Page 12 of Curvy Girl Summer

“I said I’ll talk to her about it later,” Mom snapped at him.

The uneasy feeling settled over me. “No. I want to talk about it now. What’s going on? What condition?”

My mom shook her head. “It’s just something I wanted to wait until after the party is over to talk to you about.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “No, let’s talk now since all of you seem to know, and I’m the only one not privy to this ‘condition’ that I’m allegedly afflicted with.”

She adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose. “Your uncle should’ve never brought it up. It wasn’t his place.” She took a breath. “We were having a conversation—”

“Who is ‘we’?” I wondered.

“Your father and I.” When I nodded, she continued, “And we were discussing how much we’re looking forward to the period of our lives when we get grandchildren. We started talking about the fact that it’s been a long time since you’ve mentioned dating anyone seriously—”

“Years!” Al chimed in unnecessarily.

“We questioned if that was in the cards for us if you aren’t with anyone.” She lifted her shoulders and looked around. “And then when your grandmother and uncle came into the kitchen, we got to talking about and reminiscing about Aniyah’s plans.”

“Ah. Okay.” I nodded, connecting the dots.

So that’s why Uncle Al was mentioning Aniyah being married and how they were planning for a baby.

My lip curled. “But I’m not Aniyah—”

“And that’s all I was trying to tell you!” My uncle jumped in, interrupting me. “You need to get yourself together so that you can be on track like your sister. Which is why Marcus—”

“Albert!” My mother glared at her brother before turning back to me. Her face softened. “He had no right to bring that up to you. Especially not today. Like this.”

“Why does he keep saying stuff at all? And what about Marcus?” I asked, my frown deepening as my mom and her brother bickered.

“Did either of you even ask the girl what she wants?” Nana looked between her children before looking at me. “Do you want a husband, Aaliyah? Is that what you want right now?”

All eyes were on me.

Last month’s fiasco with Matthew flashed through my mind, sticking out like a sore thumb.

“Yes, I do,” I admitted. “And I would love to have met the right man to be my husband, but I haven’t. And I’m not willing to settle. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“There’s nothing at all wrong with that,” Nana confirmed with a nod. “And do you want kids?”

“Yeah, one day.” My biological clock ticked faintly in the background of my mind. “But again, I don’t want to have kids with just anyone. I’d like to do that with my husband, and I’m not going to marry just anyone. So, it goes back to what I said before—I’m not willing to settle.”

My grandma beamed at me. “That’s my girl!”

I flashed her a small smile, but before “thank you” could cross my lips, Uncle Al opened his big mouth again.

“Your grandma was married before thirty. Your mom was married before thirty. Your cousins Tamara and Jonelle were married before thirty. Your sister was married before thirty. My first wife wasn’t yet thirty when I married her,” my uncle pointed out. “AndI’m telling you this because I love you. You need to get it together so you can get what it is that you say you want.”

“Albert, that’s enough!” Mom huffed, rolling her eyes.

“I’m just telling her the truth!” He threw his hands up in the air. “Sometimes we need a dose of reality. And her reality is that she’s getting up there.”

“She’s just going to be thirty on her birthday,” my grandma responded, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

My uncle looked at her incredulously. “I’m not just talking about her age. I’m talking about her weight! How is she going to get a man who can take care of her at her size?”

My mom and grandmother looked horrified.

“Do not talk about her like that!” Mom snapped.

---