Free Until I Saw Your Smile by J.J. Murray Page A

“He grabbed her ass, and she broke his nose, and because of that, you didn’t hook up.”
    When you put it that way . . . “Yes.”
    â€œHow big was this woman who was not exactly your date or your hookup?” Angela asked.
    Matthew let his eyes move around Angela’s upper body. “About your size. She didn’t have your smile, though.”
    Angela looked away.
    Matthew heard the soft tapping of shoes on linoleum.
    I must make her nervous. When’s the last time I made any woman nervous?
    â€œWas she pretty?” Angela asked, her eyes on her hands.
    â€œIn a way,” Matthew said. “Good smile, nice eyes. She had lots of tattoos, most of them prison tats. She knocked out the other woman, too. Great right cross.”
    Angela looked up briefly. “You met this fighter at a party and you later represented her in court.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œAre all your clients like her?” Angela asked.
    â€œShe became my client after she was arrested, and I rarely meet any of my clients face-to-face. I’m a strictly an Internet-based lawyer now. Simple wills, divorces, estate planning, contracts, that sort of thing.”
    â€œNo wonder you have such odd hours,” Angela said.
    â€œTrue, but every hour is my own.”
    â€œSame here.” She pulled her hands from the table. “So you met this woman at a protest-slash-house party in Queens.”
    Matthew nodded.
    â€œWere you . . . with her?” Angela asked.
    Strange question. “What do you mean by with?”
    â€œI mean . . .” She sighed. “You just met her, right? You had never seen her before, right?”
    Matthew nodded.
    â€œWere you . . . holding hands, talking, dancing, what? That’s what I meant by with. ”
    â€œOh.” Why is this so important to her? “We danced some, yes.” I’ll skip the bathroom scene. “Until she got in a fight and the cops took her away. Jade rejoined me in the courtroom.”
    Angela’s feet stopped running. “Jade? Was she Asian?”
    â€œNo, she was black,” Matthew said. “More of a brown actually. I wouldn’t call her caramel.” He smiled. “She wasn’t that sweet.”
    Angela blinked. “Really. She was . . . African American.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou don’t seem like the type,” Angela said.
    She’s running again. “The type?”
    â€œI don’t know, you just don’t seem like the type to date black women.”
    Matthew sat back. “And what is the type of man who dates black women?”
    Angela shrugged and said nothing for a few moments. “I mean, you’re . . .” Her eyes flitted to his. “You’re a . . . you’re a nice-looking white man.”
    â€œThank you,” Matthew said. She thinks I’m nice-looking. Cool. “Angela, is it a good thing or a bad thing that I find women of color attractive?”
    Angela shrugged. “It’s just an observation.” She pressed her lips together and squinted. “So have you always been interested in black women?”
    â€œI’m attracted to color in all shades,” Matthew said. “My latest girlfriend, Joy, was Honduran, the other night I went out with a woman from Trinidad, and last night, I went to a party with a black woman from Queens.”
    â€œYou lead a colorful life, Matthew,” Angela said.
    â€œI guess I do.”
    She looked around the booth again. “You see that mess across the street?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œCan I sue a business for trying to put me out of business?” She slid out of the booth and stood.
    â€œYou want to sue La Estrella , ” Matthew said.
    â€œI know I don’t have a case,” she said, pulling at her fingers. “Free enterprise and capitalism and all that, right?”
    â€œThose coffee shops are sprouting up everywhere, aren’t they?” Matthew