Rock Chick Renegade (Rock Chick #4)(30)

“Good,” he answered, grinning at me like a fool.

“You have a headache, dizzy at all?”

“Nope, nothin’.”

“You feel dizzy, you tell someone, yeah?”

He nodded.

I turned to Martin who was standing beside him. “You okay?” I asked.

“Definitely,” he nodded, pleased as punch to be a central character in my crusade.

I shook my head, shoved his shoulder, turned and saw May bearing down on me like a storm cloud. Without a word, she grabbed my arm, dragged me across the room and into the quiet hall.

“Thought you said you weren’t partnered with Crowe?” she asked, eyes bright again, this time her excitement was mixed with a shade of anger at not being in the loop.

“Um…” I said.

“And what’s this I hear ‘bout you two havin’ a date? You go out on a date with Crowe last night and didn’t tell me?” she kept on.

“It wasn’t a date, as such,” I hedged.

“You spend time with him last night, outside of kickin’ black boy dealer ass that is?”

“Well… yeah,” I admitted.

“He get in your panties?” she was relentless.

“May!”

“Well, did he?”

“No,” I answered.

“Did he try?” she went on.

My eyes slid away. This was none of her business, of course, but one didn’t really go up against May. She might be a soft touch but she was also a mother hen and a nosy, straight-talking one at that.

“Hon,” she said and I noticed her anger was gone, “this is the best news I’ve heard all month, maybe all year.”

My eyes came back to her. “What?” I asked.

“You need a man. Don’t know why the boys aren’t crawlin’ all over you, way you look. Hate to see you lonely, livin’ your life for a bunch of kids, most of ‘em won’t give you the time of day. Every girl needs to get her some and get it regular if she can. You need a life outside this place, and, what I hear of him, you settle him down a bit, Crowe might be just the boy to give it to you.”

I thought for a second about the herculean task of “settling” Crowe down a bit. It almost made me laugh and then I looked at May’s face and decided against it.

“May, it isn’t like that.”

She just looked at me.

“May it was just one, kind of, date,” I said.

“He ask you out again?”

“Um…” I hesitated and May leaned threateningly closer. “Yeah, tonight,” I admitted.

“Mm hmm,” she mumbled, crossing her arms and nodding at me.

I stared at her a beat.

Whatever.

Time to move on.

“I have work to do,” I said.

She stopped me as I tried to move away. “You really flip Jermaine on his back and kick him in the balls?” she whispered.

Slowly, I nodded.

“Girl, you’re workin’ on becomin’ famous,” she smiled and let me go.

Famous was not what I was going for but I figured infamous was more where I was headed.

I went in search of Sniff and Roam and found them in their bedroom.

I stuck my head in and said, “I want you both here all day. Later, we’re going to talk.”

“Hey Law,” Sniff called. “Fuckin’ cool what you did last night.”

I gave him a look. “Stop saying f**k,” I told him.

Sniff grinned.

I looked at Roam. He was smiling at me.

I couldn’t help myself, I smiled back.

* * * * *

It was nigh on impossible to get any work done. Kids and colleagues alike approached me. Some asked flat out if what they’d heard about last night was true (those were my kids). Some skirted the issue and looked at me like I might be a touch crazy (those were my colleagues).

I did my best to talk it down, making it sound like your normal, average, everyday drive through town in the middle of the night when you coincidentally find yourself running into two drug dealers and confronting them in an alley with a Glock (though I didn’t mention the Glock).

Furthermore my mind kept racing forward to that night, when I was going out with, and then getting laid by, Vance Crowe. I still hadn’t come up with a delay tactic and the flight to Nicaragua was looking more and more appealing as the day wore on.

I took two appointments with kids, called a couple parents, did some paperwork and, along with the talk of my adventure last night, I heard the whisperings that the kids thought it was so cool some of them wanted to try it out for themselves. This was regardless of my warning to Martin and Curtis.

I wanted to ignore it and hope it was all talk but it was beginning to become clear that I wouldn’t get that choice.

May approached me after lunch. “Hon, you’re gonna have to say somethin’. You can’t ignore this. You tell them not to do it, they won’t do it. They look up to you. They’ll listen to you.”

I looked at her not certain she was right. The kids never listened to anyone. My word might be law in the Shelter; it didn’t hold the same weight when it came to the street.

Then I looked across my cubical to Andy, the other full-time social worker. He heard May and silently nodded his head. That’s when I knew May was right.