Needy Little Things(49)

I toss up my hands, happy to let people wonder if I’m putting on some kind of gimmicky magic show. “Well, sir, I—” The logo on his T-shirt catches my eye. I point at it. “You’ve been to Shug Mama’s Diner?”

He looks down at his chest. “Sho have. Best peach cobbler in the state of Georgia.”

“So you’ve been to Chefly?”

“Been there? I grew up there. And there’s only one Shug Mama’s.” He sits down on the bench and removes his shoes.

“Watch out!” I warn before he places his Sprite drenched socks on top of Deja’s flyers.

He drops the socks on the ground and points at the stack. “I know her.”

“What?” Jude asks, suddenly paying attention.

The man picks up a flyer. “Well, I don’t know her, but I seen her.”

“Seen her where? When?” I ask.

“In Chefly, actually! Bout two, three years ago. Think she was living over by the high school with her parents.”

I deflate. Deja definitely never lived in Chefly and even if she had, sightings from years ago are useless.

“Hey, you got anything else for me in that bag, Bag Lady?”

“No, sorry.” I fulfill the needs of a few people who witnessed the sock thing. Some of them pout when nothing immediately happens, but tip anyway, deciding that eye drops, plastic baggies, and a phone case are worth a little something.

“You sure about that, Bag Lady?” the man from Chefly asks when I finish. “You ain’t got something else for me?”

“She said no,” Jude answers firmly.

The man backs away, hands raised, and leaves his dirty socks on the ground.

Two hours later, I’ve passed out fifty-two Deja flyers, fulfilled thirty-two needs, and made ninety-six dollars. Fifty of which came from one person. I’ll have to use a chunk of my earnings to restock Santa Bag, but even considering that, I made more money than I would have for the same time spent behind the counter at Sweet Pea’s. I hand Jude a twenty. “Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

He studies the bill. “I feel like you paid me for hanging out with you.”

I hold out my hand. “I mean, if you don’t want it…”

He smirks and pushes the cash into his pocket. “Hey, I’ll be taking advantage of this until you finally wise up.” He stops in front of one of Deja’s posters and tries to stick the sagging top-left corner back to the wall. “You have some tape?”

It’s in my hand before he even turns around. We fix the sign, but the fact that we needed to shifts the mood.

“Hey, I know this might be a big ask, but…” Jude trails off, chewing his bottom lip. “Remember my aunt? The one I was telling you about last night? I was hoping we could stop over there with Santa Bag and maybe you could do your thing for her.”

I laugh in disbelief. “Your aunt?”

“Yeah. She’s been kind of down on her luck. Maybe a little mystical intervention would help her out.”

I stare at Deja’s sign, the corner of which has come untacked again. I use my fist to press it back against the wall. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now, Jude? Your aunt?”

His chin drops toward his chest and I realize I’m doing to him what Malcolm did to me. Insulting him by implying there’s only room in his head to care about one thing. Yesterday, I knew what it was to be in Jude’s shoes right now. But today, I understand Malcolm’s point of view a little better. When you’re consumed by one thing, it’s painful to hear someone else talk about anything else with any kind of conviction. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

He gives me a wary, hopeful grin and grasps my hand. “It’d mean a lot, Sariyah. You can keep my cut from today. I’ll even throw in an extra twenty.”

I sort of hate that he’s asking this of me, but who am I to pass up some extra cash right now? And who am I to help strangers, but not my friends? “Sure. But let’s keep it low-key. It’s going to be pretty freaking awkward if your aunt goes all gnatty on me. And that’s if I even pick up on anything. No guarantee, you know. And no guarantee it’ll be the life-changing thing you’re thinking it will be if I do. You saw that guy use the T-shirt I gave him to wipe dog poop off his shoe.”

He smiles. “How do you know he didn’t get on the train and meet the love of his life right after that?”

“Jude, who is meeting the love of their life on MARTA?”

“Hey, you never know.”

I force all signs of amusement from my face. “I can’t do this if you have some unrealistic expectations. I’m not a miracle worker.”

“Sometimes you are.”

“Jude, seriously.”

“I know.” He meets my eyes. “It’s been a hell of a week, Ri. And I know it’s had you questioning things about yourself. But I hope the fact that I’m asking this of you shows you what I think.” He nudges my shoulder. “Good things. Only good things.”

I turn away, hiding my smile. “Fine. When?”

“Um, right now? It’s her birthday and she’s having a get-together at her place.”

“Are there going to be a bunch of people there?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s a birthday party, but you can ignore everyone but her. We’ll be in and out in like five minutes.”