Hestia and I sat down and planned how we wanted to have the conversation with Eloise. My baby girl loved my cooking, so it was a no-brainer for me to cook. I would break the news since I was her father. If she was cool with it, then I would call Hestia to come over. If she wasn’t, we would regroup.
“You must have been reading my mind, Daddy. I just told Jessica that you made the best shrimp and grits. Grandma, you taught him how to cook this?” Eloise asked my mama who sat next to her at my dining room table.
My parents at dinner tonight were not a part of the plan that Hestia and I discussed. I decided to add that part to the plan later. It made sense to hit three birds with one stone. Why not tell my parents and Eloise about my relationship at the same time, then introduce Hestia to my parents as well. My baby loved surprises, so we’d see how she felt about this one.
My mama, Doris, kissed her teeth. “Lil girl, you know I did. If it wasn’t for me, your daddy would have starved in college. Them lil hussies that he frolicked around with never fed him.”
“Mama, you stay doing too much. I ate just fine in college. I had a whole meal plan,” I said sarcastically.
I had to downplay it somehow. Our campus had plenty of food options. I wasn’t fucking with those females for meals.
Eloise was more tickled than I would have liked her to be. “Daddy! Let me find out that you were one of the dudes that you told me to stay away from when you were in college. Really, Daddy.”
I tittered. “I was a dude that knew that I wanted to play, so I governed myself accordingly. Your daddy also made it clear to girls that I dealt with what it was before we embarked on anything. I tell you to stay away from the dudes who don’t want to admit that they want to play, and sell dreams to females whowant to live in those dreams. A man becomes a fuck boy when he forces his choices on to others by manipulation and lies.”
“Just like I taught you, boy. No matter how bad it sounds, you be honest,” my father said. He taught me well. I modeled myself after the man that my father was. I wasn’t perfect, but I was a man of integrity, honor, grit, and a whole lot of crazy as fuck when you messed with the people that I loved.
“You did, Dad.” I glanced down at my watch. I needed to get this conversation started. “Mama, Dad, Eloise, I want to talk to y’all about something very important.”
My mother’s cheeks lifted and reddened a little. She side-eyed my dad. “See, Allie, I told you that he was finally gonna tell us who that lady was he’s been sneaking in on the weekends Ellie was gone.”
Well, damn, Ma!Eloise’s head snapped in my direction with her pretty eyes tightened. “What woman? Daddy, you have a girlfriend, and you didn’t tell me?”
I closed my eyes before I shook my head and chuckled. I opened my eyes to answer her question. “I have a woman. I’m too old to have a girlfriend. I wanted to wait to say something because I wanted to make sure that what I had with Hestia was real.”
Eloise jumped up from her seat. “Hestia! Daddy! You and Dr. Hestia Basil are seeing each other?”
My body leaned forward so my forearms could rest on the table. “Yes, Dr. Basil and I are in a committed relationship. I wanted you to know because we are about to go public with our relationship. I wanted y’all to know first. How do you feel about that, baby girl?”
She sat down and mimicked my body language. “Okay, Daddy! I love this for you and me. Now, this comes with a lot of responsibilities because her heart and my future are in your hands. She’s my mentor and eventually could be my stepmotherif you handle this right. Now, if you fumble, there could be a lot of broken hearts, so don’t fumble.”
My neck drew back a little.Not my baby girl laying down the laws of the land.“Okay, I promise you that I won’t fumble. Hestia and I both understand what is at stake.”
My mother clapped her hands, then raised them to the sky. “Thank God! You finally found a woman with some sense about herself, for herself, by her damn self.” She put her hand over Eloise’s hand. “No offenses to ya mama, baby.”
“No offense taken. I actually agree.” Eloise mumbled the last part.
That brought me pause, and I stuck a mental pin in my mind to revisit the topic. The last few weekends that she was scheduled to go to her mother’s house, she didn’t want to go. I had to damn near bribe her to go. In the past few months, something shifted on that end. We would address that shift at a later date in the near future.
“Well, I thank you ladies for your approval. I am going to call Hestia and have her come over to have dessert with us.” I pushed my seat back and stood. “Excuse me for a second.”
My fingers dialed her number as I walked to my back deck. The phone didn’t ring twice before she answered. “What did she say?” Hestia’s nervousness radiated through her tone.
With a smile as if she could see me, I responded, “She told me not to fumble you. Are you coming over or not?”
Shifting was heard on her end. “I’m down the street. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
The line disconnected. Welp, I guess that was it. I wasn’t surprised that she was down the street.
There was a lively conversation in progress when I walked back into the dining room. I sat down, took a sip of my drink, then joined the conversation. It felt great that Eloise was happy about my relationship with her mentor. I wasn’t worried aboutmy parents loving her. She wasn’t Melanie, so that was the first plus. My parents’ recent feelings about Melanie were another subject.
The reveal of Hestia’s and my relationship to Eloise and my parents was part one of the plan to be fully public. The next part was to tell her family. Yeah, she’d find out about that part of the plan after she was laid out by some dick.
A Very Short Time Later
Family! Guess What . . .
It was a wise woman that once said that dick was a distraction. It was a wiser woman that said phenomenal dick was the devil. Alexander “Bread” Conners II was not only a candidate for the second statement—he won the fucking election.
