Lesha sighed dramatically. “Baby…I’m fifty-two with arthritic knees. I ain’t sleeping on no couch, and that little guest house full of Zaire’s junk. He’s too clean for me and I’m not trying to hear his mouth every morning.”
She said every morning like she planned on staying longer than a day or two.
Meadow cracked up. “Lesha!”
“I said what I said.”
She tossed Meadow a dish towel. “Now hurry up before your man come in here trying to take you back. That boy always hated to share.”
After they finished cleaning the kitchen, Lesha wiped her hands on a towel and stretched her back with a dramatic groan.
“Oohh, these knees,” she murmured. “I’m too fine to be achin’ like this.”
Meadow snickered. “You sure you don’t want the guest house? It’s quiet in there.”
“Quiet?” Lesha scoffed. “Baby, I’m a city woman, quiet feels like death and I’m not sleepin’ in nobody’s shed…no offense. Please show me my room.”
“None taken.”
Meadow led her down the hall, heart warm from the easy comfort between them. She pushed her bedroom door open and stepped aside so Lesha could enter.
Lesha walked in and stopped so fast her purse almost slid off her shoulder.
Her eyes widened.
She blinked twice…then slowly looked at Meadow. “Baby…”
Meadow froze. “What?”
Lesha pointed one manicured finger in horror. “Is that astripper polein the middle of this sweet, innocent country bedroom?”
Meadow slapped her forehead. “Lord-”
Lesha stepped closer to it, circling the pole like she was inspecting a crime scene.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “This not no cheap pole either. This sturdy. Whoever put this up got upper-body strength.”
Meadow covered her face. “It’s for exercising!”
“Exercise?” Lesha turned around dramatically. “This? This right here?”
She slapped the pole lightly. It didn’t budge. “Baby, this pole got a retirement plan. Don’t you lie to me.”
Meadow’s voice cracked from laughing. “Lesha, please-”
“No, no, no,” Lesha shook her finger. “You gon’ stand here and explain to me why my soon-to-be daughter-in-law got a Magic City starter kit in her room.”
“Oh, God!”
“I said what I said.”
Meadow tried to breathe. “I…listen - Ray bought it for me.”
Lesha’s eyes got bigger. “Ray? Your Daddy?!”
Meadow wheezed. “It was for fitness!”
Lesha stared at her for a long beat…
