The Company We Keep by Mary Monroe

Author:Mary Monroe [Monroe, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, African American, General, Contemporary Women, Romance
ISBN: 9780758225511
Google: 0dvZBYxHlXkC
Amazon: 0758251637
Publisher: Dafina
Published: 2009-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

Harrison Starr’s granny had told him the same thing that Teri’s had told her. He was having one of those days, too. His had certainly gotten off to a fairly bad start. He had forgotten to set his alarm the night before and had overslept. He’d opened his eyes just in time to take a quick shower and run out the door. He had taken a shortcut to work, only to get caught up in a traffic jam caused by a three-car accident on the freeway. He made it to work on time by the skin of his teeth.

He usually stopped at Starbucks to get his coffee and a muffin or a bear claw every morning. But this morning he had to settle for that deadly vending machine shit in the studio break room that looked more like pee than coffee. He had dressed in such a hurry that he didn’t realize he had buttoned his shirt wrong until a coworker told him.

Now, after making what he considered a rhetorical comment about what he thought a woman should do to be a good mate, an irate female caller was giving him hell. This was something he should have been used to by now, but he wasn’t. And that bitch—who should have had something better to do with her time at ten o’clock in the morning—was so loud he had to hold his earphone away from his ear to keep his eardrum from throbbing.

“…and another thing, black boy, your whole notion of what a woman should do to be a good mate is ill. You got that?”

Chuck Irby, the perennially distressed station manager, rushed into the booth with a horrified look on his mulish face, rotating his arms like a windmill. Harrison tried his best to ignore him, but Chuck stood in front of him, making Harrison dizzy with all that arm action.

“Thank you for your comments, sister, but I must move on,” Harrison said, trying to remain calm and diffuse the situation at the same time. “Thank you again, my sister. Have a nice day.” He hung up, grinding his teeth before he spoke again. “Any other listeners like to make a comment?” The same wild woman who had just hung up called again.

“Nobody else was listening to your tired ass!” she barked.

“I have to call it the way I see it, ma’am.”

“You ain’t no Dr. Phil! You ain’t even Oprah! You ain’t nobody!”

Harrison wiped his brow with the back of his hand and held his breath for a few moments. Some people were like trees when it came to trying to have a rational conversation with them. The woman on the other end of the line was as pliable as a dead sumac.

“Are you finished this time?” Harrison asked, praying that he didn’t lose his cool and slide down to the same level as this difficult caller.

“Naw, I ain’t finished! I bet you ain’t even got no woman, and I ain’t surprised. Probably couldn’t catch one with a fishhook! I seen your picture and you look like a straight-up fag to me!”

“Hey! You hold on there, now.

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