“I don’t mean just living with him. I’ve never allowed myself to plan a future with a man. Before, everything was temporary in my head, and?—”
My sisters shook their heads simultaneously, while Mama Rush mumbled something I couldn’t hear but knew it was regarding what I was about to say. Rue was the one to say what I was sure the others were thinking.
“Sorry, Sis, but you and Russell were never temporary.”
“Tell her ass again,” Daisy agreed. “Oops! Sorry, Mama Rush.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. She needs to hear it,” Mama Rush responded.
“Whatever. In my mind, it was. Plus, I may have slept there a lot, but I could leave whenever I wanted.”
“You know good and well you never wanted to leave that man, so why are you stressing over something that doesn’t matter?” Blossom fussed.
“You’re being difficult for no reason. Russell has loved you for years and has been more than patient. He would move Heaven and Earth for you, and you know it,” Rue said.
“If I didn’t know before, after yesterday, I know now. He also said if I’m not ready yet, I can move back to the basement with?—”
“No, ma’am. You certainly cannot. We turned your room into a closet, so ain’t no coming back,” Daisy assured me.
“You didn’t!”
“And did,” Blossom said, reiterating Daisy’s revelation.
“Dang. Has it been that long since I’ve visited?”
“Tuh. You avoided coming here like the plague,” Rue said.
I hadn’t given it much thought, but I definitely kept my visits short and few and far between.
“Y’all are cold.”
“If you really don’t want to move in with him, be honest with him, and keep your apartment. He can’t make you,” Blossom added.
Everyone but Blossom burst out in laughter.
“Have you met Russell?” Rue asked, still laughing.
“Or Rocky and Rowdy? They are damn near the same person. The three of them are slightly unhinged,” Daisy said.
“That’s putting it mildly,” I mumbled.
“Those are my grandsons, and I love them, but unhinged is a good word to describe them,” Mama Rushed added.
Although Rowdy wasn’t her biological grandson, she accepted him with open arms and treated him no differently than she did Rocky and Russell.
“My bad. I forgot who we were talking about for a minute. You may as well start packing,” Blossom surmised.
“It’s not that I don’t want to live with him, but I’m nervous. What if he changes his mind?”
“Changes his mind? About what?” Rue questioned.
“Me. Us. The family I can’t?—”
“Stop!” they demanded.
“What did I just tell you about that?” Mama Rush reprimanded.
“Russell is a real man, Rose. He stands on his word. You’re worried for nothing,” Daisy assured me.
