Miss Lola.

Chapter 14.

J.J Evans was one strange looking dude, but I had always thought that Thelma's husband, Keith, was so fine. I still can't understand why they never moved out of the ghetto because everyone in the household had decent jobs.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I heard was the ringing of the alarm on my phone which scared me so bad that I almost fell off the sofa. Have mercy!

Shoot, that's what I get for falling to sleep on the sofa anyway and not to mention a stiff back.

Yawning, I flicked the t.v off and hobbled to the bathroom to freshen up for another day.

Every Thursday morning, I delivered hot meals to the "sick and shut in" for Mount Bethel baptist church which is a dynamic mega-church.

I'd gone to highschool with their Senior Pastor, the Reverend Joseph Buchanan, and I automatically looked for his navy blue Cadillac truck but it wasn't parked in the "reserved for senior Pastor" parking spot in front of the church today although his wife's white Lexus was.

Humph...that heffa had been something else back in the day but I ain't one to gossip so...

The volunteers met in the big kitchen downstairs which was hot and smelled like Thanksgiving.

"Good morning everyone." I said.

"Hey, Sister Simmons. We haven't seen you in service for a while."

I spun around and came face to face with Sheila Buchanan, the First Lady.

She was dressed in all white and her make-up and hair was flawless. I can't stand this heffa..

"Oh, I've been visiting Sister Nancy's church." I said sweetly and turning my back on her, I sashayed over to the tables where they were handing out the food boxes.

"Is that right? Well, how is Nancy and Pastor?" She asked.

"Oh, they good. I'll tell them that you asked."

Grabbing a box, I pivoted and walked outside hoping that fool didn't follow me.

"Hey, Lola? Wait up." Chuck Rogers, my mechanic had followed me outside and now he sauntered over and offered to carry the box.

"Morning, Chuck. I thought you delivered for the lunch shift." I was a little flustered. What was he doing here?

"Usually I do, but they called me in to fix a leaky pipe in the basement and I decided to hang around."

Chuck is white and looks a lot like Luke, the guy who ran the diner in the fictional town of Stars Hollow.

"How's she running?" He was asking about my car.

"Real good, Chuck. You're the best."

He waited while I popped the trunk and then carefully set the box inside.

"You sure you don't need anything else?"

I stood back and slowly and appreciatively looked this hunk of man up and down. Chewing my bottom lip, I reluctantly nodded my head.

"No, thank you."

Chuck kind of grinned out the corner of his mouth.

"Are you positive?"

"Yep. But thank you all the same."

I sashayed around to the driver's side and before I could open the door, Chuck opened it for me and leaned down to look at me and I stared straight into his sky blue eyes.

"I still miss you, Lola." He said.

"Chuck, that was a long time ago." I said, nervously playing with my key fob.

"I can't help how I feel." He said simply. "I'd like to see you again."

"Well, I'm seeing someone else right now."

Chuck's smile wilted around the edges and he moved away from my car so that I could close the door.

"Well, I hope he treats you right." He said and then sauntered away with his hands in his pockets and I ain't gonna lie, I was watching him walk away with some raunchy memories because back in the day that white boy had rocked my world and more than just my car had benefited from one of his "special" tune ups on occasion.

We'd started hooking up back when my kids were little and I'd been lonely and hot in the tail and sick and tired of being stuck at home changing dirty diapers and wiping up spit up while all of my friends were out having fun.

Well this one Friday night I'd been sitting out on the porch of my parent's house, bemoaning my fate, when Chuck rode up on his Harley Davidson, flipped back the visor on his helmet and casually asked me to take a ride with him.

Well, I'd hopped on the back of his
"hog" so fast until it felt like my feet were on fire and had ignored my cousin's shrill,

"Lola! Get your fast behind back here, else I'm telling Auntie and Uncle!"

"Just ignore her, Chuck." I'd said and grinning, he'd gunned the engine and zoomed off into the night.

After that we started hanging out and Chuck even met my parents but we'd both known that it was only casual hook ups and nothing more because neither one of us were ready to settle down and it'd been months since our last tune up and so I guess Chuck had missed it.

Now that I'm with Hollis, things would  definitely have to change because I'm a one man woman.

After dropping off the last meal, I decided to swing by Avis's house to make sure that she hadn't drowned herself in tears.

She met me at the screen door of her little cinder block house, wrapped in a baggy, white shawl and wearing a white turban on her head.

"Girl, you look like the Mummy."

"Gee, thanks Lola. But you're looking fabulous...as usual." Avis sounded sad, broken, and busted.
Her depressed state tugged at my heart and all I wanted to do was give her a big hug which I went ahead and did.

"I wish there was something that I could do to make you feel better." I said, letting her go.

"Just keep on being you, Lola. At least one of us can still smile."

"So, I take it that Ronald didn't come home last night?"

Nodding, wiping at her irritated eyes, Avis opened the door and invited me inside.
Her house was simply furnished and neater now that her kids were grown and gone.

"I was just about to make some coffee. Want a cup?" She said, leading the way to the kitchen.

"Sure, but I can't stay long."

Avis didn't own a fancy espresso machine like I do and so she plugged in her dented coffee pot and got two mugs down from the cabinet above the sink.

10/19/21.
Edited 12/1/21.