Page 6 of Free to Love You
I smiled before I dropped my head. I didn’t want him to think that I was trying to flirt or something. Not that he would, but I just didn’t want him to think that I was.
He took a bite of the cinnamon roll. He wiped his mouth once he was finished. “So, you’re Amish? I didn’t think that black people were Amish. That’s different.”
“Um, yes, I am. We are not many, but a few of us do exist. Generally, if you’re black and Amish you were adopted into the faith,” I clarified.
Ms. Beauvia put her hands on her hips. “That makes sense. I didn’t know you were adopted, baby.”
My head moved up and down. “Yes, ma’am, I am. I was adopted when I was a few weeks old,” I told her.
“That’s what’s up,” Erygon said. “I guess I’ll see you more often since you work here, beautiful. It’s nice meeting you.”
Ms. Beauvia slapped his shoulder. “Yeah, you’ll see her more. She’s renting the apartment at the house.”
His brow hitched. “Oh, really? That’s interesting to say the least. I think you’re the first person that she’s let rent it out. Usually, it’s for family that visits. She must really like and trust you.”
My head turned to her with a cheesy grin. I didn’t know that. I assumed she normally rented it out. It made me feel welcomedand accepted that she was allowing me to stay there. “Your mother is a true blessing for letting me work here and providing me with a place to stay. If there is nothing else, I’m going to get to it. I have some rolls in the oven.”
My nervousness had me rushing back to the kitchen. My spirit felt guilty for admiring Erygon. He had a low haircut and a connecting beard. In the books that I read on my tablet, that was big turn on for women. His toffee-colored skin tone was smooth, and he had tattoos everywhere. He was like a book bae.
Oh, Beyuna bought me a brand-new tablet. This one was way better than the one before. When I looked it up online, my eyes almost popped out of my head. It almost cost two thousand dollars. I offered to pay her back, but she said that it was a welcome to Charleston gift. God had truly blessed me since I’ve been here. That further let me know that it was God’s will for me to be here.
Let’s Have A Birthday Party . . .
Today was Ayriss’s fifth birthday and it was a big deal! The way normal black people celebrated birthdays was so different from the way my family did. On our birthdays, we might get some cookies or a pie. We would never in life have a party that would make us the center of attention. It was more like we would have a family game night.
Ironically, I loved the game Dutch Blitz. It could be fun with how fast-paced it was. I also liked chess and dominoes. I loved games that were strategic in nature. I wasn’t allowed to play dominoes anymore because one time when I won, I slammedthe dominoes down and jumped up like I’d seen black people on videos do on my tablet. That had the room silent and drew way too much attention to me, so that was the end of that.
Ms. Beauvia invited the whole family to the party and Ayriss’s class was here too. Beyuna was even here. I’d missed her. There was music and games. People were drinking and smoking weed. I noticed that Erygon wasn’t smoking, but he was drinking. That probably was a good thing that he didn’t smoke since he was a doctor.
When I was told about the party there was a mention of barbecue and crabs. I also noticed that people here love seafood. I’d had crabs once, but it was snow crabs, not blue. If there was one thing I knew, it was barbecue. Yes, I primarily baked, but I was also a queen when it came to that. Cooking in general was what the women did.
I asked her if I could cook the barbecue instead of have it catered. I would even pay for the ingredients as a thank you. She was hesitant at first, but a day later she agreed. I loved being able to cook. It was something that gave me peace. She looked at me sideways when I told her that I would need a barrel or drum grill, and she told me that I must know what I was doing.
“Girl, when you said dat you knew barbecue I ain’t gonna lie, my expectations were low. Lovina, this is da best that I’ve eva had. The man I normally use, I thought he was da best. Baby, you got him beat,” Ms. Beauvia said with an empty plate in her hand.
I was standing at the grill watching the hamburgers that I had on it. “Thank you, Ms. Beauvia. I’m happy everyone likes it.”
I cooked a lot of food because they told me earlier this week that there would be fifty to sixty people coming in and out. That didn’t worry me. At my family’s restaurant, we cooked for hundreds of people a day. I used to work at the barbecue restaurant at least once every other week.
She took me to a butcher, and I made a big order. My order consisted of steaks, beef and pork ribs, two pork shoulders, brisket meat, premium ground beef for the burgers, sausages, and three pounds of leg quarters. When he told me the total, Ms. Beauvia bullied me to let her pay for half of it. Beyuna came into town a week before the party. She and her aunt helped me clean all the meat that needed to be cleaned. It took us two days to clean and a full day for me to prepare the meat.
The party didn’t start until one in the afternoon. The night before the party it was already a full house. Beyuna was there with her father, brother, and Erygon. They played cards, watched movies, and just had fun. From what I was told, Erygon had worked a long shift the two days before to have the weekend off.
When I came down at midnight to start smoking some of the meat, everyone looked at me like I had lost my mind. The brisket and shoulders would take at least twelve hours to smoke. The beef and pork ribs could take anywhere from four to eight hours. I could put them on later. The chicken thighs would only take two hours or so. I would grill everything else. Once I had all the meat in the smoker, I made my homemade barbecue sauce.
Just as I put the medium steak that Ms. Beauvia requested on her plate, Erygon approached.He is so handsome.“You’re not hot in all dat? You don’t want to change into something cooler?”
I glanced down at my attire. It was my everyday attire. Yes, I got weird looks when I came out. The party was in full swing, and I stuck out like a sore thumb. No one had to wonder why I was dressed the way I was. Ayriss was sure to go around to everybody to tell them I was Amish and her friend so they couldn’t talk about me. It was the sweetest and most innocent action that I’d ever seen.
“No, thank you. I’m fine and the material is actually quite cooling,” I told him. “Would you like something?”
He glanced at the grill. “Nah, you got a nigga full. Where you learn to cook like that? I’ve never met a female that can grill like that.”
“My family owns a barbecue business that I worked at sometimes. My father and brothers taught me, my mothers, and sisters how to barbecue. My mother taught me and my sisters how to bake.” I flipped the burgers that were on the grill, then put on gloves to move the baked beans to the table.
He followed me to the table. I jumped with a shriek when I turned around because he was right there. “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”
“I’m the oldest of six, two sisters and four brothers. All of them are married,” I told him. I quickly moved around him to go to the grill.
