Cherry

ART: "Cherry" By Steff Green

I sat in the diner with my friend, Chris Thompson, at daybreak... We both liked to get up and go eat at the break of dawn.. We had been doing that since we were kids. We had grown up to be very different men....I was an honest entrepeneur, I suppose...and Chris..He was a reputed trafficer of recreational pharmecuticals (Drug Kingpin).. My name is Chess and this is another one of my stories.

We were sitting there reading the Daily News and enjoying some Blueberry Waffles and pork sausages, while drinking coffee and a tumbler of Orange Juice. From the looks of us, two Black men in sweat suits, checking our cell phones, no one would have known that we were both millionaires. Me from Real Estate and the ownership of two highly sucessful gyms and Chris , well from whatever it was he alledgedly did that everybody who was streetwise in West Philadelphia knew that he did!

"The Sixers won last night Chess" he said rather dryly.

"Yeah, I saw it at Josie's..." I said.

"Whattt? Gus invested in some Flat Screens? I can't beleive it...Thought he was old school." laughed Chris.

"I gave em to him...Three to be exact....He's done me a lot of favors." I said.

"That's your problem Chess...yo heart is too big..you can't just be givin people stuff all the time without gettin somethin back....and don't look at me like that..What I done for you is different, we family." said Chris.

"I aint lookin at you..I'm lookin at her." I said.

Chris smiled..."Somethin we agree on...she's fine as hell boy, but I can look at her and tell she trouble." said Chris.

She was about five foot ,eight, built like nobody's business and wearing a blood red dress that accentuated every curve. I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

"Why she gotta be trouble?" I asked.

"A woman that fine , alone...in a dump like this, this early in the mornin...she got troubles or she in trouble...now trust me." said Chris.

I plunked down the money to pay for our meal and I smiled at Chris...

"Well, I'm gonna find out about some of that trouble" I laughed.

I walked over to where she was sitting. Unlike Chris and me, who were in a booth, she was sitting at the counter. I sat next to her and said -"Hi" She looked at me and half smiled and said
"Hi" back. I made it a practice never to give a woman a line..I had always just been myself..mostly because I didn't feel like playing the games that go along with using a practiced line and because I felt that most people know when somebody is not being for real.

"People call me Chess...what do they call you?"

"Chess? That's an odd name.."she said.

"My father gave me that name, because I could play chess well." I said.

"Oh...that makes sense...I play a little myself." she said.

"Really...I don't meet many women who can play chess...I'd love to play you a game one day,once I learn your name." I said.

"It's Cherry" she said, not offering any more of an explanation than that.

"Cherry? Is that a nickname or is that your real name?" I asked.

"That's my real name...Cherry Johnson." she said.

"You don't sound like you're from around here." I said.

"I'm not...I just moved here from California." She said.

"People don't move to Philadelphia, they move away from here...usually to go to California." I laughed.

"Well, I got in a little trouble, I felt it was time for a change." she said.

Upon hearing her say that, Chris laughed and slapped his knee...I ignored him. I was still taken by Cherry.

"Look Cherry, I don't live too far from here...I'd love to talk to you again, play you a game of chess and maybe take you out...you know...dinner, a movie...what not." I said.

"Damn, you Philly guys move pretty fast, you don't waste anytime...yall just get right to it,don't
you?" she said.

"Why waste time? Life is too short." I said.

"I agree. you gotta cell phone?" she said. I pulled mine out and she pulled hers out and we exchanged phone numbers.

Chris's eyes grew as large as saucers....then he shook his head and just laughed and slapped his knee again.

"That's my boyyyyyyyyyy...always right on the ladies..." he howled to nobody in particular.

"I'm gonna call you Cherry....and perhaps we can set somethin up okay?" I said.

"Okay..I hope you're one of those guys that calls when he says he is going to call." she said.

"Don't worry I will and don't worry, I'm paying for your breakfast..." I said.

"I think I like you already." she said. I liked that she said that....I hadn't felt this way about any woman since my baby's mother left me...I watched her as she walked outside and hailed a cab...
As she pulled away, Chris walked up to me....

"She trouble man..I'm tellin ya." he said.

"Well, everytime you wake up and walk out into these streets, you run that risk." I said.

"True dat, but I try to minimize mine baby boy." laughed Chris.

I walked back to my apartment complex and bid Chris goodbye that morning...All I could think about was Cherry.

(To Be Continued...)