Page 10 of Curvy Girl Summer

“It wasn’t going to hold all two hundred and fifty people! It barely holds eight!”

I laughed. “But I think doing a photo shoot on it for her bridal shower was a much better decision.”

“Yes, it was. Even from the dock, people stopped and watched. All eyes were on her, and she was the center of attention,” my grandma pointed out. “She was having her Cinderella moment.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Everyone deserves to have a few Cinderella moments. Not just on your wedding day either.”

“Aniyah definitely had plenty of those.” I pointed to the picture. “I’ve never seen this picture this big before.”

“Yeah. Your mama got it blown up for today. She didn’t tell you?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“I can’t get over how much you two look alike,” my grandma mused. “Like twins!”

I focused on the large portrait of my sister. “Twins is going a little far.”

“Twins isdefinitelygoing too far,” my uncle commented as he entered the living room. “Aaliyah and Aniyah ain’t no damn twins!”

My grandma whipped around, glaring at her oldest child. “We weren’t talking to you, Albert,” she admonished him.

“Unless you’re talking about that movie with, uh… what’s his name? Arnold? Arnold from theTerminatedmovies and, uh… the other one. The short one.” Uncle Al snapped his fingers. “Danny DeVine!”

Like usual, he was loud and wrong.

“You mind your manners,” she warned as he took a seat in the leather recliner in the corner.

“Aniyah knew what was important, and Aaliyah doesn’t,” he complained. “I’m just keeping it real. Aaliyah knows.”

“Mom!” my mother called my grandmother from the kitchen. “Mom!”

She started walking out of the room, her eyes fixated on her son. She wagged her finger at him. “You stop it right now!”

“Aw, don’t be so sensitive! I’m just playing around! Aaliyah knows I’m playing around,” he chuckled as she left the room. When he shifted his gaze to me, he leaned forward in the chair. “You know I like to joke. But I do want to get serious about something.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “What?”

“What are you doing with your life?”

I made a face. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You two are completely different.” He pointed at the portrait of Aniyah. “Your sister had a plan. We weren’t worried about her. But you…” He shook his head. “You do have Aniyah’s same beautiful face; I’ll give you that. But your sister always watched her weight, and you are just…” He gestured to my size-twenty curves. “You’re heading down a dangerous path.”

My eyes bulged. “What?”

If I’m on a dangerous path, what path are you on?I asked him silently as I eyed his beer belly.

If I would’ve said what I was thinking, everyone would’ve said I was in the wrong. And while he always meant well, my sixty-five-year-old uncle never mastered the art of speaking to people. Hedidn’t have tact or kindness at the forefront of his mind when he spoke. He always offered up unsolicited advice under the guise of jokes and tough love, but if someone did the same to him in return, he’d be mad. And if I advised him with the same jokes and tough love about his love life, everyone would say I was disrespecting my elder.

“A dangerous path?” I scoffed. “I went to the doctor for a physical last month, and I’m healthy. Documented and on file, I’m healthy. When was your last appoint—”

“Ain’t no way,” he interrupted loudly. His gruff voice was full of amusement. “You’re a beautiful girl! But you’re a big girl. And you’ve just been getting bigger and bigger. That can’t be healthy!”

“That’s a lie,” I told him, putting my hands on my rounded hips. “I’ve maintained the same weight for the last few years.”

“Well, for the last few years you should’ve been working onlosingthe weight. It gets harder to get it off after thirty, and at the rate you’re going, you’re going to end up on that show, living that one-thousand-pound life.”

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