“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Nydia. As you said,it’s only dinner.”
“Isn’t that how a lot of relationships begin?”
Jasmine retrieved the phone “Forget it. Remember, Raymond and I had a long-distance relationship when he lived in the Philippines, and you know how that turned out. Even though I’d go back there several times a year I never really got to know him that well.”
“Well, Ms. Washington, Cameron is only a couple of hours away. I think it’s time to let a man wine and dine you, especially after what that horse’s ass of an ex did to you.”
Jasmine took a sip of wine. “You’re right.”
It had been more than two years since her divorce and over time she had turned down a number of requests from men who appeared interested in her. There were a few in the building where she owned a one-bedroom unit, and once the single men at the social services agency where she had worked three days a week uncovered her marital status they zeroed in on her like bees to a flower. She had a hard-and-fast rule not to go out with anyone whom she lived close to or worked with because she did not want to run into them if things did not work out. It had taken her a while to learn to enjoy coming home and being alone where she didn’t have to encounter hostile stares or exchange acerbic words with the man she had come to despise as much as she had loved.
“Were you working for the bank when we had the holiday party at Cipriani?” Jasmine asked Nydia.
“How can I forget it,” Nydia said, grinning. “I’d been hired a couple of months before and Wakefield Hamilton was my first serious job after passing the CPA exam. I couldn’t believe it when the so-called buttoned-up white-collar executives showed their natural asses after they’d had a few too many drinks.”
Jasmine nodded in agreement. “What really shocked me was Victoria Samuels accusing Harry Trillin of being a liar because he’d promised her he was going to leave his wife, but that was before Harry had gotten his wife pregnant for the third time.”
Nydia appeared deep in thought. “I vaguely remember her.”
“She worked in the securities division. The next day one of the senior vice-presidents came to HR and asked for her file. Regrettably for her several of her evaluations were less than favorable. That gave them the excuse they needed to let her go, plus she had broken the rule against personal fraternizing on the premises.”
“That’s some bullshit!” Nydia drawled. “They fire her and keep the cheating SOB because the proverbial old boys’ club requirement is that you must have a particular appendage between your legs.”
Jasmine tried to suppress a giggle, but couldn’t control her outburst of laughter. She could always count on Nydia to make her laugh. There was something so carefree about the brilliant accountant she found infectious. Even that awful day when they’d been standing on the sidewalk before ten in the morning with their banker boxes, Nydia had been the one to talk about needing a drink. That was when Hannah invited them to come to her apartment for omelets, mimosas, and Bellinis. What began as an impromptu gathering at their coworker’s apartment had segued into an unlikely friendship among four women from very different backgrounds, which led to new beginnings where their futures were inexorably linked.
She had talked to her parents about relocating to New Orleans to start over, and they had encouraged her to follow her dream to become an innkeeper, but Jasmine, an only child, had expressed her concern at living more than thirteen hundred miles away from her retired parents. Her mother was recently diagnosed with hypertension and had to carefully monitor her diet and exercise to avoid taking medication.
Their conversation moved from relationships and workplace antics to her temporary position at one of the city’s social services agencies focusing on transitioning women and children from homeless shelters to permanent housing—a position that had ended last Friday. She had been hired for six months, and was paid from a discretionary budget to alleviate the backlog of cases caused by a shortage of caseworkers. It had taken Jasmine less than a month to grasp the frustration caused by the roadblocks and bureaucratic red tape involved in securing permanent housing for mothers and their children.
“What is it with the month of May?” she asked Nydia.
“What’s wrong with May?”
Jasmine touched the napkin to the corners of her mouth before placing it beside her plate. “Last May we were let go by the bank, and now I’m unemployed again.”
Nydia lifted her shoulders under a tee stamped with a NEWYORKYANKEESlogo. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
Resting her elbow on the table, Jasmine cupped her chin in the heel of her hand. “If my cousin hadn’t talked about coming down to visit for a week, I would seriously consider flying down to New Orleans to hang out before Tonya’s wedding.”
“Why go now when we’ve made plans to go down together for her wedding?”
Jasmine exhaled an audible sigh. “I said that because I’m feeling restless and useless, and that’s the reason I signed on with the social services agency as a per-diem worker. I had watched so many HGTV, DIY, and house flip episodes that I could repeat them verbatim.”
“That’s why you should take Hannah up on her offer to assist her managing the inn.”
“I would in a heartbeat, but I don’t want to leave my parents.”
Nydia waved her hand. “Your parents aren’t so old they need someone to look in on them every day.”
Jasmine nodded. “Daddy’s sixty-eight and Mom is sixty-five so they’re really not elderly. Nowadays people are working well into their seventies.”
“Come on,mija. They’re Baby Boomers who’re probably still knocking boots like my folks. Papi is sixty-one and Mami fifty-six and they’ve warned me and my brother never to come over before calling because they may be indisposed. And when I asked my father what he meant byindisposed,he said now that his kids are out of the house he and wife enjoy walking around butt naked and what he likes most is that he doesn’t have to put his hand over his wife’s mouth whenever they make love. Mami is a screamer,” she added, smiling.
Jasmine’s jaw dropped. “He really said that?”
“Yeah.” Nydia’s eyes were sparkling with amusement. “My mother was sixteen when she met my father who’d just graduated the police academy. Her father said he was too old for her, so he promisedabuelothat he wouldn’t date her until she graduated high school.”
“Did he keep his promise?”
