Any Way the Wind Blows - E. Lynn Harris [92]
I’d spent so much time working and thinking about Desmond that my stomach had to remind me it needed food to survive the long days. I was tired of the room service thing again, and Bart had already switched hotels. I walked out on the balcony and soaked up the amazing view in Miami: the pool, the beach and the open-air café and bar below. I decided that I needed to get away from Yancey B tonight, so I put on my peach-colored tube top to show off my tan, and a blue- and peach-flowered sarong that showed plenty of leg and thigh when I sat down. Then I slipped on some barely-there sandals.
I dropped my cell phone in my bag and glanced over the balcony to see if the café and bar were too crowded or if I should walk down to the Lincoln Road area again. Suddenly my eyes landed on Desmond. The man even looked good from nine stories up. He was sitting casually at a table and talking with one of the production guys. Just as I began to savor the view, he rose to leave. I watched him for a second to see which direction he was going. When it looked like he was headed for the beach, I quickly raced from my suite and rushed to the bank of elevators. I pushed both the down button and the up button. Moments later I heard a ding!, but the up arrow was lit. I thought about taking the stairs, but I knew I’d be sweating like a pig once I reached the lobby. Seconds that seemed like minutes passed, and finally, the next ding signaled a down elevator. When the door opened, an elderly white man gave me a smile as he moved to the back of the elevator. He stood directly behind me, even though there was no one else in the elevator. I could feel his eyes on my butt, so I moved over so we were standing side by side.
I was getting really agitated when the elevator stopped again and a young black man with blond hair, talking on a cell phone, stuck his foot against the door to hold it open for his slow-moving girlfriend, who was wearing a Wal-Mart special pale pink short set. She was smacking gum, and I looked away so she wouldn’t see me roll my eyes at her and her boyfriend. But then she looked up at me like she knew me, and I began to pray that the elevator would reach the lobby quickly.
“Ain’t you Yancey B?” she asked me in a loud voice. I nodded and smiled.
“Bitch, you’re the bomb with a mushroom cap. I heard yo song. Me and all my girls listen to your CD all the time. Can I get your autograph?” she asked as she started pressing her elbow into her boyfriend’s side. Of course, this wasn’t the first time someone asked me for an autograph, but Broadway fans and hoochie mamas were very different in their approach.
“Sure. Do you have a pen and paper?”
“Tuwan, give me a piece of paper and a pen,” she demanded.
“LaTonya, I ain’t got no pen and paper. Who do I look like, yo assistant or sumthin’?”
LaTonya looked at the white man and said, “You got a pen and paper, ole man?”
He smiled and whispered, “No.”
The elevator finally reached the lobby, and LaTonya grabbed my hand and said, “Come on, let’s go to the front desk. They better have some pens and papers up there.”
I wanted to tell LaTonya that we would have to do this later because I had a man to catch, but I also realized that keeping my fans happy was part of being an entertainer. Three autographs later (for LaTonya and her two best friends, Trina and Bedonna), I headed for the hotel café, passed the pool and began to frantically search the long stretch of white sandy beach for Desmond.
The moon was hanging full and glorious over the water, and the sun had dipped below the clouds and bathed the distant cruise ships and small boats in gold. I kept looking all around, in front, behind and then up the beach. I started to run south, when I suddenly spotted Desmond’s tall, lean self as he walked along the water’s edge. He was walking slowly, but his stride was so long, I had to run to catch up to him, quite by accident, of course.
When I got within a few feet, I stopped and caught my breath, brushed some of the sand off my feet, and smiled as I mumbled to myself, “You got him, girl!” I felt a little