Free At Last by Bianca L. Eugene Page A

grabbed his hand and he blushed. It was the first time in a long time that I’d actually seen him blush. It was refreshing. Right after the ceremony, we headed to The Palms where Durran was hosting a big Grammys after party. It was around midnight when we arrived and the club was off the hook.  I’d never seen anything like it in Detroit.
    The crowd was thick with celebrities, entourages, groupies, and socialites.  Regular folks were few and far between.  Durran’s entourage met us at the club.
    There were four of them. One’s name was Ken.  He was tall and dark chocolate.  He seemed cool. The other was a guy named Dre, who was the color of peanut butter and on the short side.  I couldn’t really get a vibe off him. He was really quiet despite the madness going on around us.
    The third guy was Steve.  He was tall, thin, and had a nice smile.  He was a light caramel brown. The forth guy’s name was Bryan. He was chubby and his skin was the color of rusty copper.  He clowned Durran from the moment we entered VIP on the second level of the club.
    “What’s good playboy?” He said giving Durran dap.
    “Nothing, you got it.” Durran said sitting down in the area. I followed suit. The VIP area was covered with a sheer canopy which draped a queen-sized bed surrounded by a booth on each side. The fellas and Kendra sat at the booths while Durran and I sat on the bed. He wrapped his arm around my waist, holding me close, and I didn’t mind not one damn bit.
    “How you feeling? You all grinning and shit.” Bryan asked taking a drag of his cigarette and laughing.
    “I’m good.  Got my boys here, my girl.   Everything is everything.  Life is good” He said as he kissed me on the cheek.
    “I heard that.” Bryan said before dropping his cigarette and stomping it out. He grabbed a glass of champagne at our booth, “I wanna give a toast to my man. Everybody raise your glasses.”
    Two champagne buckets filled with ice and bottles of Dom Pérignon were on the table.  We all grabbed our glasses, stood up, and waited for Bryan’s toast.
    “To life, love and all that other shit.”  He proclaimed. We all began laughing.
    “To life and love!” We all shouted as we drank up.
    Slowly everyone migrated out of VIP to the real party on the floor. Eventually, it was just me and Durran alone finishing off a bottle of Dom while everyone else did their own thing.
    Sitting at the foot of the bed, I sipped on champagne as he stared at me. I couldn’t take it anymore plus I had a little liquid courage in me.
    “What’s up?  Why you staring at me? ”
    He cracked a smile.  “You never change.  You got that same attitude you gave me when I seen you in them red shorts.  You still got them?”  He laughed.
    “Whatever, you like it. And for the record, I do have those shorts. I can’t fit them, but I do have them.” I said still sipping.
    “I love it.” He replied moving closer to me.
    “Spare me. You think you doing something, with your charming ass.”
    He ran his hand down his mouth and smiled, “You think I’m charming, Keish?”
    I sucked my teeth, “Don’t play. But I guess I’m a sucka, cause I’m crazy about your charming ass.”
    Oops!! I didn’t mean to say it out loud.  I guess he could tell that by my expression because he had a big joker ass smile across his face.
    “It’s cool, few can resist.”
    “Get over yourself.”
    “Why? You not.”
    I stood up and stormed over to the edge of the booth. I began to watch everyone on the dance floor below while contemplating what had just happened. His comment pissed me off.  Not because it wasn’t true, but because his cocky ass had the nerve to say it out loud. He made it sound different. He made it sound like I was wasting my time and that I would never get over him.  I felt him come up behind me and wrap his arms around my waist.
    “It’s cool, cause I never got over you. Why you think I went through all this trouble to bring you out here?