Page 9 of Can I?

FERRIS

“You wanna meet in Nome for lunch? I know you ain’t doing shit.”

I frowned as Asad chuckled. As I sat in my gaming chair, I paused my game and reclined. “Nigga, I’m always working, although it don’t seem like work to you.”

He laughed. “Well, I figured we can go to Jen and Chrissy’s Diner, and maybe you can see Milana.”

“I’m not worried about her ass. She shot me down. She didn’t even want to get to know me without strings attached. I know when to back off. However, I’ll go, though, because I haven’t been in a while. My soul started craving that stuffed fried chicken the minute you said it. What time?”

I looked at the clock to see it was nearly ten already. I had to send in the data for this game by tonight, but I wanted to send it in before lunch. That was why that nigga felt like I didn’t work. I was a game tester, so I basically played video games for a living, offering feedback on what they could do to improve it.

“Is twelve thirty cool?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I should be done in the next hour.”

“A’ight.”

He ended the call, and I went back to the game I was playing. My mind was no longer on it though. It had shifted to Milana. I was pretty decent at reading people and realizing when there were other driving factors to why they did the things they did. Just from the conversation I overheard, it seemed she was into it with her mother. I had to assume it was her mother since she referred to her dad when she was talking about her.

She’d said her mother slapped the piss out of her, so it must have been bad. It seemed to be taking a toll on her too. When she wasn’t communicating with her cousins, her eyes held a sadness that I could clearly see, especially after I overheard the conversation. She was so beautiful, but her reaction to me threw me completely off . . . caught me by surprise. The way she was blushing and shit when she saw me staring at her made me think she would be receptive.

I paused my game and stood from my seat. I was barely paying attention to that shit. I kept notes as I went, so I went over them to make sure they were on point before I added more. That helped pass time as well. By the time I was done, it was nearly eleven thirty, so I took a quick shower and got dressed, being sure to look nice. Since I was at home most of the time, it was common for me to be in T-shirts, sweats or basketball shorts, or even bare chested. I sprayed cologne on, then grabbed my keys and headed out.

When I got there, the place was crowded. I hadn’t been here in years, but I didn’t remember it ever beingthiscrowded. They’d grown, and people were realizing just how good their food was. After getting out of my vehicle, I saw Asad getting out of his car. He smiled when he saw me, and I could imagine what his ass was thinking.

Sure enough, when he got close, using his best impression of Ray Gipson from the movieLifehe said, “You mighty dapper . . . very debonair to say you ain’t worried about seeing Milana.”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled, then shook his hand. “Shut the fuck up, nigga.”

We made our way inside, and the ladies behind the counter smiled at us. They were Jen and Chrissy, the owners of the diner. I couldn’t believe they were still working the counter instead of hiring other people to do that.

“Welcome to Jen and Chrissy’s!” the gray-headed one said.

We both smiled and nodded. Asad looked around as did I, trying to see what we could see. Two of the young ladies Milana was with at the rodeo yesterday were here, but I didn’t see her. Those twins weren’t here either.Good.I didn’t feel like being rude to nobody today. When we got to the counter, we told them what we wanted to eat. After paying and finding a table to sit at, I could feel eyes on me.

I looked up to see Ashanni and the other chick staring at me. They smiled and waved, and I did the same. They were friendly enough. Once I blessed my food and was about to dive in, Asad said, “You know, I think Carter Legend and Red Squared tryna holla at the twins.”

I frowned and turned my lip up. “Those mean ass girls? They couldn’t find anybody else?”

He chuckled. “Well, Bali seems to like Carter. Noni shot Red down, but my brother said he ain’t giving up.”

I slowly shook my head as I glanced around the diner. Bringing my eyes back to my food, I could see Asad staring at me in my peripheral. “What, nigga?”

“She ain’t here.”

“I noticed. Ashanni is though.”

“Mm-hmm. I noticed her fine ass. How’s the gaming going?”

“It’s going. I’m almost done with the one I’m working on. I’ll have a lil break after that.”

“Is it at least an interesting or ‘fun’ game?” he asked, throwing up air quotes.

“It’s okay. It would probably be more interesting for a kid under the age of thirteen. It’s a little too easy. If it’s easy for me, it would most likely be easy for a teenager whose life is consumed by video games.”

He nodded and ate more of his smothered beef tips. I was trying to save my chicken for last, because I wanted to savor it, but the way that shit was staring back at me on my plate, I had to take a bite. I fully expected to taste mac and cheese when I bit into it, but not so. When I tasted red beans and rice in that chicken, I nearly lost my damn mind. “Yooooo,” I said, a mouth full of food.

Asad chuckled. “What’s wrong with you?”

---