Can't Buy Me Love

ART: "Neighborhood" By Jacob Lawrence

I was in the State Store buying two bottles of Sutter House Wine . I was in a celebratory mood..
As I was standing in line I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman standing in front of me...

"See dats your problem....you don't know a good man when you see him." said the well dressed
young guy who ,to me had on way too much jewelry...

" Good man? Who You? My last man, Sexy G. bought me a platinum watch and took me on a
shoppin spree...and he had a 2009 BMW...what you got? What you givin me but a headache wit
yo whinin." she said. She was an attractive brown skinned woman, with a pair of White Capri
pants on and a yellow sheer top. She had on a black underwire bra that you could see right
through the blouse.

As they prattled on ,I kept wondering why people equated money with love and love with money. As I walked out to my car, I heard the radio blasting from another car that stopped at
the corner.....

"aint nothin goin on but the rent.....you got ta have a j-o-b...if ya wanna be with me...
no romance ,without fi-nance...gotta have a j-o-b.. if ya wanna beeee wit me..."

I laughed out loud and got in my car and drove over to the loft where Rell, my son and I were
staying...We had held off getting married for a month now....because of all of the activities of the
summer..but with the summer waning, there was no reason to put it off.

Rell was looking fabulous as usual....She sat at the table and I filled two goblets with wine and gave one to her to make a toast....

"To Us baby.....To us." I said....but she didn't toast.....

"Hey,what's wrong with you?" I asked.

"I can't marry you Chess." she said.

"What?"

"Chess, youse a gangster...and I don't want to be part of that, I don't want our child around that."
she said.

"No...Nooooo...Noooo Luv, you got it all wrong...Chris Thompson aint got nothin to do with
my gym or my Apartments....Nothin...No legal claim, no money laundering , no hangin
out..nothin..and I'm strictly legit...You know I don't sling no drugs...nothin" I said.

That was for the most part true...I failed to mention that Chris gave me a peice of the now deceased, Indian Joe's high stakes Crap game and that I gave a peice of that to Chris...but that was the only part of Chris's business I was involved in. The lion share of my money was legal..
from those Apartments and the Gym..

"You think Chris just gon give you that Gym and that Apartment complex to manage and not want something back? You can't be that niave Chess...People like Chris Thompson don't just
give people things...not without wanting something back." she said.

"Rell, it aint like that...Chris and me been friends, since we could walk....He felt as though he owed me-" I said.

"Owed you for what? For what Chess?? Did it have to do with my brother dying?" She said.

"No, No, it had nothing to do with your brother at all.....Chris didn't have nothin to do with Billy Ray gettin shot...Billy Ray was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be and he got caught up in
something he had nothin to do with.." I tried to explain.

"Well Chess, I can't marry you...not now...Maybe......Maybe someday I'll feel different...maybe
I won't....but right now...right now, you and me? I don't think it would work." she said.

"This aint just about Chris is it?" I asked..

"No, it aint." she said.

"Rell, I got money, you and me, we could live the good life...You could only work if you wanted to.. All I do is collect my rent and my money from the Gym...After I pay my employees and my
bills...I still got more in my pockets than some people make in a month, hell in two months...I
could give you damn near anything you want....and our son...He aint never gon want for nothin.."
I said.

" That's nice and if I was a gold digger,I'd be all over you right now...but I'm not that kind of girl." she said....and she wasn't. She tried to hold back a tear...I got up to walk to her and she waved me off...

"I'm sorry Chess...I'm sorry...I can't talk to you right now....I gotta go." she said..and she got up
and walked out of the door and out of my life.

Seems like we were happier together when I had nothing....I didn't know if she was filled with so much (here to for unknown) grief for her dead brother....if everytime she saw me , I reminded her of what happened to him...I don't know...Maybe it was her fear of my friendship with a known gangster, Chris Thompson....or maybe it was something else altogether that I was missing.

I sat out on the front porch of my Apartment complex and looked down at the people walking
down the street ,at the cars going up and down the street...and I pondered my gift of steady money and my curse of losing the woman I loved...I thought about the money and I thought
about Rell. I'd give it all up for Rell.....well maybe....but not today!