and pulled his shirt down over it.

“What's wrong with you?” Pam asked.

“I ain't taking no chances, baby. I ain't gonna get caught slipping.”

“Chino, look where we're at. We're in a nice area. Can you just, for once, leave that stuff behind us? For me? Please?”

“That stuff is getting us where we need to be, Pooh. That's a part of me. My life.”

“I understand that, Chino, and I'm not knocking it. Just look around us. If anything were to look shady, don't you think it would have been noticed before now?”

Chino nodded. Pam was right. They were in a nice area and it was doubtful that Jo Jo or anyone else would prowl this area looking for dope dealers to jack. Although he had run into Jo Jo at an upscale shopping center last time, that had purely been an accident.

“Chino, look at me,” Pam said softly.

Chino turned and looked into her eyes.

“We are trying to make a better life for ourselves,” she explained. “We have a new apartment, we are opening up a business, and pretty soon you'll be able to leave that lifestyle behind. We are making a fresh start, baby. We are creating a whole new world for ourselves, but in order to do that, you are going to have to take the first steps of leaving the old world behind. A new life, Christonos. That's what we are building.”

Chino nodded, walked to the glass window, and gazed out. Pam had so much hope for this new world that they were building that he couldn't tell her the truth. He couldn't tell her that once you have a reputation for being a baller, you'll always have it. Even if you no longer sell dope, people will assume it's because you got enough to get out of the game. And
if you've got enough money to retire from the dope game, then that just makes you an even bigger target for jackers. Chino knew he would always have an X on his back in Columbus and the only way out would be to leave, and that's what he planned to do—wash his paper through the salon and then get them the hell out of Columbus. Chino just hoped that he wouldn't die trying.

C
hino's hands shook a bit as he held the door open for Pam. Pam loved shrimp, especially shrimp scampi, so he had brought her to Red Lobster. She had an affinity for the garlic butter and the biscuits that they served with the meals. He had asked her to dinner for a special purpose—to present her with the ring. Things had been going well for them. Winter had quietly morphed into spring, and Columbus was alive and bustling again. Although they still had Young Mike living with them, living together was wonderful. Chino loved coming home to his Pooh. He loved having someone in his arms at night, and he loved having someone around to talk to all the time. Despite all the protesting from Pam's parents, she had stood up to them and told them she was done with school and had been managing the startup of L O Quent full time.

Waking up to breakfast, coming home to a hot lunch and a hot dinner was something that Chino quickly got used to. Pam had proven that she was wifey material and now he was about to wife her. He tapped at the ring in his pocket as the
hostess seated them in a secluded corner booth and handed them their menus. Their waitress came almost immediately and took their drink orders.

The beauty shop was coming along well. L O Quent was going to open on schedule, and so far, the buzz that they had been generating across the city was all good. Even the
Columbus Dispatch
wrote an article about the new upscale salon. Things couldn't have been better, and yet, somehow, he felt that they were about to be. Locking down Pooh would secure everything for him. She was a major piece of the puzzle in the life that he was trying to create for himself. Pooh—wife, future mother, salon manager, business partner, life partner, best friend. She played so many roles in his life, and he had even more in store for her. Soon she would merge all the titles into one, and he would just refer to her as his everything.

“I'm definitely ready to get my grub on,” Pam told him. “You are going to have to forgive me and forget about what I'm about to do to this shrimp.”

Chino laughed. “Girl, you sound like you're about to eat up some shit.”

“Are you ready to order?” the waitress asked, setting down their drinks.

Pam nodded. “I'll have the butterfly shrimp and shrimp scampi.”

“Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, fries, rice pilaf, or steamed broccoli?”

“Mashed potatoes.”

“What type of dressing would you like on your salad?”

“Caesar.”

“Very good, ma'am.” The waitress turned to look at Chino.

“I'll have the lobster and steak.”

“How would you like your steak?”

“Well done. I don't wanna see any blood or red or none of that gross vampire type of shit. I want the cow dead. Capital D-E-A-D.”

The waitress and Pam laughed.

“Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, fries, rice pilaf, or steamed broccoli?”

“Mashed.”

“Dressing?”

“Caesar.”

“Great. Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Yeah, we want a bottle of Chablis.”

“You got it!” the waitress said, disappearing.

“Wine?” Pam leaned forward. “I'm surprised she didn't ask for your ID.”

“I look like I'm older than what I am,” Chino whispered. “Plus, all you gotta do is get 'em laughing.”

“Is that the strategy that you used on me?” Pam asked. “Just get me laughing?”

“That's the strategy, ma! And guess what?”

“What?”

“It worked.”

Pam nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“I was thinking that I would do this after dinner, but instead, I'll pop the question right now.”

“Pop the question?”

Chino nodded. He stood and then dropped to one knee next to where Pam was seated. He took her hand in his and stared into her eyes. “Pam, will you marry me?”

“Is this some kind of joke, Chino?” Pam said, looking serious. “If it is, it's not funny.”

“What do you mean?” Chino asked, nervously. “Why would I joke like this? I'm serious, Pooh. I want you to marry me.”

“And that's why you brought me here today? To ask me to marry you?”

“You said that this was your favorite restaurant. What better place than your favorite restaurant to ask you to marry me?”

“How about something more romantic, more intimate, more . . . I don't know . . .”

“Pooh, what's the matter?” Chino asked. “This is not about the restaurant. Don't make no lame-ass excuses. If you don't want to marry me, then just say so. Nothing is going to change. I'll just have to wait until you're ready.”

Pam shook her head. “Uh-uh, don't put this off on me. It's not that I'm not ready, Chino. This is not about me, this is about you. Are you really ready for that kind of commitment? Do you know what a marriage entails? Are you ready, at your young age, to commit to one woman and only one woman? Can you honestly say that, Christonos? One woman?”

Chino nodded.

“No, say it like you mean it!” Pam said forcefully. “Because if you hurt me, Christonos, I will kill you! I will kill you! Are you ready to take it to that level?”

“Pam, I love you,” Chino said softly. “I keep telling you, I would never hurt you. Never. I'm ready for that kind of commitment, Pooh. You're the one and only for me. You're all the woman I need, Pooh.”

Pam smacked her lips and tilted her head to one side.

“Pooh, what can another woman give me that you can't?”

“Variety. She can stoke your little ego. She can—”

“Do nothing for me,” Chino interrupted her.

“Christonos, I don't know,” Pam said, shaking her head.

“What don't you know?”

“I don't know if you know why you want to get married. I don't know if you really understand what a marriage is about. I don't know if you really want to do this. Don't just do this to fulfill some little fantasy of yours. It has to be for the right reasons, not out of some deep psychological need because of a deprived childhood.”

“Pam, listen to me,” Chino said, clasping her hand once again. “I want to marry you. I want to marry you because I love you. I love you because you keep it real. I want to marry you because you bring out the best in me. I want to marry you because you bring into my life a whole other world. You are the best half of me. You complete me. Until I met you, I didn't really understand the term ‘my better half.' After I met you, I understood it completely. You are everything good that is in me. You are everything good that I want to be. I need you in my life, like I need air. I need you because I need to breathe. You are my life now, Pooh. My life without you is like I'm missing a lung, a kidney, half a heart. You are that much of me. I need you. I need you for the rest of my life.”

Pam lifted her hand to her face and wiped away her tears. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. Chino really did understand marriage. He put into words what she had witnessed with her mother and father her entire life. They were one. They operated as one, acted as one, completed each
other's sentences. She had always dreamed that she would be lucky enough to find a love like that one day. And now there existed the possibility that she had found it.

Chino reached into his pocket and pulled out the small purple felt box that held Pam's engagement ring. He held the box up toward her and flipped the top open. Pam gasped.

“Chino!” she cried out. “Oh my God! It's beautiful!”

Pam snatched the ring and placed it on her finger. She held the brilliant diamond up toward the light and watched it sparkle like the north star.

“It's huge!” She laughed, wiping tears away from her eyes and sniffling. She hugged him. “Oh, Chino! I love you so much. I'm sorry for doubting you. I love you too, boo. I love you for understanding. I love you for waiting. I love you for putting up with my crazy-ass and my mood swings. I love you for laughing, and singing to me, and ice-skating, and fixing me chicken soup, and feeding me, and giving me flowers, and for making me laugh. I love you for so many reasons. I love you because you bring life to me. I was living before I met you, but now I have a life. You make the flowers smell prettier and colors look brighter and the stars in the sky shine more brilliant. You are my life too, boo. My breath, my love, my heart, my everything.”