Page 40 of Sweet Love From Saturn

“One drink wouldn’t have killed you. But it’s cool. We’re here now...drink up.”

After toasting, I tilted my head back and threw the shot down my throat so fast. As always, the burn of the alcohol hit me in my chest and caused my face to scrunch. Now that I had the first one out the way, any other shots I took wouldn’t hit me as hard. Slamming the glass down, I picked up the Red Bull Mccoy bought for himself and took a sip.

“Aight, let’s take a break from the Spades game and play something else,” Aaron suggested.

“Like what? We could’ve played giant Jenga, but your sister never brought my shit back.”

“Saturn, I told you I’d buy you a new one. I wasn’t expecting that party to end the way it did,” Tiffany stated.

She told me the same story every time Jenga was brought up. I believed her, but I’d never let her live it down. I’d had that Jenga game since my college days.

“What party?” Aaron asked in confusion.

Setting her cup down and scooting to the edge of her chair, Tiffany told the story I’d heard a thousand times before.

“You remember when I was hanging with Shanice and Tameka?”

“Yeah, I remember Momma telling you they weren’t your friends,” Aaron recalled.

“Yeah them. One weekend, they took me to this party at some dude’s parents’ beach house. Everything was cool until about three in the morning. The party was still going and the dude’s mom ended up coming home early… with the police. I wasn’t about to get in trouble, so I ran when I got the opportunity. Didn’t think twice about that damn Jenga game.”

“Damn. I’m mad y’all ain’t tell me about this. Y’all keeping secrets now?”

“Aaron, you’re the last person to talk about anyone keeping secrets,” Tiffany said.

“What secrets I got?”

“Y’all, please don’t start. We’re supposed to be having a good time. How did we go from talking about Jenga to this?” I interrupted.

I knew my siblings way too well and this conversation would get deep quickly. The three of us were all close in age, but Tiffany and Aaron always went at it. There was nothing but love between us, but like my parents, Tiffany held some resentment toward Aaron for leaving. The fact that no one knew the whole truth behind him moving back home definitely felt like he was keeping secrets. Add to that what I now knew had gone down between him and Ava, the odds were stacked against him. With all of that being said, the conversation was getting too personal and didn’t need to be discussed in front of company.

“Aright, y’all. We’re playing Truth or Dare. Justin gon’ start us off,” Mccoy announced, saving me like always.

“What are the rules?” Ava asked.

“The rules are, if you don’t answer the truth or do the dare, you gotta take three shots consecutively,” Justin answered.

“Three? You tryna take us out, bro.”

“You got this. Just answer the truths and do the dares and you ain’t got shit to worry about,” Justin said to Aaron. “Sapphire…I dare you to come kiss me.”

My jaw dropped at Justin’s dare and I just knew this wouldn’t end well. Sapphire wasn’t Justin’s usual type. Part of me wanted to speak up, but the other part wanted to see what happened next. At the end of the day, Sapphire was my employee, a valuable one at that. I’d never forgive myself if she left my home feeling disrespected. A low gasp escaped me when Sapphire approached Justin and placed a kiss on top of his head.

“Naw, that don’t count?—”

“It does count. You said you dare me to kiss you. You never said where,” Sapphire countered as she sat back in her seat.

“You play too much, girl.”

“Welp, next time be more specific.”

“Facts,” Stacey added.

“Sapphire…girl, I thought you were about to slap the shit out of him,” I admitted.

“Oh, you ain’t tell your boss that you finally used my number?”

Instead of answering, Sapphire rolled her eyes playfully before taking a sip of her drink. When she said nothing to counter his statement, I felt like I’d missed a lot. Sapphire wasn’t an open book, so her not telling me about them didn’t come as a shocker. However, Mccoy not mentioning it to me had me side eyeing him right now.

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