“Yes.” Angela nods. “Hi, Ms. Thompson.”
“Where’re you two headed off to?”
“Shopping,” I murmur and turn toward the door.
“Where?” my mothers asks.
“We have a long list. Janine wants to do an overhaul on her wardrobe,” Angela answers.
I wince, knowing my mother is going to seize this opportunity … and she does.
“Oh my god! Finally. It’s about time you let someone talk some sense into you about those clothes. All that black and grey.” She shivers.
I take in the metallic leggings and lime green, long-sleeved top my mother is adorning, coupled with the six-inch black stilettos. The long weave she wears is styled in barrel curls that reach all of the way down to her waist.
“Would you like to come?” Angela offers.
“Yes!”
“No!”
My mother and I say at the same time. Angela gives me a look.
“You’re going to need some help with this one, Angela. She can be so stubborn when it comes to how she dresses … about anything really. You would think she’d learn to take advice from someone who knows better,” my mother begins.
Angela laughs. “My mother used to call me stubborn sometimes, too.”
I roll my eyes. I can guarantee my mother and Angela’s mother were not one in the same.
“Right? I guess it’s a mother-daughter thing. I tried giving her advice on that boy Matthew but she wouldn’t listen. And you see how that turned out, right, Janine? I told you that boy was never going to marry you. You gave him too much of what he wanted. Were always at his beck and call. Men don’t like that. Tell her, Angela. You’re married,” my mother continues.
Angela gives me a wide-eyed expression.
“Though, your husband is Asian so he might be different. Never been with an Asian man before. Well, there was that one time—”
“Janet!” I yell, feeling embarrassed.
She gives me an innocent look.
Rolling my eyes, I turn to Angela. “I’m sorry. She says whatever’s on her mind most of the time.”
“Damn right I do. Let’s go,” Janet insists, pulling on the long jacket she’s just taken off.
“You’re wearing that?” I don’t know why I ask. Of course, she has no problem going out in the middle of the day in the same clothes she wore to stay out the entire night before.
“Why not?”
Not bothering to respond, I wait for Angela to pass over the threshold of the door to close and lock it behind me. I had been so looking forward to going shopping with Angela and sprucing up my wardrobe. Now that my mother is tagging along, I’m so sure I even want to go anymore. At least, not with her in tow.
****
Emanuel
“What are you up to?” I question into the phone as I step into the kitchen which is unusually empty at the moment.
“Shopping.”
“You don’t sound to happy about it.”
