She laughs in a way I haven’t heard in a few days. I look over my shoulder and find her bent over the counter, with her shoulders jumping up and down.
The last time she laughed like that was when Ace dropped me off after a morning of lovemaking on his balcony and sharing bear claws in a Shipley’s parking lot. He barreled through our front door and took off to Mama’s bedroom like a bat out of hell, because he said he missed her.
I turn back to the glass, smiling at the thought of his lips being wrapped around it.
Mama hums while shuffling to the refrigerator. The melody of “Anytime, Any Place” makes a shiver crawl up my spine and I hear Ace’s laugh.
“So, what you and Ason had going on the other night?”
The glass slips from my fingers under the water. “What you talking about?”
I squeeze the dishrag like I plan to squeeze Marcus’ head if he told Mama my business.
“You know I ain’t never been the sharpest tool in the shed, but I don’t think you spent the night with Chelsea like Marcus said nor do I believe Ace picked you up from her dorm the other morning, but what do I know? I’m just an old sick girl that’s coming out of a two-day funk.”
I shift from foot to foot like she can tell my virginal ass isn’t virginal anymore. “That’s definitely where I was and Acedefinitelypicked me up after talking beacoup crap because of how early it was.”
“Like all that crap he talked when he told me you weren’t drunk after that party last weekend?”
“Mama...”
“Lourdes...”
She lets out another “hmmm” and shuffles across the kitchen.
I can’t turn around to look at her because I feel like I’m twelve again trying to explain to her I woke up with blood in my panties.
“Did you use a condom?” she asks.
“Mama!”
“What? Ain’t nobody shocked ’bout this but you.”
“I—I don’t know what you talking about,” I stutter, ignoring the tingling on my thighs where his fingers were.
“Don’t get amnesia now. I figured he’d be calling for you anyway.”
“And how you figure that?”
“The first birthday is always the hardest. Glad I slept through it.”
There’s a lot in that one statement she unloads in the middle of our kitchen. I feel it in my chest, especially after the secrets Ace whispered into my ear the night we made love. I still hadn’t pieced it all together though.
I turn around, swiping my hands down the length of my jeans. “He cried.”
“That’s what real men do,” she replies, pulling a chair back from the dining table and easing into it. “I’d be worried if he didn’t.”
I lean against the counter, staring at my pink toes.
The image of his wet red face is stuck in my brain and there’s another grainy one of him climbing over the ledge of a boat. I wish it was clearer.
“His daddy called while I was there.”
“So youwaswith him, you lil’ liar.”
She skirts around my mention of Coach Williams like he wanted to do to our names that day on the phone. It’s like they were both dancing around each other even though they had so much in common and so many people they loved standing between them.
I smack my lips. “Mama...”
