Tonya ran a finger down the stem of her wineglass. “I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but Wakefield Hamilton did me a favor letting me go.”
“If they hadn’t let you go, would you have commuted to New Jersey?” Hannah asked.
“I doubt it. I’d have to be on the train at four in the morning to make it down to Trenton in time to set up the kitchen for a breakfast meeting.”
“Everything worked out for you,” Nydia said, “because you’ll open your own restaurant with yourpapi.” Everyone laughed at her description of Gage. Suddenly, she sobered. “I don’t know about the other employees, but it appeared as if being downsized has worked well for you guys.” Three pairs of eyes were fixed on Nydia as a swollen silence followed her statement. “What’s the matter?”
“Why aren’t you going to include yourself in that equation?” Tonya questioned. “And please don’t tell me you’re still messing with that bum who’s looking for his big break?”
Nydia’s eyes burned with amber fire as she struggled to control her rising temper. “Why can’t you believe me when I say I’m through with Danny?”
Jasmine met her eyes. “You may be through with him, but I’m willing to bet that he’s not through with you.”
Nydia glared at Jasmine. She regretted telling her about Danny seeking out her parents to ask about her whereabouts after she’d sublet Tonya’s apartment. “It doesn’t matter, because I’d given him too many chances to get his act together. And even if he did secure a record deal, I still wouldn’t go back with him. I’ve learned a lot of things about myself since I’m no longer involved with Danny. I may have been in love with him, but I never allowed my heart to overrule my head. And more importantly, I’m at a stage in my life where I believe I don’t need a man to complete me.”
“How old are you now?” Hannah asked.
“Thirty-three.”
“Don’t you want to marry and have kids?”
Nydia’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “I still have a few years before my biological clock starts winding down.”
“Just don’t wait as long as I did,” Jasmine hinted with a broad grin.
Tonya turned to look at Jasmine. “Didn’t you tell me you and Cameron didn’t plan for this baby?”
Jasmine nodded. “We even used a condom.”
“Daddy must have nuclear-powered sperm to penetrate latex,” Nydia stated, deadpan.
Pinpoints of color dotted Jasmine’s gold-brown complexion at the same time Hannah and Tonya burst into laughter. Seconds later, Nydia joined them; she was laughing so hard at Jasmine’s shocked expression that her side hurt.
She pointed to Hannah. “Don’t laugh, Hannah, because you may be the next one to announce that she’s in the family way.”
Hannah blotted the tears running down her cheeks. “That’s not going to happen, because I’m finished with menopause, and St. John had a vasectomy when he was still married to his first wife.” She exhaled an audible breath. “Remember when I told you that St. John had admitted to cheating on his wife.”
“Yes. What happened?” Tonya asked.
Nydia’s shocked expression mirrored Jasmine and Tonya’s, her mouth gaping, as she intently listened to Hannah explain that St. John’s first wife had been sexually abused as a child by her uncle, who’d gotten her pregnant. She hadn’t told her aunt that her uncle was the father of her unborn child because he’d threatened to kill her if she revealed their secret liaisons. Her aunt arranged for her to undergo an abortion, and the trauma had scarred her for life so she would not permit her husband to make love to her.
Tonya’s eyes were brimming with unshed tears. “How long were they married?”
Hannah bit down on her lip. “More than thirty years.” She ignored the gasps coming from the others in the room. “It wasn’t until Lorna filed for divorce that she was able to tell St. John about her uncle’s abuse. She claimed she was afraid to say anything because she feared what St. John would do to him.”
Jasmine shook her head. “So, instead of trusting her husband to protect her from the pedophile, she denied him her body for three decades, which forced him to become an adulterer.”
“That’s a damn shame,” Tonya whispered. “If I found out that some man had abused my daughter I would’ve sharpened one of my chef knives, cut off his dick, and then cauterized it with a Firestarter and see how long he could piss out of a nub.”
“Whoa!”
“Damn!”
“No, you didn’t say that!”
Jasmine, Hannah, and Nydia had all spoken at the same time. “Why are y’all looking at me like that?” Tonya asked. “I only said what you’d be thinking if you had a daughter.”
The mood lifted when Nydia mentioned Tonya’s daughter’s surprise engagement. Samara had come to her mother’s wedding with her fiancé, and wearing a diamond engagement ring. The recent Spelman College graduate had not told her mother that she had been dating a student from Morehouse School of Medicine, who’d also graduated that spring. Samara, who was pursuing graduate studies, had recently moved into her fiancé’s parents’ guesthouse until she could rent an apartment.
