Free What He's Been Missing by Grace Octavia Page A

said. “I was just looking for you to say thank you for Western Unioning that money down to Jake for his school books. He needed it for real. And I ain’t had no way to get it to him.”
    â€œNo problem,” Bird said. “Don’t mention it. I got Jake long as he got those grades up.”
    Ronnie turned to me and said, “My boy Jake in his second year of college down at Tennessee State University.” She nodded to Bird. “This man here sends him money every semester for books and what not. Don’t know what we’d do without him.”
    â€œI don’t know how you have a son in college,” I said. “You can’t be over thirty-five.”
    â€œI had him real young. I was just a baby myself. Ain’t had no business giving birth to nothing at all. But I got lucky. Jake smarter than a roomful of doctors. Got a full scholarship. I just got to send money for his dorm and books. If it wasn’t for people like Bird, I’d have to find me a pole to swing on at the Clermont Lounge—’cause my boy staying at the school.”
    â€œYou always talking about swinging on a pole,” Bird joked. “You know damn well you ain’t about to take your clothes off at the old timey strip club. Need to take these drink orders. Get my food ready. All this talking you doing.”
    Ronnie hissed at Bird and turned to me.
    â€œNow I know what this fool eating and sipping on. What you want, Ms. Lady?”
    â€œWell, Bird tells me you have seafood,” I said.
    â€œWe got fish.”
    â€œWhat kinds?”
    â€œWe got whiting and porgies.”
    â€œOh . . . How is it prepared?”
    I could feel Bird staring at me.
    â€œBoth fried,” Ronnie answered.
    â€œNo blackened?”
    â€œFried. On white bread.”
    â€œWheat bread?”
    â€œFried. On white bread. I can bring you extra hot sauce.”
    â€œSounds great.”
    â€œNow, what you want to drink?” Ronnie asked.
    â€œDo you have any wine?”
    â€œNot none I would be drinking,” she said, leaning into me. “I’d stick to the liquor. Manager don’t spend a lot of money on the wine. Don’t nobody here drink it.”
    â€œOK.”
    â€œWhat you got a taste for? Blue Mother Fucker? Sex on the Beach? Pretty Asshole?”
    I didn’t understand anything she was saying, so I went with the best option: “Surprise me.”
    Ronnie disappeared into a room behind the bar that looked like a kitchen.
    â€œYou ain’t know what she was talking about,” Bird pointed out.
    â€œNope,” I said and we both laughed.
    â€œWell, don’t be surprised if the drink she makes you has you out on that dance floor grooving like MC Hammer in like ten minutes. She’s been working in this little bar for a long time and they don’t serve light drinks.”
    â€œWell, I can hold my—”
    â€œNo, you did not bring some heifer up in here!” said a woman I’d noticed staring at Bird’s back from the other side of the bar, coming up behind Bird. She was petite but thick. She had an attitude in her face. Her lips were scrunched up like she’d just bitten into a piece of sour candy. She had on an out-of-season rainbow print dress with matching, too-long acrylic nails.
    Bird closed his eyes for a second when he heard her voice. He didn’t even turn around to see her. “Don’t start this shit,” he said tiredly, looking down at the floor beneath his barstool.
    I didn’t know if I should look at the woman or get up and walk out. She was eyeballing me hard and didn’t look like she meant to say anything good. She was obviously one of Bird’s lady friends.
    â€œStart shit? No, you started shit when you brought this”—she waved her nails at me—“thing up in here. Up in our spot.” She was in her early twenties. I could tell by the way her tits sat up in the dress with no bra,