Any Way the Wind Blows - E. Lynn Harris [86]
“What are you saying, dude? You want some of me?” Nico said as he unfolded his arms and moved toward me until Brison moved in front of him and pushed him back.
“We’re not going to handle this like little kids,” Brison said.
“Say what you want. But I don’t think somebody’s lying on him. I mean, I listened to the song by that woman he was going to marry, and the story is pretty clear if you listen to the words,” Nico said. “What else could lyrics like ‘you want him and not me’ mean? It ain’t the kind of love song I’m used to.”
“What song?” Brison asked as his expression grew uncertain.
“He’s talking about Yancey’s song that doesn’t have jack to do with me—it’s about making money. That’s what they do in the music business,” I said.
“And that’s what we should be doing, but we can’t, as long as your ass is a part of this firm,” Nico said.
“Then buy me the fuck out. I never stay anywhere I’m not wanted. Write me a mutherfuckin’ check and I’m out of here,” I said.
“So you are a fucking faggot,” Nico said as he pointed his finger in my face like he wanted to poke my eyes out in disgust.
“Nico, point your finger in my face again and you’re going to pull back a nub. I mean that.” I glanced over at Brison for support, and he reacted quickly.
“I think we need to just chill. Basil, why don’t you take the day off and think about what you want to do. Then we can sit down as a firm, as partners, and come up with a plan that’ll be acceptable to everyone,” Brison said.
“Cool. This room is beginning to feel stank anyway,” I said as I picked up my pad and walked out of the conference room.
• • •
A couple of hours later, I was standing in front of Yancey’s town house taking a deep breath before I rang the bell. After I had left the office, I went to the Upper West Side to watch Remember the Titans for the third time. I left midway through the movie, when the Titans were close to their emotional state championship game. It took everything I had to keep the tears in my eyes, and I realized what an emotional disaster this day was turning into. I don’t know if I had come close to tears because of the confrontation with Nico and Brison, or because the movie triggered memories of a happier time in my life, when I was a star on the University of Miami national championship team. Maybe it was the realization that as wonderful as the experience was of playing with the same players for over four years, I was at risk of losing the one friendship I had managed to maintain with another player. I deeply treasured my relationship with Brison, and now some mofo was trying to ruin it and my life. I realized that with the exception of Raymond there was no one in my life I could trust with my true feelings, my true self. I was on the verge of some kind of mental meltdown that I had avoided since the first time my uncle Mac crawled into my bed and “touched” me.
• • •
I got home a little after eight o’clock. I was going to make myself a drink and then order some dinner, when I felt the vibration of my beeper on my belt. I thought with the bad day I’d had, the evening was only going to get worse. I didn’t want to see who was calling, because I figured it might be another client telling me they were jumping the XJI ship as well. Then I decided that if my clients wanted to leave because of what they’d heard and not how I represented them, then let ’em jump.
I looked at the beeper and could tell from the 816 area code that it was my Pops calling. He never paged me unless it was an emergency. I thought I should check my answering machine first to get an indication of what was going on.
Sure enough, there were two messages from my father, one from Brison saying he was just checking on me and that everything was going to be fine and another call from Rosa. What did this woman want? She hadn’t called me this much when we were dating. My Pops’s voice sounded paper-thin, and all he said was, “Call me, son. It’s important.”
I picked up my phone and hit speed dial. After a few rings my Pops answered the phone.