Chapter Eleven

Faking the Funk

My world was spinning out of control, and my fingers were too greased up to grab ahold and set it to rights. I hadn’t seen Jucee in a week, not since we’d had our talk in my parents’ front yard. Maybe I was a coward, because when I realized she was putting space in between us, I just let it happen. As much as I wanted things to stay exactly as they’d been for years, the desire for more of what we’d shared—more of experiencing her in a new, exciting way—grew with every moment that passed. It was wild and uncontrollable and it just seemed easier to let Jucee keep her distance than to be forced to reckon with the realization that I wasn’t as unaffected as I portrayed to be. There was no way that I could make up for not being there when she woke up and keep my hands to myself. Or kiss her in apology. I just needed time for the memory of what we’d done to wear off, is all.

Just a little time. A couple weeks or a month or something like that.

That’s it.

Nothing too outrageous.

It was possible that everything was fine and I was just anxious and reading too deeply into things. I mean, we’d talked, but she hadn’t come by the house or the studio, and that was unusual for us. She’d even missed Sunday dinner, which was an ordeal. Had everybody asking about her until they got tired of my hemming and hawing and Nana finally sucked her teeth at me and went to call Jucee for answers herself. I had no idea what excuse she’d given, but no one asked me another question.

I knew that Nana had seen Jucee since then, because Amani had been at the house a couple of times when I stopped by, but that was all I knew. Well, I also knew that I hadn’t done anything to change the radio silence between us either. I’d texted—to which she always answered—but hadn’t popped up on her or stopped by the club to see her. My reasons felt honorable. If she needed time to help her reset our friendship in her mind, then I would give her that and then some. More than anything, I couldn’t lose Juleesa Marie Jones or her friendship.

My phone rang, which was weird, because I could’ve sworn I’d put it on silent. I lifted it off of the table to see that it was Jackie calling me. I held it for a second, trying to decide if I wanted to answer it or not. I could feel my daddy’s eyes on me, and I knew that it was my indecision that had drawn his attention. Usually, my phone never rang when I was in the studio, with only a small number of people able to get through my focus session. All it took was a quick glance at the screen for me to know if it was worth breaking my concentration to talk to whoever was on the other line or not.

I knew it was suspicious as hell, taking as long as I was to decide, and it was even worse when I swiped my thumb across the screen and lifted the device to my ear.

“Whassup, Jackie?”

“Hey, baby,” she crooned into the phone, the saccharine tone pulling my lips into an instant frown. “What you up to?”

I stared down at the soundboard for a moment, wondering when we’d moved to terms of endearment. “Uh...I’m in the studio working on some tracks for Hitta.”

She gasped. “Ooh! I love him! Is he there with you?”

The excitement in her voice was off-putting. It wasn’t just awe, it was fandom, and I hated that shit.

“Naw. He was here a couple of weeks ago to lay some stuff down, and now I’m mixing and mastering what we came up with.”

“That’s so dope,” she breathed. “You ate lunch yet?”

As annoyed as I was by her, the sound of food perked me up. I could deal with her shit for a little longer if she was gon’ feed me.

“Not yet. I need to eat something soon though. I’ve been in here all morning.”

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do about that.”

I might’ve grinned at that. Just a little bit though. Food got me excited. “That’s a bet.”

When she hung up, I replaced my phone on the table and turned back to the soundboard.

“Hmm,” came a judgmental hum from my daddy, who had yet to say a word.

I slid my eyes over to him.

“What, Daddy? What you got to say?”

His lips were curved at the corners as he nodded at my facedown phone.

“Who was that?”

“Oh, that’s just Jackie.”

“Just Jackie, huh?”

His inquiry made me laugh.

“Yes, Daddy. Just Jackie. I met her a couple of weeks ago when a group of us went out to Fred Pierce’s club downtown.”

“Mmm.”

That was all he said before he returned his attention to the knobs and dials in front of us. That was my cue to drop it if I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Except, this was the perfect opportunity to discuss the phenomena that had been plaguing me about Jackie.

“Daddy?”

He slid his gaze my way. “Hmm?”

“Tell me if you’ve ever heard of anything like this before.” I proceeded to explain my auditory reaction whenever I heard Jackie’s laugh, watching his face carefully as I did so. His eyebrows shot up when I said her full laugh was equivalent to hearing nails on a chalkboard.

When I finished, I waited for him to process everything and tell me what he thought. I hadn’t told anyone about this, but I knew my daddy was the one person who could give me some insight on what the fuck was going on. Not only was he a musical genius, but he was the wisest person I knew. After a couple of minutes, he leaned back in his chair and shook his head.

“Star Shine, I know this might be disappointing, but I’ve never heard of that before. I’m curious about Just Jackie now.”

I busted out laughing. “Her name isn’t Just Jackie, Daddy. It’s just Jackie.”

“That’s what I said.” He lifted his eyebrows and shoulders simultaneously.

I shook my head. He was being silly. “No, Daddy. Her name is Jackie. That’s it. That’s all.”

“Ahhh.” He nodded his head sagely, which only served to make me laugh harder.

“Let’s get back to the music, old man.”

We finished up the track and moved on to another, but just when Hitta’s voice filled the room, my phone rang again.

“Come on, man,” I muttered, praying it wasn’t Jackie calling me back.

Eventually I was going to have to let her know that I wasn’t interested, and not just because I hated the sound of her voice. I just couldn’t get jiggy with the whole fandom thing she had going on. I knew plenty of artists and producers who thrived on that shit—hell, I was one of them before the Grammys came calling—but now that it was legit, I couldn’t vibe with it. To my surprise, it wasn’t Jackie who was banging my line this time around. Relief flooded my veins and I could feel the smile take over my face as I quickly swiped my thumb across the screen and lifted the phone to my face.

“Juleesa Marie.”

Her indignant squawk brought immediate laughter out of me. I was so fucking excited to hear from her that my chest was thumping.

“Why are you saying my government like that?!” she yelled.

My hand found its way to that spot between my breasts where my sternum sat and rubbed. “That’s your name, ain’t it?”

Jucee kissed her teeth. “One I only hear when I’m in trouble.” There was a moment of silence where I swear I could hear the wheels in her head spinning so damn clearly that I could’ve bet money on the next words that were going to come out of her mouth. “Am I in trouble, Poppa?”

I would’ve won the bet and still lost, because her tone had dipped a little past playful into the danger zone where I’d managed to avoid being for almost a full week and yet, just the lower timber had my mind thinking thoughts. Dark and nasty thoughts.

As if it had been beckoned, my tone dropped to join hers in the gutter. “Not unless you wanna be.”

Fuck.

I was so ready to meet her where she was at that my response had slipped out too fast for me to rethink it. But shit. Even if I’d been able to do just that, I might’ve still said it exactly as I had, because there was no more perfect response for what she’d said in the tone she’d said it in. My daddy didn’t turn to look at me, but I felt his awareness like a wool blanket draped on my shoulders during a nap.

Double fuck.

Dropping my head back, I closed my eyes and cleared my throat.

“I—um...” Clearly I had thrown Jucee off as well, yet I was sickeningly pleased by that. What the fuck was wrong with me?

Jucee salvaged the conversation by getting right to the point of her call.

“It’s after one, and I know you haven’t eaten lunch yet. Tell me I’m wrong.”

All I could do was laugh, and that was enough for her, because she knew me.

“Mmhm” was all she added before she hung up.

Pulling the phone away from my face, I stared at the device for a minute before placing it back on the table and turning back to the dials.

“Mmm,” came from my right.

Chuckling, I turned to him. “What now, Daddy?”

This time, instead of asking me a question, he shook his head.

“Nothing. I don’t have to ask who that was, so I’ll mind my business this time.”

Eyes narrowed, I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was being funny or attempting to apply reverse psychology on me. The little smile he wore pointed toward the latter, but I couldn’t be sure, so I followed his lead and went back to the music.

It was twenty minutes later before another notification came across my phone. It was the chime from the security app to let me know the code had been used at the studio door. I was fairly certain I knew who it was, so I didn’t even blink an eye.

Imagine my surprise when the door opened and Jackie strolled in as if she’d been here a million times and had every right to arrive unannounced. Behind her was a visibly annoyed Jucee, holding a plastic bag of something that smelled delicious.

Triple fuck!

The music faded out, and I turned to see Daddy with his hands on the knob. He gave me an expectant look and I returned it with one of pure cluelessness. I was lost. This felt like one of those situations you watch happen to other people; I had no idea what I was supposed to do. A chick who was into me and my best friend, who I’d—

“Hey, baby!”

Jackie broke into my thoughts with her loud voice. In the blink of an eye, I had a flashback to the time when I used to welcome random groupies into the studio with open arms. That was just a couple of years ago, and so much had changed since then. Not only because Jackie’s audacity annoyed me instead of amused me, but because this particular woman got under Jucee’s skin and I’d spent a week praying that things would improve between us sooner than later. This random popup felt like being knocked back six steps after only taking two steps forward.

Blinking, I stood to my feet and was nearly tackled by Jackie charging me for a hug. I didn’t know she even knew where the studio was, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The location was public information, so anyone who wanted to know could find it. The real shock was seeing her inside, since that was a privilege only afforded to a small number of people.

“Whassup, Jackie?” I carefully avoided the term of endearment she’d decided to start using out of nowhere. A couple kisses didn’t make you baby, and it was weird that she was trying to create a false sense of intimacy in that way. “What are you doing here?”

She giggled. I hoped my cringe wasn’t too visible.

“You said you hadn’t eaten, so I figured I’d come by so you could take me to lunch.”

My eyebrows shot up, my daddy hummed, and Jucee snorted.

Take her to lunch?That was presumptuous as hell. I pulled back from the hug and cocked my head to the side.

“I told you I was working, though.”

“Yeah, but you need to eat. I figured you could stop working for an hour or two to share a meal with me.” She shrugged, a clueless smile plastered onto her face. She didn’t get it, and that wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know me well enough, or maybe she just didn’t have anything that she was that passionate about, so she couldn’t relate.

In my peripheral, I saw Jucee place the bag of food on the table against the wall and go over to my daddy. He stood to his feet and they embraced. The desire to know what they were saying was burning at me, but Jackie was in my face and I had to handle her first. Grabbing her hands in mine, I squeezed them.

“Listen. I appreciate you thinking of me, but when I’m locked in for work, I’m locked in. I can’t just up and leave while tracks are unfinished. I can’t do that to these artists.”

Jackie pouted but nodded. Behind her, I saw Jucee walk toward the door. She glanced my way before leaving and gave a weak wave as she disappeared out the studio.

“I understand,” Jackie said. “I’ll do better next time.”

I nodded and tried to hurry her to the door so that I could maybe catch Jucee before she was all the way gone.

“You’re not gon’ introduce me to your friend?”

My daddy’s words stopped me in my tracks. Frustration rose up in me. He had to know that I wanted to try and speak with Jucee. He had to.

“Oh, my bad.” I pulled Jackie over to him. Still standing, he held out a hand to Jackie.

She giggled as she grabbed it and shook.

“This is Jackie. Jackie, this is Marvin Thomas. He was bass player and lead songwriter for The Still Waters.”

Daddy waved a hand at me. “Oh, she’s too young to know about that old group.”

Jackie just giggled harder, making my eye twitch.

“I’m actually twenty-eight.”

Daddy gave her an indulgent smile. “Just a baby. You’re younger than my youngest child.”

Rolling my eyes, I smirked. He was quiet, but one thing for sure was my daddy could charm anyone.

“You don’t look old enough to have kids my age!”

At that I snorted. My daddy might’ve been bald, but he had more salt than pepper in his beard. While his skin was beautifully moisturized and cared for, his sienna skin was wrinkled with signs of aging. I know that it was normal to tell older people they didn’t look old, but for some reason it annoyed me coming out of Jackie’s mouth.

Or maybe I was just annoyed by her in general.

And...if I were being honest, it was probably because I didn’t really like her, but she kept my mind off of Jucee.

That was a terrible thought, and acknowledging it only made me more annoyed, so I shoved that to the back of my mind and hustled Jackie out the door, glaring at my daddy over my shoulder as he called out goodbye. I’d be having words with his instigating ass when I returned. Jackie chatted to herself about how sweet he was and how cool it was that I worked with pioneers from a time before me, and I just stayed silent. It was preferable that she thought he was just an older musician that I was working with and not my actual father. For some reason, I got the feeling that she would read too much into meeting my daddy, and I didn’t need that additional drama. It was bad enough that I was essentially using her.

I walked her to a red VW Beetle and pulled her into a brief hug that hopefully said “goodbye.” When I tried to step back, she gripped the sides of my shirt and kept me close.

“When am I going to see you again?” Dropping her chin, she blinked at me from under long lashes. There was no denying how attractive Jackie was, and ordinarily, this little move would’ve had me biting my lip and giving her a concrete date and hour.

Unfortunately for her, this wasn’t an ordinary time.

“Uh...”

“What about tomorrow?”

I was off my game. This was a level-one question in the game of finessing, and I should’ve had three different responses ready to hit her with, yet I couldn’t think straight. My eyes searched the parking spaces up and down the strip, praying Jucee was still around. Jackie squeezed my sides, bringing my attention back to her.

“That’s fine,” I finally said, not even entirely sure what I’d agreed to but fully aware that the desperate way I was searching for my friend was out of line. I needed to focus on Jackie if I wanted things with Jucee to go back to normal.

Pleased with my answer, Jackie hugged me and climbed into her car. I waved her off and headed back into the studio. I found my daddy sitting at the table, an open container of loaded baked potato casserole in front of him. Ignoring him, I grabbed my phone off the counter and called Jucee. It rang six times before I hung up and called again. It went to voicemail.

Okay.

I took a breath and calmed myself before I started getting heated. It was possible that she was calling me back at the same time that I was calling and that was why it had gone straight to voicemail. That’s all. She hadn’t blocked me or anything.

After convincing myself that everything was cool, I turned to join my father at the table.

“What is this?” I asked, sliding into the seat across from him.

“The lunch Juleesa brought with intention to eat with you.” I twisted my lips to the side as he leveled me with a gaze.

“Man,” I drawled, pulling out the other chair and sitting down. “Why you say it like that?”

“How did I say it?” His eyes were on me as he scooped a forkful of potatoes, cheese, chicken, and barbecue sauce into his mouth.

“Like I fucked up or something. Like you’re disappointed in me.”

“The way you let Juleesa come in here, bring you something to eat, and leave without saying one word to her? I am disappointed in you.”

His voice was in an even, practical tone, his words uttered matter-of-factly. And he might as well have punched me in the chest.

“Daddy...”

“I don’t often see y’all with your women—and I’m sure that’s by design—so I have no idea if this is how you act on a regular basis. What I will say is that I didn’t raise y’all to ignore your friends and the people who mean the most to you just because you got some new pussy—”

“Daddy!” My mouth fell open and then I busted out laughing.

He shrugged, as nonchalant as ever. “All’s I’m saying is that you don’t ditch your homies for a new relationship.”

Groaning, I sat back and dragged my hands down my face. While he was right, he had it all wrong.

“First of all, me and Jackie aren’t together.”

Huffing a laugh, he took another bite. “I hear you saying that, but does she know that?”

Brows furrowed, I stared at him. “Of course. We just met two weeks ago. If she thought we were together, I’d be seriously concerned.”

He nodded, head toward his food. “And what about Juleesa? Does she know you aren’t with Just Jackie?”

I gaped at him. “She knows better than anyone. She was there when I met the girl! Why would you even ask me that?”

Lifting his head, he turned his piercing gaze onto me.

“I ask because I saw the look on Juleesa’s face when she walked into this room.”

My nod was slow as I thought back. “Yeah...she was definitely annoyed.”

He just looked at me, those eyes boring into me as if he was searching for something. After a moment, he chuckled and shook his head.

“It’s funny because, to me, it looked like she felt betrayed. But I guess that’s crazy, right?”

He quirked an eyebrow and went back to his food as if he hadn’t just dropped a wildly inaccurate bomb on me.

“Daddy,” I whined, feeling a little embarrassed and a lot exposed. “You know me and Jucee are friends. Just friends. She’s one of my best friends.” It didn’t matter that those words suddenly felt foreign like cotton on my tongue. That had nothing to do with anything.

“Mm.”

With his eyebrows up, he gave me a look that said he clearly didn’t believe me, but thankfully, he didn’t say anything else. I wasn’t going to address his hum, because that would open the door for him to keep going, and that was the last thing I wanted.

Reaching across the table, I dragged the unopened container toward me and popped off the plastic lid. The aromas from inside smacked me in the face immediately. I groaned a lil bit. Just a little though.

Jumbo shrimp and strips of tender, medium steak sat atop a bed of fluffy potatoes that had been scraped out of their skin and stuffed into a rectangular container and drizzled with a garlic aioli. It was my favorite dish from the potato truck on the southeast side. Glancing at my daddy’s container, I recognized the Cajun chicken potato that Jucee loved. She must’ve already been on the south side of town to have picked these up and gotten here as quickly as she did.

Damn.

Finally seeing my friend after a week of no face time, only to miss the opportunity to speak to each other, was a sick sort of irony. Jackie’s presence only made it worse. And my daddy’s commentary didn’t help.

And maybe the worst of it all was the fact that none of this would be happening if I’d just kept my lips to myself.