Dirty Old Men [And Other Stories] (Zane Presents) Read Online Free PDF

drag a good man to the altar and plan on having some. But Clarence was not fast to jump at that idea either.
    So he responded, “You know what, you can ah, call me back when you feel like going out again as a regular woman and not as a momma.”
    “Well, I
am
a momma, Clarence. That’s what it is,” she refuted. “I can’t make
believe.
So any man who can’t understand that, well…”
    Clarence didn’t waste any more time with her. He said, “Okay, well… good luck with that.” And when he hung up, it only pushed him closer to the college girl. He was tired of all the extra baggage of older women.

    By that second week, Brenda had finally called Clarence back.
    She explained, “I’m sorry I haven’t called you back earlier, but I’ve been so busy with school and my job and everything that I ran out of time.”
    Clarence didn’t care. He was overjoyed to hear from her again.
    “Oh, believe me, I understand. That’s what you’re down here to do, take care of business. But I’m glad you got back to me. How is that car of yours doing?” he asked.
    “As a matter of fact, somebody hit me last night while my car was parked on campus. Ain’t that some shit? And my insurance deductible is five hundred dollars.”
    Clarence was sorry he had asked. But he damn sure wasn’t bailing her out of that one. She still owed him on his first loan. And now that money seemed in jeopardy.
    “Well, let me ask you a question, Brenda. Does somebody have a voodoo doll on this car of yours or what?” he joked.
    That caught her off guard and made her laugh. She said, “I know, right? And just when I was starting to get back on my feet and catch up on my bills.”
    Clarence told her, “Well, it sounds like you’re gonna have to ride around with that thing looking ugly for awhile. You can still drive it, right?”
    “Yeah, I can still drive it…a little,” she answered.
    It sounded like a set-up. Clarence assumed that she wanted him to ask her what she meant by “a little” so that she could go into a more detailed sob story. So he began to smile at it all.
    Okay, here comes the pitch,
he mused. “A
little?
Well, can you still drive the thing or what?”
    “Well, whoever hit me, they pushed my back bumper into the left side wheel, you know, on the driver’s side. So now like, the bumper is rubbing up against my back wheel. Ain’t that crazy? I can only drive like, thirty miles an hour now. And it’s so embarrassing. Everybody on campus was looking at me like I was crazy. I can’t keep driving around like that. I have to get this thing fixed.”
    Clarence shook his head with his cell phone in hand and grinned.
She’s not getting me with this shit,
he convinced himself.
    “Well, what it sounds like you need someone to do is to pull the bumper back away from the wheel. But you don’t have to get the whole thing fixed. You’re still young. This is only a starter car.”
    “No it’s not, I
love
my car. I had a starter car two years ago,” she argued. “And I’m not going back to that.”
    Clarence heard her out and went silent over the line. He had said all he planned to say about it. The rest was up to her.
    She said, “So, I don’t plan on asking you to help me out again, but I guess it’ll take me a little longer to pay you back now.”
    Clarence figured he could kiss that money good-bye. At the rate she was going, she wouldn’t see an extra six hundred dollars unless Santa Claus existed, or she lucked up and hit the damn lottery.
    He asked, “Well, do you have any student loans or anything that you might be able to use?”
    “Yeah, but I used all of them already. Remember, I’m in my senior year now.”
    Clarence remembered that she was a marketing major. “Do you have any good leads for a job, as soon as you graduate?” He was already planning to wait long-term for Brenda to turn things around for herself. It was what all college students had to do, dig themselves out of a hole. His own daughter