“Is he cheating again?” she asks more bluntly than usual. “Because you know my motto about cheaters. You said you could deal with the possibility of infidelity again when you said yes to his proposal afterward.”
A hunk of mashed potatoes almost hurls up my throat, but I swallow it back down with a grimace. Oddly enough, I think AJ’sside chick was right about being the one with the most sense out of the two of us when she subbed me on Twitter once.
“No,” I choke out. “He’s not cheating again. I just can’t come visit?”
“Not in this condition you can’t.” Her eyes brush my broken fingernails then stop on my wild curls that I stopped bothering to swirl into a bun while cleaning my last toilet.
“You sure you called AJ since you’ve been here?” she asks, squinting.
“Yes.”
“And what did he say about this?”
“About what?”
“This…this…”
She doesn’t even know what to call it, and I don’t either. Me and Yesenia decided there’s not a label that exists that can encompass all we’ve been through in the name of “love.”
Finally, she gives up on searching for the right words and points at me. “Something’s going on, but I ain’t gonna force it out of you. Anytime I tried to do that with your mama…”
She blows out a breath, shaking her head.
It’s clear neither AJ nor Blake has called her or Uncle Kenny. He’s been radio silent, and I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. He’s never been this quiet.
“I think you should go to Terrica’s tomorrow. I’ll drop you off,” she says.
“No…I need to go take care of what I missed at Rich’s. I did it. I need to fix it. And you said you’ve been crazy busy. So let me help out.”
“Kenny ain’t gon’ let me send you over there twice. Once was enough. I’ll go take care of it,” she replies.
I toss my hands up. “I don’t need y’all’s permission to go to somebody’s house.”
And I just need to feel in control ofsomethingagain.
Plus, I need that do-over with Rich. I need to practice all the boundary-setting with men that Yessenia said she was learning to do this time in therapy. I’ve been fucked over enough, I don’t need another man barging into my life trying to lord over it with lies and manipulation all because I accidentally broke something of his. I have to learn how to put my foot down again.
Aunt Faye puffs her cheeks out. “You don’t need our permission, but it’s the principle. Kennyreallydoesn’t know Rich.”
“But you do,” I add slowly. “You said yourself that his parents were your classmates and that he’s a …a respectable man.”
I study her, but suddenly she’s perfected the art of the poker face.
“I’ll fix what I messed up, then catch an Uber to Terrica’s after. I’ll be in and out—believe me, I don’t want to stay any longer than I need to.” I scoff, stabbing my fork back into the mashed potatoes.
CHAPTER
SEVEN
LOVIE
Aunt Faye looksat me from her car while I stand at the end of Rich’s driveway. The only thing she said to me before I got out was that Rich shouldn’t be home because he likes to make groceries on Tuesday mornings.
“It’s quieter during thattime,” she said. “Less people wanting to talk to him.”
Afterward, she looked up at me like she wanted to say something else but then decided not to.
She lied to Uncle Kenny when he got in from work this morning. She told him I’d be with Terrica all day because there’s something about Rich that makes her comfortable enough to lie, and sheneverlies.
