Read Gold Hill for Free Online Page B

check out. A few minutes passed.
    “ Well?” the elderly man in
her line asked. “Were you, son?”
    “ Hello Mr. Stone,” Jeraine
said. “I didn’t see you there. How are you?”
    “ He’s fine,” the woman
behind him said. “Answer the question.”
    The people around them
stared at Jeraine. Tanesha gave them each an evil look.
    “ What’s the question?”
Jeraine asked.
    “ Were you screwing some
young thing just now?” the young woman from the line next to them
sneered.
    “ No,” Jeraine said. “I was
getting ice cream.”
    “ Uh huh,” the woman in
front of them looked him up and down before turning around in a
huff.
    “ Why were you grinning?”
Tanesha asked.
    “ Because I don’t know
anything. I had to ask Mrs. Jennings . . . ” He
pointed to the ancient woman three lines over. She waved. “She
helped me pick out something for the kids and showed me where to
get chocolate syrup and whipped cream. I haven’t been in a grocery
store since I was a kid. Miss T’s teased me about just that the
whole time we’ve been here. She thinks it’s funny.”
    “ Satisfied?” Tanesha
glared at the people around them.
    “ I’m not,” a woman from
the line to her left spoke up for the first time. “I used to
babysit Miss T for Yvonne and Rodney. Tanesha, you probably don’t
remember me but I’m Tawnie Johnson.”
    “ Vaguely,” Tanesha
nodded.
    “ And she’s right,” Mrs.
Johnson said. “I didn’t help when Miss T needed it, and I knew she
needed it, so I have no right to say anything.
But . . . ”
    “ That’s not going to stop
you,” Tanesha said.
    “ No it is not,” Mrs.
Johnson said. “I want to know if you’re going to cheat and break
her heart again.”
    Jeraine looked at the old
woman. He took in Tanesha’s sour look and the staring people around
him. Putting his hands on his hips, he looked down at the floor.
Tanesha slipped her hand onto his elbow.
    “ We knew this would
happen,” Tanesha said in a low voice.
    He looked at her then back
around at the other people.
    “ The
truth . . . ” he started.
    “ Yeah, that would be nice
for a change,” the woman in front of them said.
    “ I don’t know if I’ll
cheat again and break Miss T’s heart,” Jeraine said. “I’m an
addict. I have a problem. I can tell you that today, I woke up and
wanted only to stand next to this woman, right here, for as long as
I could. So I got up, went for a run, and, except for my excursion
to the ice cream aisle, spent the entire day at her side. Now, I
can tell you that for the last few months, I have wanted this very
thing and only this very thing. But I can’t tell you about
tomorrow.”
    “ Are you going to therapy,
son?” an elderly woman from two lines over yelled.
    “ Yes, ma’am,” Jeraine
said. “I have a personal therapist who I see at least once a week.
Miss T and I go to therapy as well so we can work on
things.”
    “ We’re on a break because
we’re doing so well,” Tanesha said.
    “ But we can always go
back,” Jeraine said.
    “ And why should we believe
you?” The woman in front of them stepped forward to set her
groceries on the black conveyer belt.
    “ You can believe what
you’d like,” Jeraine said. “But that’s my truth today.”
    “ Cheaters never change,” a
voice yelled from somewhere in the back. The heads around them
began their bobble-head impersonations.
    “ I can’t speak for
cheaters,” Jeraine said. “I can only speak for myself and this
moment. I’ve been a cheater and I’ve changed. Look at my life. A
year ago, my father wasn’t speaking to me, my wife didn’t realize
we were still married, my mother . . .
I . . . ”
    Tanesha squeezed his arm to
steady him. He smiled at her.
    “ Today, Miss T and I are
back together and building a life together. I’m spending time with
my parents. La Tonya had lunch with me yesterday. And I like it
this way. I’m not saying I’m fixed; but I’m saying I want to