The Atonement by Lawrence Cherry Page B

appreciate your concern,
but believe me when I say I got this.”
    “I hope so, man.”
    “Oh and before I forget,” said Allen ready to
change the subject, “my cousin Riley is coming up this Saturday, so
someone’s going to have to pick her up from the airport.”
    “That’s Miko’s best friend, right?”
    “She told you about her?”
    “She came up in our conversation last night.
How long is she going to be in town?”
    “A couple of weeks maybe.”
    “I think Miko having her girl around is going
to be good for her – you know? I was telling her last night, how
she needed to have some girls that she could chill with
sometime.”
    “Right. That way she wouldn’t be up under you
all the time.”
    “I didn’t mean it like that.”
    “Of course you did. It’s okay, Dave. It’s
been painfully obvious to everyone that Miko’s been very, how shall
I say, intense toward you lately. I must say you’re a better man
than me. I think I would have changed my phone number and address
by now.”
    “It’s not that I don’t like her. I think
she’s a great girl, but she’s looking for a boyfriend and I don’t
know if I’m ready to be anybody’s anything yet.”
    “Have you told Miko that?”
    “We talked about it last night, some. But I
think she might be a little mad at me, like I’m brushing her off or
something.”
    “Don’t worry about Miko. If she is, she’ll
get over it. She needs to start respecting your feelings instead of
trying to change them. But now I have to wonder why you’re so
overcautious about relationships. Did you have a bad break up or
something?”
    “Al, I’ma be real with you. I’m not good at
the long-term relationship thing. I used to roll like Tim, you know
– hit it and quit it. The few long-term relationships I had turned
out to be disasters. I can’t say it wasn’t mostly my fault,
either.”
    “Why? You cheated on them or something?”
    “Yeah, and a lot of other things.”
    “It sounds like you’re accepting
responsibility for what you’ve done and you know what you need to
fix. You might be more ready than you think. You won’t know for
sure unless you put yourself out there.”
    “And then what if I’m not? I would never want
to do Miko the way I did them other girls. I wouldn’t be able to
forgive myself.”
    “Forget about those other girls. You’ve made
mistakes in the past, but that doesn’t have to determine your
future. You just told me that it’s important that I stay on the
path that God has for me. What if there’s a wonderful woman God has
put in your path right now, whether it’s Miko or someone else, that
you’re passing up because of stuff that happened in the past.”
    “That’s the thing. You can’t just forget
about the past. You have to deal with it first, otherwise it has a
way of catching up to you and burning you.”

 
     
    Nine
     
     
    Tamiko had been waiting for nearly ten
minutes in the large booth at the Bistro Grill. It was a new place
they were meeting at because it was equidistant from where everyone
lived – that is – everyone except Davis, who was still living in
the Bronx. In her restlessness, She had started making origami
fortunetellers out of the napkins from the dispenser on the table.
They were all supposed to be meeting to discuss plans for a
homecoming celebration for Jim, which was something she looked
forward to, but at the same time she couldn’t help but feel a
little nervous. Tamiko was hoping that Davis wouldn’t be the first
of them to show. She didn’t want to risk having an uncomfortable
moment with him, especially so soon after their last conversation.
Tamiko took another napkin out of the dispenser and a pen out of
her bag and began to jot down some ideas she had about the party in
order to distract herself from thinking about that night. She was
really getting into her work, pausing only at moments to push back
wandering strands of her shoulder length hair behind her ear when,
unbeknownst