Page 48 of No One Like You

“I’m done with her, I swear.”

“It’s not just her, Brad. It’s you. You’re also a homewrecking skank. Maybe you find someone, maybe you don’t. I honestly don’t care. You need to promise me that when you go out with someone, the top priority in your mind is, ‘would Sophia be proud of my choices.’”

Brad realized that a lot hinged on this moment. He looked Tasha squarely in the eyes and said, “I will do my absolute best to be the father that Sophia can be proud of and to make good choices in whoever I date. And if I realize that I made a mistake or find out something that would not make Sophia proud of me, then I will own up to my failures and learn from them.”

“Wow, Brad. That was very nicely done. I almost believe you. Next, you need to find a new church. There’s plenty of options available in Christianity. Find one that doesn’t hate gay people, because if they hate one group, chances are that they’ll get around to hating more.”

I don’t think that there are any other options where I live. I’ll figure something out. Heck, I can just stay home and read the Bible.

“Uh, I can do that.”

They went on from there, but Brad felt that the skanks question was the tipping point.

A few minutes later, Tasha said, “I can’t believe that I’m doing this, but here’s the good envelope. Now, don’t think that you’re in the clear yet. If you screw this up, I’m very happy to give you the bad envelope.”

“Thank you, Tasha.” He opened the envelope and skimmed through the divorce papers.

The offer seemed surprisingly generous. “I’ll have to have my lawyer take a look at this, but it seems acceptable.”

“You do that.” Tasha stood up to leave.

“Tasha, wait. Back in school, why didn’t you like me?”

“Honestly?”

“Please.”

“Because I know you, Brad. Because I grew up with dozens of guys just like you. Wealthy family with connections. Over-privileged and arrogant. Convinced that their shit don't stink and never, ever having to deal with real consequences. My folks sent me to one of the elite Christian schools, never mind that it started out as a segregation academy.”

“What’s that?”

“After Brown and then the Civil Rights Act, White folks couldn’t keep kids like me out of their public schools, so suddenly a whole bunch of private Christian schools opened up. A lot of them were in the South, but they were everywhere. Eventually, they lost their tax exempt status unless they started accepting Black kids. So, I was one of a handful of Black kids in a sea of White kids. We had to be exceptional. Perfect grades and damn good at sports, too. Dante played basketball and I played soccer. All-state, both of us. Meanwhile, Thaddeus Moneybags IV didn’t have to be good at shit. Guys like that could screw around, do drugs, whatever. Well, coke and weed. Heroin was apparently un-Christian. Oh yeah, I got asked for drugs all the time.”

“Really, why?”

“Because I’m Black. They figured that since I’m Black that I must have a dozen dealers on speed dial.”

“Are you sure?”

“Brad, don’t make me give you the bad envelope. Of course I’m sure. I know because at least once a month, some stoner would come up to me and say something like, ‘Hey, my boys and I are going camping this weekend and need some killer bud, can you hook a brother up?’ and then I’d nicely tell them no because if I told them to fuck off like I wanted to then I might get expelled. Then they’d say, ‘We really need those dank buds, can you hook us up with one of your homies?’ So, yeah, it was because I’m Black. They did the same shit to Dante.”

“Wow, I’m sorry.”

“And then you come rolling into Megan’s life. I told her that you were a dipshit, but she didn’t listen. I was right, too. She’s better than you. She’s always been better than you. And she deserves more than you. She deserves everything.”

“Oh, shit.”

“What?”

“You’re in love with her!”

“What? No!”

Brad watched Tasha’s face as her mind spun. He now knew why she had never liked him and suddenly, he realized why he had never liked her. Jealousy. He had always been jealous of Tasha. Well, ain’t that a kick in the nuts.

Tasha stood and grabbed her coat. “I gotta go!” With that, she was running for the door.

CHAPTER 30

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