CHAPTER 41 - JOHNNY SLIM
Did your parents play games with you? My mom played a funny game. Hide and seek. When I was eight, she left, and I looked for her under the bed of every man I ever shouldn't have slept with. Good game.
–Dinah Leffert
One night, while walking back to the flophouse, I passed a man in a trenchcoat jumping out of a red Jaguar.
"Well, ain't you just a big, fine, sexy, brick house!" He smiled widely, flirting in a Caribbean/New York accent and hurrying to open the door for me.
I stepped over shifted pieces of sidewalk and looked straight into his hazel almond eyes which did a hypnotic thing light eyes do when surrounded by dark skin.
"You all by your lonesome here in the big, bad city? Why don't you cop a squat for a minute?"
His question felt intrusive, but I thought I felt kindness, too. I moved to sit under the awning and shook out a Newport. I would show him he couldn't fuck with me.
"Where are you from? I asked, like a scholar of all things foreign.
"I'm Basian, baby. From dee islands." Johnny sat across from me.
"Oh, which one?" I had been to several on vacation with my family.
"Ah. Come on! The most beautiful island! Barbados!" Johnny feigned exasperation with all of us dumb Americans.
"Never been there," I said, touching his hand as he held a lighter under my cigarette.
"Where are you from?" Johnny flirted.
"Massachusetts. Been here a month. New York fascinates me."
"Want to go for a spin around the city in the sexiest car on the planet?"
I saw an opportunity to impress Johnny with how streetwise I was.
"Well, I do have a concern, first. Are you a pimp?"
Johnny startled.
"Since you ask, I am studying law at John Jay College, and, yes, I do dabble in 'The Life,' but I'm a player, baby. I ain't no pimp." The distinction was lost on me, making him laugh.
"Let me hip you to the game. A pimp only works with a stable of hoes. A player is an entrepreneur. A 'player' is classy."
I didn't tell Johnny that no one with class uses the word classy. I walked over to the Jag and grabbed the door handle. I knew it was stupid, but I was so lonely.
