“Do you remember why I asked you to do this?”
As I studied the seriousness in her face, I put my arm down and my eyes started stinging. “Yeah.”
“Honoring who you were and acknowledging who you are… it informs who you’re going to be. On the other side of this list is your fire.”
I nodded, unable to speak.
“You go back home in three weeks,” she reminded me gently. “You go back to work a few days after that. I want us to focus on your list. I want to focus on you for the rest of your time here.”
“And I want to focus onyou…”—I swallowed around the lump in my throat—“for the rest of your time here.”
The next day we picked up her prints from the photographer. She’d insisted that we couldn’t check out the digital copies until we saw the prints first.
“Lawd have mercy,” my aunt cried when she saw them.
I literally gasped.
She’d looked good on the day of. She’d looked beautiful and regal. But in the photos, he captured all of that and then took it to the next level.
“You look incredible,” I gushed.
“I do,” she agreed without taking her eyes off the images. “I should’ve done this a long time ago. I could’ve put these on the internet and had these photos all over my house.”
I laughed. “You still can.”
“And I will.”
We joked the entire way back to her house.
“I think I’m going to lie down for a bit. I’m tired,” Aunt Addy said.
“Okay.” I pushed her wheelchair down the hallway. “Feeling okay?”
“Just tired.”
“Do you need me to call Monica? She should be here in an hour.”
“No, no. I just need to rest. It’s been a busy week.” I watched her move to the bed. “But I’d like for you to head down to the rec center and sign up for swim lessons.”
“Aunt Addy…”
“You said you wanted to do whatever I wanted to do. And I told you that I want to make sure you’re tackling your list.” She pointed at me. “Swim lessons.”
“But I don’t want to—”
“Would you really deny me?”
“Fine,” I sighed loudly. “I’ll go sign up.”
She smirked. “Good.”
My phone vibrated and I checked it. Seeing an email alert from Lamar curled my lips upward. When I glanced back up, my aunt gave me a knowing look.
“What?” I laughed awkwardly.
“I didn’t say a word,” she said in a singsong tone. “We’ll talk when I wake up.”
I left the room so she would stop analyzing me. My phone vibrated again just as I sat on the couch. It was a text. And as soon as I saw who it was from, my heart skipped a beat.
