Page 61 of Summer Breakdown
Ezra sits near her as she replies, “Yeah, sure.”
“No, I mean do youlikeher?”
Jasmine looks at him and then checks the kids. Marcel is checking his phone, and Lani is wiping her face. “Are you asking me if I fancy your sister?”
Ezra shrugs. “Yeah, but more mature than that.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m thirty-three.”
Jasmine rolls her eyes. “Why were you asking?”
“Because I think you do.”
Jasmine narrows her eyes at him, but she’s mainly watching the kids. “And?”
“She’s never had a girlfriend before. A serious one. She dated a bit during college.”
“Okay.”
“Frank doesn’t do life-changing things, but I think she might want to do a life-changing thing,” Ezra says. He stands back up, and Jasmine watches Lani wheel back onto the court. He holds his hand out this time, and she takes it. “I dunno, man. She’s being coy.”
Jasmine spins the shuttlecock in her hand. “Ezra, I need you to start making some sense.”
“She met a woman at the bar,” he says, and Jasmine’s heart drops. There’s no way she’ll win this point. Frankie’s moved on. There wasn’t even anything to move on from, but she’s done it, all while Jasmine has been thinking about her as she falls asleep. “And she hasn’t stopped talking about her since.”
“Oh.” Somehow, the one-word answer sounds as bitter as it tastes.
“Jas,” he says, and she clenches her jaw. “She talks about you all the time. At dinner. At training. Anytime she’s awake, she is putting you into a conversation somehow.”
Oh.
“She does?”
“Yeah, bro. I liked you long before we had a proper convo, and it’s because Frank never shuts the fuck up about you,” Ezra says, like she didn’t think they were friends beforeFrankie would have been talking about her. Still, she lets him continue.
“During morning training, she’s asking what star sign you are,” he says, with a grunt as he tries to throttle the shuttlecock at her child. (He does, but Lani hits it back.) “Like, how the fuck would we know? Most of the team hadn’t even met you yet. Afternoon training, she’s talking about how you’re wearing your hair.Did you see Jasmine had a braid in today?Well, yeah, Frankie, I did, ’cause I got eyes. I don’t even notice hair, but Frank mentioned it so often I ended up wondering myself like a creepy teenage girl. Do you know what your big three are? Because I do. Don’t even believe in astrology, but I know ’em.”
Jasmine smiles, pulling her lip between her teeth. Frankie looked it up. On purpose. Without asking her. Frankielikesher.
The sweat drips into her eyes, and once again, she’s wondering what the use of lashes is. “What are they?”
“It’ll cost you,” he replies, and she laughs as she finally hits it quick enough that Lani doesn’t get it back.
“Yeah!” Ezra screams, like the Titans got to the championship already. Lani is a much better sport than them, shouting, “Good job, Mama!”
Jasmine smiles as she thinks about her. Frankie might be special. “I do like her.”
“I know,” Ezra replies, with a small smile. Jasmine wonders what to say next.
“I don’t know if I can ask her out.” Jasmine pulls her lip with her teeth. “Because if I lost her, I would lose all of you.” Jasmine needn’t tell him that Frankie coming into her life brought her everything she was missing. He must know that. She doesn’t talk about anyone else.
Marcel bends to help Lani with her chair. Jasmine keeps an eye on them, but usually she’s not needed. This is Lani’s time to be independent. She likes to do things alone. And with Marcel, because he doesn’t count.
“Lani is so obsessed with her,” Jasmine says. “And you, and I was never supposed to introduce anyone, but Frankie got past all my rules before she even spoke to me. It feels like figuring out if I want to try and date her isn’t an option. We’d be starting in a committed relationship.”
Ezra looks up at the ceiling, blinking sweat from his eyes. “Isn’t that what lesbians do?”
