“I’m not sure. They’re giving me painkillers and an antibiotic through an IV to bring down my elevated white blood cells. If you want to get high, then check into a hospital because they have the best shit.”
“You’re shameless, chica! I leave you alone for a couple of weeks and you fall apart on me and brag about getting high on painkillers.”
“Well, it’s true. Sorry,mija,about missing the wedding. You know I wanted to see Tonya marry her fine-ass Papi. By the way, how’s your Daddy?”
“He’s good.”
“Just good,mija?”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“He’s with you?”
“Yes.”
“I think my painkiller is kicking in right about now. Tell Tonya and Hannah I miss them, and once I’m medically cleared to travel I’m coming down.”
“I’m coming back to New York to see my parents before they sell the house, so I’ll stop in and see you.”
“Later,mija.”
“Later, chica. Feel better.” She looked up at Cameron staring down at her. It was apparent he’d heard her mentioning getting high. “My friend Nydia can’t come for the wedding because she’s recuperating from a ruptured appendix.”
He grimaced. “That’s no picnic. I gather from your end of the conversation that she’s quite a character.”
“She’s the best, Cameron. She’s a tell-it-like-it-is, in-your-face kind of friend. What I love about her is she always keeps it real. What you see is what you get.”
Cameron laced their fingers together. “She sounds like someone else I know.”
Jasmine gave him a sidelong glance. “I know you’re not talking about me. Unlike Nydia, I do have a filter. And you’re a fine one to talk. The first time we had dinner at Cipriani you were up front when you told me you always used protection when you slept with a woman. At the time I thought it was too much information for a first date, so I let it slide.”
“And you were also very candid when you say you never wanted to get married again.”
“It’s true,” Jasmine said.
“Does that mean you’ll never marry me?”
“Yes, because you were very candid when you said you didn’t want to get married.”
“That because of what I’d witnessed seeing my parents go at each other.”
“What did they fight about?” Jasmine asked. Cameron stopped at his car, and opened the door for her to get in.
“Everything,” he admitted after he got in and sat beside her. “My mother went to college to become an actress. The acting bug hit her for the first time when she was in high school and got the starring role as Sandy inGrease. She could act, sing, and dance. She met my father in her senior year and were married three months after they graduated. Mom wanted to wait a few years before starting a family because she’d auditioned for a part in a local theater and was waiting for a call back. She didn’t get the part because she later found out that Dad promised the theater director that he would finance one of his productions, but only if his wife didn’t work for him. That was the beginning of a verbal war lasting thirty-five years.”
“But didn’t you realize when you went to your friend’s homes that their parents didn’t act like yours?”
“No, because I didn’t have many friends. Whenever someone wanted to come to my house, I made excuses, telling them I wasn’t allowed to have company because I was grounded for some fake infractions. After a while the kids stopped asking and our family secret was safe.”
Jasmine reached over the gearshift and held his hand. “What about your brothers and sister?”
“It didn’t seem to bother them, but as the eldest I saw them at their worse. It was like watching Martha and George go at each other inWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”
“It really sounds like they had a love-hate relationship.”
“No, babe. It was a love-resentment relationship. My mother never forgave my father for short-circuiting her career. I think he was afraid she wanted to become a movie actress and he would lose her. But my mother loved the stage and live theater.”
“Did you ever see her perform?” Jasmine asked.
