Try a Little Tenderness Page 10

  “I don’t just believe the words I hear and speak; I know them to be true because I know the Man who inspired the creation of the Word to be true. So I never walk around with fear, anger, or resentment, because I always have God and His Word to stand on.”

  Mateo let the words sink in. He especially liked the stand firm in the faith, act like men part. He knew he believed what he read, but admittedly, he had to start acting on it more.

  “Your job will come faster than you so desire.” Rahliem gave him hope.

  As they exited the warehouse, Mateo remembered he had to drop Sonic off at work. Maybe he could start there.

  Mateo could feel his stomach growling as he inhaled the scents from the fast food joint he was sitting in. Grilled beef almost made him wish he was a meat-eater, but Mateo had committed himself to being a vegetarian since he’d lost seventy-five pounds from his former obese frame. He’d worked hard over the last two years to get and keep his weight in order, and he didn’t want to go back to eating the foods that he knew would cause him to blow up bigger than the Michelin Man. Every now and then, Mateo had a relapse and crashed on some muffins or a soft pretzel, but most of the time, he was on point with his self-imposed diet.

  “Keep still,” Mateo told himself as he focused on filling out the application to Burgers & Fries. This was his third application with the fast food chain in several months. He hoped that with Sonic putting in a word for him, the manager would have mercy and give him a part-time job.

  Mateo checked over his application several times before he stood up. He pulled up his pants and tightened the belt that he was wearing, making sure that he wasn’t sagging. He tucked in the teal polo shirt and pulled out his phone. Using glare from the screen as a mirror, he made sure that he didn’t have any food in between his teeth and that he looked good. He checked his recently trimmed nails to make sure there was no dirt underneath.

  He knew the manager probably wouldn’t be able to smell the fragrance coming from the shea butter–based lotion he was wearing. He also was happy that he didn’t have sweaty hands and that the application was flawless.

  “Can I turn this in to the manager?” Mateo stepped in front of the cashier. He looked at the young lady, who, judging by the way she went heavy on the eye shadow and the lip gloss, had to be a teenager.

  “Sure, hold on a minute,” the young lady responded as she put her hand over the microphone. “Doug, come up here please?” The young lady turned back and faced Mateo. “He’ll be with you in a moment.”

  Mateo saw Sonic being set up at the drive-through window. They gave each other a head nod.

  “’Sup, chump,” a voice behind Mateo said.

  Mateo turned around and tried to hide the anger that covered his face. Turner smirked and flexed.

  “’Sup.” Mateo added some bass to his voice. “What you want, Turner?”

  “I want to know how you enjoying my toy over there.” Turner licked his lips at Sonic.

  Mateo shook his head. He didn’t have time to engage Turner in a war of words. Mateo saw that Turner was flanked by two goons on his left and right side. One of the taller guys had a smirk. Mateo recognized him as being one of the guys who’d participated in jumping him a few months ago. The other guys of various shapes and sizes weren’t so recognizable.

  “Sonic’s not a toy. He’s a grown man. And I don’t get down like that.”

  “Whatever, dawg.” Turner tried to intimidate him.

  “Whatever, punk. You can leave me alone.” Mateo stepped back a little to give him some distance. He wanted to make sure that this time, five people couldn’t jump on him at once. He planned on knocking out the short dude who was about his height and worrying about the other four when they struck him.

  “How about you—” Turner started to say something until he was interrupted.

  “Yo, didn’t I tell you to stay out of my store, thug life?” Doug, the manager of Burgers & Fries, came from behind the counter. Mateo turned around to see that another employee had followed Doug from behind the counter as well.

  “Man, if you don’t get out of my face, I’m gonna dribble you like a basketball,” Turner threatened as he got in Doug’s face.

  Turner looked down at the shorter man and smirked. Turner only had a few inches on Doug, but the two of them wouldn’t have been unevenly matched if they went toe-to-toe. Mateo was impressed that Doug held his ground.

  “I guess you would get close enough to spit on me,” Doug replied casually, drawing laughter from the growing crowd. “Now, I’m gonna tell you one more time: Get out of my restaurant or I’m calling the police. You don’t work here anymore.”

  “Man, whatever.” Turner rolled his eyes and gave his boys a signal to turn around. “I’m gonna see you around, Doug—and you, Mateo. Both of y’all gonna get it, ’cause it seems like neither one of you learned your lessons the first time.”

  Turner left, and he bumped into two city employees on his way out. One of the city employees grabbed the other to keep him from confronting Turner. Seeing the ruckus he caused, Turner laughed as he stepped into a large, white Nissan Titan. Turner and his goons were making their grand escape as the bass in the truck announced their departure.

  It was ironic that iLoveMakonnen’s “Tuesday” was shaking the truck on a Tuesday.

  “Mateo, right?” Doug called his name, redirecting his attention to the goal at hand. Doug extended his hand to Mateo.

  “Yes, sir,” Mateo replied, giving him a firm grip.

  “Come on to the back. I’ll give you an interview and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

  Doug took the application from the counter and looked over it as he headed to the back. Mateo turned to Sonic, who gave him a quick smile before handling an order. Mateo followed Doug to the back of the restaurant.

  “So you one of Hammer’s boys?” Doug shut the door behind them and gestured for Mateo to take a seat.

  “Yeah, he’s cool.” Mateo noted the organized clutter. Applications and company papers floated over pens and paperclips. The large print wall calendar was buried beneath the mess.

  “I like what that man is doing with his ministry at Heaven’s Inn. I see you been with him for about eight months now.”

  “I appreciate him helping me get on my feet.”

  Mateo didn’t know where the interview was going. He didn’t expect to have to answer so many inquiries about Hammer.

  “Man, look.” Doug leaned forward over the desk. “Everyone needs a hand up and a hand out. I’m a convicted felon too. Been clean for eight years. Fortunately, in North Carolina, these felonies fall off after seven years. Man, the whole process is like serving time for a habitual felon in a state prison. Once the felonies dropped off, it took another year for the corporate managers to consider me for a shift leader position. I run this place now.”

  “Folks don’t work at one job for eight years anymore,” Mateo replied.

  “Not unless they’re felons,” Doug replied. “Then we have to work ten times harder than the clean-cut guys to show we deserve a chance. And that’s what I want to give you, a chance to get on a good foot and show that you can be one of the clean-cut guys.”

  That made Mateo smile. “So when do I start?”

  “We’ll get you in here on Friday so you can see how it goes down,” Doug answered as he straightened up some of the papers and moved objects where they belonged. “This will give my boss time to make sure that your criminal background check is complete. If you’ve left off a felony or a misdemeanor, you need to come clean now, because if something else shows up, I won’t be able to consider you for the job.”

  Mateo took the application back from Doug. He scanned it over, and he was confident that everything was truthful. Mateo handed the application back to Doug and shook the man’s hand.

  He felt like things were moving up. Two jobs meant he had no business getting in trouble. Mateo felt like he could save up enough money to get his own apartment and a car in six months to a year.
In order to accomplish this, Mateo was going to focus on showing he could be a clean-cut guy too.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Do As I Say . . .

  “I can’t believe Xen’s parents wilded out like that,” Sarai said after the police came and escorted Xen and his parents out of the room.

  Amirah looked at the school desks that were turned upside down and on the side. Two of the computer monitors found their home on the tile flooring, and pieces of the screen were found on the floor. Howard was picking up some of the other chairs, and Josephine was comforting Mrs. Ingle.

  “I can’t either. But some parents can’t accept when their child needs help, and we did what we could by suggesting that he get a tutor for math and possibly take the remedial math course so that the F he’s about to get in geometry doesn’t damage his GPA.” Amirah restated Mrs. Ingle’s position, the one that had made Xen’s mom try to snatch her up like they were on the street. His father would take out his smart phone and walk around Xen’s mom like he was a cameraman, screaming “WorldStar!” every time she started yelling and screaming. Xen’s mom lifted up four computer monitors and threw them to the ground as she ran her tirade before Howard and Sarai were able to block her path.

  Xen looked embarrassed to see his parents acting like fools. He had his head down, and when his mom continued yelling and screaming at Mrs. Ingle and Howard, he was the one trying to get her to calm down.

  After the room was as close to normal as possible, Mrs. Ingle told the group of Xen’s teachers and school counselors that they would meet briefly on Monday morning to discuss a plan of action.

  “I can stay a little while to make sure y’all get to your cars okay,” Howard offered.

  “I’m good,” Josephine replied. “My husband is waiting on me, and we’ll take Mrs. Ingle home.” She gave Howard a hug and headed out the door. “Y’all call me to make sure you got home okay.” Josephine hugged Sarai and Amirah and followed Mrs. Ingle outside.

  “I can defend myself, but maybe you can be Amirah’s bodyguard,” Sarai suggested as she headed out the door.

  “I’m fine, Howard, but thank you,” Amirah replied.

  “Please call Mrs. Ingle and make sure y’all let her know y’all got home okay,” Sarai said at the door. “You know her and pastor are going to be worried sick about you until they hear from you.”

  “I know,” Amirah confirmed. Being one of the older staff members, Josephine served as mentor to numerous teachers at Shiloh, Amirah included. “I promise I’ll call.”

  Amirah watched as Sarai and later Howard exited her classroom. One of the janitors came in shortly afterward and swept up the mess and disconnected two of the monitors from the computers and took them to repair. Fortunately, her first class of the day was second period, which would be almost two hours after the school day started. Amirah had been assured that the monitors would be replaced before her class started on Wednesday.

  Amirah sat at her desk and exhaled. She was still excited and slightly nervous after the unexpected confrontation with Xen’s parents. Her spirit caused her to have discernment about his family, and she immediately bowed her head in prayer. After getting her message to the Lord, she lifted her head and went to shut down her laptop so that she could leave.

  She noticed that the His-Love.com window was still open. She clicked the REFRESH button and noticed more friend requests from various women in her book club, including Sarai. SenorCristoAmor’s profile showed that he was still on online.

  I hope he’s not one of those player types, Amirah thought. But we’re only talking online. It’s not like I’m going to meet him in person.

  She reread his message—I love a woman who is loyal. That is a perfect attribute to a Proverbs 31 woman—before deciding to enter one of her own.

  Thanks for the compliment. I’m waiting on God to send me a David-type of man because I believe that is the kind of man He has set aside for me.

  Today’s been a little crazy, but I know God will allow me to get through it. What kind of day are you having?

  She pressed SEND and almost instantly wished she could delete the message.

  Why did I tell him that? Amirah questioned herself. I don’t know this man and he does not know me. He doesn’t need to know what kind of day I’m having.

  Amirah went through the HELP section to see if there was a way for her to retract the message, or edit it so that the part about her having a crazy day could be taken out. She didn’t want to explain to a stranger how the mother of one of her students was on a warpath.

  After seeing that her message wasn’t retractable, she resolved to log out of her profile. Before she could click on the LOG OFF button, she noticed that SenorCristoAmor had sent a reply. Curious, she opened it.

  “It’s funny you said you had a crazy day. I had one too.” Mateo spoke into the Samsung Galaxy, using the phone’s speech-to-text feature as he left Burgers & Fries. He was a little excited because Doug had decided to try him out on a part-time basis, allowing him to work fifteen hours a week and giving him a quarter more than minimum wage. He was also thankful that Sonic had put in a good word for him as promised.

  Mateo stepped into the Lincoln Continental that he had borrowed from Hammer. As he clicked on the seatbelt, he heard the buzzer and felt his phone vibrate, indicating he had a message from His-Love.com. He checked it and saw that AmirahIsLoyal had responded to him.

  David confronted his challenges head on. I figure this is what I’m going to have to do as well. I hope you are the type of man that doesn’t run from obstacles.

  “Why does she talk about David so much?” Mateo let his thought drift above the WOW Gospel 2013 album playing in the background. Mateo Googled “David” and “The Bible.” He’d heard a little about David, but didn’t know much about him other than he was the kind of man who had a deep love and passion for following God.

  I don’t have that kind of relationship with God yet, Mateo admitted to himself. I’m still a baby in Christ. She sounds like she wants a pastor or a deacon.

  Mateo looked up David’s bio in Wikipedia and was impressed to hear about David’s heroics. That David was a wise leader, and though he fell short of the glory of God and fell into temptation, David was a man after God’s own heart.

  I can’t be David, but I do strive to share many of his good characteristics.

  Mateo put his phone in his pocket. He wasn’t going to lie to impress Amirah. He didn’t want to be vain, because he was trying to do something different. Before he got saved, Mateo liked women who were proud of their bodies, kept their facial appearances on point, and smelled good. It also helped if they were passionate like him.

  As he drove down busy Patton Avenue in five o’clock traffic and headed back to Heaven’s Inn, he saw a beautiful young lady walking down the street wearing a Subway uniform. She was the kind of woman his flesh was used to. His loins let him know they had been awakened, and he thought about the fact that it had been almost eight months since he’d known a woman intimately.

  He pulled up to a stop light as he thought about how the last woman he “knew” was married and had him believing that he was possibly the father of her baby. Even though the baby wasn’t his, he knew the job at Burgers & Fries was important so he could take care of himself. VaShawn Mitchell was singing about how his situation was turning around for him, and within seconds, the light turned green and Mateo’s fleshly desires yielded to the will of God as he sought his way home.

  Mateo felt the buzzing on his phone, but he decided not to text and drive. He’d read the message when he got home.

  Chapter Fifteen

  No Cookies

  Amirah was wondering if she’d scared him off when she didn’t get an immediate reply from SenorCristoAmor.

  She had made it to her quaint, one-bedroom loft that she could barely afford with a teacher’s salary in West Asheville, even if she didn’t tithe. She had changed from the heels she was wearing to the comfortable New Balance sneakers and walked th
e three flights of steps. Upon opening her door, she inhaled the powerful scent of lavender, immediately calming her nerves.

  She put the oversized bag that had papers that needed to be graded on the floor. She placed her laptop bag on the dining table, pulling out her Toshiba and connecting her charger to her laptop and the outlet on her wall. She hit the power button to restart her computer, and while her computer was booting up, she went into the kitchen and pulled out the vegetable tray with diced zucchini, squash, mushrooms, onions, red bell peppers, and spinach that she had planned to use for the homemade soup she wanted to have with her turkey sandwich and corn chips for dinner. This was a normal meal for her. She’d take it for lunch, and at times, eat it for breakfast.

  Amirah wasn’t too fond of cooking, a trait that she hoped didn’t scare away any potential husband. Of course, she tried to bake cakes and whip up desserts, but to no such luck. The dough either got too hard to pour into the baking pans, or she failed to measure some ingredient correctly that would cause the savory treat not to rise to her expectations.

  She had a Crock-Pot, and she knew how to cut meat and vegetables. And Amirah was patient. In three hours or less, her food would be ready, and in that time, she typically graded papers and got a good portion done of whatever book she was reading for the book club.

  Amirah logged into His-Love.com, and she noticed that SenorCristoAmor had not responded to her last message. She opened it again so she could remember exactly what she typed.

  What profession are you in? I’m a high school teacher.

  She hoped that she hadn’t gotten too personal, but then again, she didn’t see the harm in finding out where the man worked. She’d already disclosed and shown through various pictures that she was a teacher and clearly, she enjoyed her job. She really didn’t care where he worked, as long as it was legal. When she was younger, she was attracted to the bad boys, the kind of young men who lived dangerously and by the gun. A near death experienced changed her life and helped her maintain her course to finish her studies and become a teacher.