Chapter 3
ANGEL
“Stop running, Mehki!”
“Angel? Girl, what is all this stuff?” My best friend Tierra pointed to the mounds of boxes near the front door.
I closed a huge, plastic bin full of old hats. “It’s everything from Aunt Lou’s apartment.”
Aunt Lou had resided in an assisted living community for the last few years of her life. With her health challenges, it was easier for her to live in a smaller space where everything was on one floor. The Rosewood Pines staff had been amazing, and so helpful to me, as I’d gathered Auntie’s belongings. A few of the nurse assistants had even offered to help me clean out the big house.
I sighed and dropped several purses into an empty bin. “This is a lot of shit,” I murmured.
Tierra approached me. “You’ve been going non-stop, sis. You even worked yesterday after the memorial.”
The short, yet emotional ceremony yesterday had drained me. But being in the house, working on finalizing Aunt Lou’s affairs, had centered me. I felt at home here. Mehki and I were still staying at the inn, but I’d considered just staying in the house.
“If I don’t do it, who will?” I raised a questioning brow. “Mom and Dad couldn’t wait to go home. So, I’m it. I already let Aunt Lou down by not actually sitting with her to hear her plans, and I won’t walk away from this now.”
Shrugging, my friend said, “Okay, then. You got me for the rest of the day. What can I help with?”
“Basement or kitchen?”
She frowned, placing a hand on her hip. “I’m not stepping foot in that dungeon by myself. We can tag team.” She peered up at the ceiling, “But this house reminds me of a horror movie. I can imagine all kinds of scary shit happening here. Hauntings, ghosts… demons.”
Back in elementary school, Tierra had refused to go trick or treating because she swore Michael Myers lived in the house on the corner of our street. We couldn’t go to any bonfires or haunted hay rides with our classmates because my friend was terrified of trees in moonlight. Go figure.
I laughed. “Girl, please!”
A loud thump sounded from the sunroom and Tierra screamed. “See!” She pointed toward the hallway. “You heard that shit. I’m telling you… You saw that movie,The Conjuring. That’s how it starts. Loud sounds, creaky stairs at night… On second thought, how about we hire people to pack up?”
“Tee!” I shook my head. “That’s Mehki. He’s in the sunroom working on some experiment with sunlight and plants. And you need to stop watching that shit if you’re going to be paranoid about every damn thing.”
Tierra grumbled something under her breath and picked up an empty box. “How about I just put this together?” she suggested. “I can be your box and tape girl.”
Rolling my eyes, I told her, “Nah, Tee. If you’re going to stay, you can be that kitchen girl. Take yo’ ass in there and starting packing.”
She laughed. “Oh, so it’s like that.”
“Hell yeah.”
“I figured the kitchen would be something we could do together?” She shrugged. “I missed you.”
We’d grown up more like sisters, but we were polar opposites on mostly everything. While I loved being outside, Tee enjoyed controlled air and rarely opened her windows. I enjoyed playingandwatching sports, but she hated to sweat and be around loud noise. I excelled at math, and she flourished in art and design. Sweatpants, protective hairstyles, and comfortable shoes were my preferred look while she wore a full face of makeup, bling, and high heels every day. But I loved her bougie ass. Tierra hated to get dirty, but she’d take off her diamond earrings to cut a bitch—or a nigga—if she had to for me. And I wouldn’t hesitate to do the same. We were to each other what I’d always imagined sisters would be, and I wouldn’t trade our relationship for anything.
I grabbed the bubble wrap and a box. Then, I walked into the kitchen. “Girl, come on.”
She followed me into the room and we started emptying cabinets quietly. After a few minutes, she asked, “Do you think your Aunt Lou wanted you to sell this place?”
That very question had dogged me since I’d arrived in Rosewood Heights. The informal will reading had been enlightening. Aunt Lou had made a small fortune, investing in various businesses over the years, and she’d left almost everything to me. A large sum of money, the house, a smaller beach house in Florida I didn’t know about, all of her rental properties, her clothes, her jewelry… The only thing she’d left my mother were a few family heirlooms, a necklace my grandmother had given her, and an apartment in Charleston.
I’d always led a comfortable life. Both of my parents had high-powered careers and they’d given me—their only child—a good life. They’d both instilled in me a desire to work for what I wanted, and I’d held a job from the age of fifteen when I worked as an usher at the local movie theater. After college, I’d been deliberate in my career trajectory, working my way up from an Accounting Assistant to my current position as Director of Budget for a university medical school. At thirty-five, I considered myself a successful Black woman. Suddenly, I was arich, Black woman with enough money to never put on a power suit and go to work again. Every time I thought about it, I became more overwhelmed with all the options I didn’t have last month.
“Angel?”
Tierra’s voice pulled me from my thoughts and I shrugged. “I actually think she wants me to keep the house.”
Her eyes widened. “Seriously? What would you do with it? Just let it sit here and collect dust? The money you’d have to spend on upkeep would be… Shit, that’s a lot.”
