Porsche makes a face. “Girl, please. A week off does not have your skin looking moisturized from the inside. And most of those pictures weren’t from the last day.”
I cover my face and laugh. “Y’all are so annoying.”
“And yet you called us,” Porsche says.
“I missed y’all.”
Charisse smiles. “We missed you too. Now tell us everything.”
I lean back against my headboard and pull one of my pillows into my lap. “It was good.”
Porsche blinks. “That’s it?”
“It was really good.” I fill them in on all the details because that’s just how we do it.
“Oh, she’s down bad,” Porsche says. “She’s in love. We’ve lost her.”
“We already knew that,” Charisse says. “She told him again, didn’t she?”
I press my lips together.
Porsche gasps. “You did?”
“It came out.”
“It came out?” Porsche repeats. “You make love sound like a sneeze.”
“I didn’t plan it. We were on this hunting ranch trip, and he couldn’t shoot the deer, and he called it Bambi, and he looked so distressed about hurting this innocent animal that was just eating lunch. It was sweet.”
Porsche stares at me. “You fell in love because he couldn’t kill dinner?”
“I was already in love,” I say, pointing at the screen. “That just confirmed it.”
Charisse’s face softens. “That sounds like him, though. The soft version you used to tell us about.”
I nod, and some of the humor drains from my chest, but not in a bad way.
“Yeah. That’s what got me. He’s still that man. The one I had when it was just us. But now he’s also got my back when other people are around. He’s listening. He’s asking questions. He’s not making me feel like I have to shrink to fit into his life.”
Porsche is quiet for a second, which is rare enough for both Charisse and me to look at her.
“What?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I’m happy for you.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Are you?”
“Don’t do that. I can be skeptical and happy. I contain multitudes.”
Charisse laughs. “She’s Walt Whitman in a Black woman’s body.”
“You’re still a teacher nerd,” Porsche teases.
“You quoted the man,” Charisse tells her.
“Are you two okay?”
They both focus back on me.
