Page 77 of Meet Me on Greenwood

"Rita, I need to talk to you. I can do it from out here if you’d like—"

The door opened suddenly, and Rita pulled me in. Once the door was shut behind us, she crossed her arms.

"You have my attention now. What do you want?"

"Why are you mad at me? What did I do?"

She tapped her foot impatiently. "I don’t know. Perhaps it is the carrying on with a white man, and one soon to be married at that."

"You were encouraging me to spend time with him."

She rolled her eyes. "I wanted you to have a bit of fun. It is fine within the club, but the way you look at him, the way he looks at you, you both are so far gone, and it will get you killed. You can’t be with him," she said, walking to the window. "We have to be practical, stay in our lanes."

"Rita, I don’t care if you are with Bernie."

She flipped around, teeth clenched. "I am not with her. Don’t say that."

I sucked in a breath. "Up north, people don’t care about that sort of thing as much. I don’t care. You don’t have to hide it from me."

"Didn’t you just hear my mother? She has already made the match for me."

I shook my head. "You hate that guy. Why don’t you tell Camille the truth?"

"Are you insane? We are the Alderman’s. If I—if I dishonor my family, embarrass them, my father could be ruined. The paper that he has built—"

"It will survive. As passionate as both of your parents are, I can tell they love you. They’d do anything for you."

"You don’t know this place. It’s hard enough being Black. At least there is a community to fall back on. But being—"

She couldn’t bring herself to say it, so I did. "In love. Rita, you are in love and it is beautiful. You deserve to be happy."

Rita wrapped her arms around herself as if wanting to disappear. I went over and hugged her. "Rita Alderman, I love you. I will stand by you no matter what."

She unclasped her arms, wrapped them around my back and sobbed into my blouse. The deluge that followed felt like I was being soaked with all the tears she’d held back for years as she wrestled with herself. After some time, she finally whispered, "Thank you."

29

Houston

Tulsa Dentist Gets Wife for Christmas Present

I’d been standing on Sarah’s front porch for a few minutes, though I couldn’t yet bring myself to knock on the door.

I had a plan. I'd had it since I was fifteen years old, after my mother had ended her life, leaving me to fend for myself. I wasn’t angry at her, not anymore. I only wish I could have assuaged her pain and saved her. I had always wanted to provide her with more, and couldn’t. I had told myself then that I would build something that was mine and could never be taken—that those I loved would never have to go without. A place where I could help those who were struggling, even those who could not pay but needed the help. The way to do that was to pass as White so I’d carefully constructed and fortified this life for myself so that no one would look too deep. Somehow Gema had penetrated those forces.

Sarah was part of my plan, not Gema. Sarah came from a well-respected family, with deep ties to the community that would only benefit my practice. She fit the life I was building.

I knocked, deciding not to waste anymore time.

After a moment, the door opened and Sarah stood in the foyer, pretty in a dark blue dress, with an uncertain smile. We stared at each other.

"Are you going to come in?" she asked, as if she’d been waiting on my answer for days.

"I was hoping we could talk. Out here."

Something shifted in her expression, but she leveled her gaze with the effort of a woman who had been raised to approach everything with grace.

"Alright," she said. "But the ham is getting cold."