Lookin' For Luv by Carl Weber Page B

doing! he thought, opening his eyes. Oh, man, times are really bad when you start dreaming about your friend’s woman.
    Determined to change his luck and get some play, he picked up the phone and dialed 1-900-BLACK-LUV He contemplated leaving a sincere message to attract a serious woman but couldn’t bear to expose his emotions that way. He had spent so many years as a player and couldn’t change easily, so he made his message short and to the point.
    “What’s up? My name is Tyrone. I’m a six-foot-three, dark-skinned brother. I’m lookin’ for a woman who wants to put all the BS aside and have great sex. You must be drug and disease free. Serious inquires only. Please leave a message at Box twenty-nine eighty-eight ”

6
     
    ANTOINE
     
    Antoine sat in his recliner, smoking a nineteenth-century curved pipe as he read The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni. Slowly drawing on the strawberry tobacco, he allowed himself to relax for the first time in weeks. As he removed his glasses to rub his tired eyes, his leisure was interrupted by a knock on the door. Taking a long drag from his pipe, Antoine set it down and stood to answer the door.
    “Hi, Antoine.” Keisha seemed excited and quite drunk.
    “How are you, Keisha?” He didn’t move to invite her in.
    “I’m fine,” she slurred as she slid past him into the apartment. “Mmm, what’s that smell? Incense? I just love incense.”
    “No, it’s the strawberry tobacco from my pipe.”
    “I didn’t know you smoked,” she said as she took a book from the coffee table. “ Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni. I read this. This is good, but you should read Langston Hughes, Shakespeare in Harlem.”
    Antoine gave no response but stared at Keisha, amazed at how rude she could be. He also assumed she was lying about the book, and the doubt was evident on his face.
    “Bet you didn’t know I love poetry, did you?”
    “Keisha, did you come by here for any particular reason? I’m about to go to bed.”
    “Go to bed! It’s only nine o‘clock! Why you goin’ to bed so early?” She replaced the book and approached him.
    “If it’s any of your business, I have a meeting with the editor of my book tomorrow morning”
    “Oh, well, I just came by to see if you wanted that drink,” she said sadly. “But if you’re going to bed, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Antoine breathed a sigh of relief as she left. Had it been any other woman with Keisha’s looks and a different personality, he would have been happy to invite her in for a drink. But he couldn’t seem to get past her aggressiveness to appreciate her. In his estimation there wasn’t anything romantic about a woman so abrasive and straightforward. He preferred his women more refined. Yawning loudly, he put out his pipe, turned out the light, and headed for the bedroom.
    Looking at his empty bed, he realized he was pretty lonely. It would have been nice to have someone to cuddle up to in that bed. As his thoughts wandered to the lack of women in his life, it crossed his mind that he had left his poetry on the 900 number line, and he wondered if anyone had responded. He tried to convince himself he was calling only to check for critiques of his work. But as he dialed the phone, he began to fantasize about a beautiful woman falling in love with his poetry and then with him. The first message he heard was as far from that fantasy as could be.
    “Hi, my name is Tonya,” a soft, sweet voice said, “and I wanted to thank you for your poem. After I heard it, I wrote it down and sent it to the boy I just broke up with. Now we’re back together, and he’s already promised to take me to the homecoming dance at my high school. Thanks again, and I hope you become real famous somedavy.”
    Although it held no prospect of love for himself, Antoine was flattered. “Young lady, you made my day,” he said aloud. “I just hope your parents still let you go to that dance when they get these 900-number calls on their