MEETING AT THE MIXER by SHADELRA (book club suggestions .TXT) 📖

Raymond looked in the mirror and straightened out his tie. "I look like a million bucks" he thought to himself. The day before he stopped by the barbershop to get a fresh haircut, and got his best suit out of the cleaners. His best friend Freddy had told him about a christian mixer that was going down that night. "I'm telling you man, you should come check it out, there's going to be some good looking spiritually clean sistas up in there." he had said. "Spiritually clean that's what i'm afraid of" raymond joked. "She might be too clean feel me?" "Whatever man, i rather have a woman alive spiritually then dead." fred replied. Raymond rubbed his chin in deep thought. "I feel you, but i have no problem getting women, i'm just tired of messing with these chickenheads." "Exactly!" fred said with excitement. "You need somebody that's mature and about something, you may find what your looking for at this mixer."Okay i'll check it out, but if they start preaching i'm out of there." Fred smiled and playfully punched raymond in the shoulder. "Man, you need the lord in your life playa." That was twenty four hours ago, and many times raymond had thought about calling fred to tell him he wasn't going. "Man i could find much better things to do on a friday night" he thought. Then again another thought entered his mind. "The myth is that church girls are freaks." With a grin on his face he decided to take a chance. It was seven o'clock and the mixer was at seven thirty. "Seven thirty? that seems like under twenty one party hours." he thought. He grabbed his keys and hopped in his ride. He pulled out of his driveway and turned on the radio. In his cd player he had some LIL WAYNE. "Damn, maybe i should listen to KIRK FRANKLIN or some gospel to put me in the right state of mind." he thought. He just turned up the volume a little bit more, besides he had no gospel in his collection. Raymond pulled up outside the church. He saw people going in the side door. They looked real conservative. "Wow, what a dull crowd." he thought to himself. He turned off his car and got himself together to go through with it. "Last chance to change my mind." he said to himself. "Aw, what the hell" realizing his words of choice. He quietly looked up and said "my bad." Just then fred pressed his face against the window. "Man, back up so i can get out." raymon said as he opened his door. "So you are you ready? excited?" fred asked with a smile. Raymond looked over at the people going in and back at his friend. "Yeah, we're really gonna tear the club up." Fred just shook his head. "My friend we are not getting any younger, it's time to grow up, we are in are early thirties now." he said. "I don't know about you, but it's time to get serious, last time i was at a club it was so many kids in there i thought i was at chucky cheese or some shit." Raymond laughed. "I'm serious, it's time for a change, it's time for something different." Raymongd gave some thought on what fred was saying. "Yeah, i feel you, but there's nothing wrong with having some fun." Fred gave a pound to raymond. "My friend this will be fun because you will be spiritually enlightened." The two friends made their way into the church.


2


As the two friends entered the basement of the church, raymond was surprised at the crowd that was down there. He had expected people older, but everybody looked around the same age he was. Everybody was mingling and getting refreshments which consisted of sandwiches, cakes, punch, and things of that nature. Raymond had a chance to scope the ladies in the room. Noone stuck out, they were nice looking and all, but none of them really caught his eye. "Most of these broads are probably stuck up." he thought. "Ray, there is somebody i would like for you to meet." said fred. They walked over to a young brother who was conversing with two women in the corner. "Pastor williams this is the friend i was telling you about." said fred gesturing to raymond. "Pastor? pastor?" ray thoght. He couldn't beleive his ears. This kid was the pastor of the church? He looked younger then him and fred combined! "Raymond this is pastor williams." introduced fred. Pastor williams was a young clean cut brother who looked like he was about fifteen. "Brother raymond it's finally nice to meet you,i have heard some good things about you, are you enjoying the mixer so far?" "Nice crowd you have here rev.. i mean pastor, but tell me where is the dj?" raymond answered. Fred gave him a sharp look as pastor williams chuckled. "Ray isn't familiar to this type of thing, it's something new for him." Raymond looked embarassed. Did he actually ask the pastor where the dj was? "That is quite all right." pastor williams said. "Brother raymond xhange is good and necessary. I had to change my life when god called on me. I am the son of a preacher, so when i hit my teenage years i ran wild brotha, i mean i was sinning all over the place to the point when i hit my twenties, god called on me and told me it was my time, yes change is good." pastor williams said almost in sermon mode. Raymond looked closely at pastor williams. He looked like he was pimping them in his day, seeing how he was talking so intimately to the young ladies, he probably still was. "Well my friends it's about time we started, raymond i hope that we will see you here more often for you are always welcome here at our church." pastor williams said. "Yeah right." raymond thought to himself. He was feeling real uncomfortable. The sooner tjhis thing was over the better. As pastor williams made his way to the podium, everybody proceeded to sit down. Pastor started off with asking everybody to bow their heads as he said a prayer. After the prayer, he thanked everybody for coming and briefly went through the itinerary for the evening which included a song by the member of the choir, a quick sermon about relationships, a roundtable discussion on the topic, and the last forty five minutes was for mingling. Pastor williams sermon on relationships was brilliant focusing on the disrespect of women, and the disintegration of the black family. When the pastor was focusing on these men that called women out their name and disrespected them, for some reason to raymond it seemed like he was looking right at him. The sweat started to pour down like rain, and he didn't want to look to either side of him for fear that someone would notice. "Do i have the devil in me?" he thought as he continued to perspire. He continued to sweat when he caught a whiff of peaches from behind his right shoulder. A beautiful hand extended a handkerchief. "I thought you might need this." said an angelic voice. He quickly took the handkerchief and said "thank you" without looking back. He wasn't trying to be rude, but he he was embarassed that somebody had noticed him sweating like a brother at a white woman's funeral. Raymond sat thru the rest of what pastor williams had to say. Fred noticed his friends uneasiness. "Take it easy, he's almost thru." he whispered. "Thank god." ray replied. Pastor williams finished things up by encouraging everybody to stay around for some food and refreshments. "Get to know your fellow christians in your community." he ended with. Almost on key, someone started playing some moderen gospel music. Everyone got up and went to get a plate or started introducing themselves to each other. Raymond pretty much had enough. Not only did he sweat all of his cologne off, he didn't see any sisters worth trying to get to know. "C,mon let's get some of this food and meet some of these people." freddie urged. "Man you go ahead, i'm about to bounce, it's been a long day." Ray answered looking at his watch. Freddie looked dissapointed. "Okay man i realize this isn't your thing." he said. "Hold on a minute, let me grab a plate and i'll walk you out." As freddie walked over to the food, raymond did one last scan of the room to see if he had missed any ladies he might want to talk too. "Nah, most of these chicks look uppity" he thought. Just then someone caught his attention out the corner of his eye. She was hot, he could feel the heat coming off of her. Her face was that of an angel, there was a glow to it. Even though she was dressed conservative, he could still see her figure was tight. "Whoa! she's a stallion" he thought to himself. That stallion was making her way across the room toward him. "So you finally dried out" she said with a smile on her face. "Dried out?" ray looked dumbfounded. He then realized that she was the one who handed him the handkerchief. He could smell that peachy scent again. "Oh! ok you're the one who gave me the handkerchief, thank you i was drenched." "No problem, it must have been a long time since you stepped in a church" she replied. "Why you say that?" he asked. "You were sweating all your sins out!" Raymond felt more relaxed when she made light of it. This woman had a warm personality to her. Raymond extended his hand. "Hi, i'm raymond." "Hi, i'm cherish" "Cherish. if she was mine, i damn sure would cherish her" he thought. "So have you been to this church before?" Cherish looked around the room. "No, a girlfriend of mine told me about it. Lately i've felt the need to cleanse my soul." "Yeah, i feel you" ray answered. He couldn't help to stare into her eyes. They were green and they brought out the rest of her facial features. Cherish noticed him staring in her eyes. "Yes the're mine, no contacts" she said. "Yours, or fake i think they and you are beautiful." Cherish's cheeks started to blush. "Thank you." Freddie was walking back with two plates when he saw raymond with cherish. "Whoa! can't leave that brotha alone for a minute!" he thought to himself. "Hey ray, what's up?" he said trying to get his friend's attention. Raymond was so into cherish, he wouldn't have noticed the