Prologue
Janelle
Chapter One
Janelle
Months Later
“And you’re sure you have everything you need? Passport? Phone charger? Deodorant?”
I roll my eyes, thankful my mom can’t see me through the phone, as I shove another book into my suitcase. Without fail, my mom always calls me to run through a checklist whenever I go on a trip. I could remind her that at my big age of thirty I’m capable of packing my own bag, but what would be the point? I’m going to get the list regardless, it can either be with attitude or not.
I choose not.
“Yeah, Ma, I got everything. Double and triple checked.”
“Okay, what time you headed to the airport?”
“Evie should be here in about twenty minutes.”
“Good, good. And you’re sure you’re okay to go on this trip, sweetie? I swear, I don’t know what your sister was thinking, tacking on an extra week when this is already uncomfortable for you.”
There it is. The reason why I can’t wait for this wedding to be over is not the fact that the bride is my sister and the groom is my ex-boyfriend. It’s the fact that everyone keeps bringing it up with pitying glances like I’m some sad sack hung up on the guy.
Fun fact: I was over Arnold Hightower before we even broke up.
We just weren’t a match. It took a year of us being together for me to finally see that, but once I did, he agreed, and we went our separate ways. No fanfare. No hard feelings. No nothing.
Yes, when he popped back into my life six months later on the arm of my older sister, I was surprised. Who the fuck wouldn’t be? But that’s all it was, shock. I knew they were a much better fit than Arnold and I ever were the minute I saw them together. Hell, I was the one who comforted Ri when she started panicking that they were moving too fast due to Arnold proposing after three months. I was the one who convinced her not to break things off, and yet somewhere along the way, everyone deluded themselves into thinking that I’m some heartbroken woman scorned that’s barely holding on to my sanity.
The shit is ridiculous.
“Mom, I’m good. An extra week in Tulum is exactly what I need right now.” Beautiful weather, beaches, and a private pool? I will be living my best life for the next week until the wedding madness begins.
“You’re so brave, baby.”
Lawd. I need to get off this call.
“Yeah, thanks, Ma. Let me go so I’m ready for Evie.”
She lets me hang up without too much fuss and I release the deepest of breaths. The trip hasn’t even started yet and I’m already exhausted.
From my bedroom upstairs, I hear my front door open and Evie’s loud ass walk through.
“What’s up, biiiitch?” she yells.
I walk down the stairs to find one of my best friends, Evie, dressed in jean shorts and a white T-shirt that does nothing to hide her bright pink bra underneath, helping herself to a sparkling water out of my fridge.
“Why is it that you’re so damn loud every time you step into my shit?”
Whereas Amerie went to fashion school in Georgia and our other best friend, Dani, moved to New York to pursue modeling, Evie and I stayed together. Both of us went to Howard University for undergrad and we both came back home to Baltimore after so I could go to medical school at Johns Hopkins and so she could get her graphic design career started. We stopped being roommates during my last year of residency, but we’ve always had keys to each other’s places and she always lets herself into my place in the loudest of ways.
She shakes her head at me. “You may have forgotten ‘The Honey Incident,’ but I haven’t.”
“What the fuck is the…oh my God.”
“God is who I was praying would burn that shit from my retinas and memory but no such luck.”
