Page 88 of The Dating Prohibition
“I don’t know how I’d be able to repay everything that all of you have done.” Kendra teared up.
Lani closed the distance wrapping her arms around her cousin as Auntie Mack’s sedan pulled into the driveway. “Okay, crybaby,pull it together.”
Mack arrived moments before multiple deliveries came—one with flowers from her parents congratulating her on her new ventureand promising to be up to visit within the week, a second box of supplies and special decorative items for her place fromShonda, and a shipment of booze from her brother.
“He would send the good stuff,” Kendra murmured, admiring the bottles.
“I mean, the man has taste.” Lani nodded. “I think he sent you something else too.” She gestured behind them as another deliverytruck arrived. Auntie Mack went inside to put the flowers in water.
“Are you Miss Porter?” the man called.
“Yes!”
“Okay, great.” He ran to the back of the truck, and once he’d lowered the lift, he maneuvered a huge box on a dolly towardthem.
“What in the world is this?”
“I believe that there’s a note with the packaging slip. Where would you like for me to put this?”
“Um.” She gestured for him to follow them up the porch steps and she opened the front door. “Right here is fine.” She pointedto the area that would be the dining room.
“Great. And then I’ll just have you sign.” She nodded as he handed her a tablet from his pocket.
“Wow, I wonder what this is.”
“Do you need a box cutter?”
“No, I’ve got one, but thank you.”
“Okay, for sure. Have a great day,” he called over his shoulder as he left.
“Well, let’s open this.”
“Okay.” Lani pulled a box cutter from her pocket. It was a small plastic cloud with a blade that slid out.
“Well, isn’t that adorable?” Kendra mused.
“Yeah, some influencer was organizing their office and they had these in a drawer, thought they were so cute.”
“TikTok shop?”
“I mean, they are the queens of aesthetic.” Lani shrugged like it was obvious. “Whatever, let’s just open the box. Here’sthe packing slip.” She handed it over as she made quick work of cutting through the packaging tape.
“It looks like some sort of appliance.” Kendra unfolded the packaging slip to find a printed note taped to it. “‘Dear Keke, yes, yes, we know your name is Kendra, but you’re Keke to us. We just want you to know how proud of you we are. The entire DC crew pitched in to give this to you. Though you’llhave plenty of special product to celebrate in your new workplace, we want to make sure that you celebrate your milestones at home too.’ Well, that’s so sweet. What is this?”
Lani sliced through more tape to expose the front of the appliance. The stainless steel and black exterior looked like somethingKendra had seen before. “It looks like a fridge,” Lani said. “But one side is different... Oh! One side holds wine, theother side holds cigars.”
Kendra’s smile grew wide. “Oh my god, what an awesome gift. And we’re in the perfect place for it. Here.” She and Lani pulledthe box away from the appliance completely. “This is perfect and it’s counter level. A Fridgidor. I can put this next to abuffet against that wall. And then the dining table would span right here, parallel to it.”
“Perfect. Yeah.”
“What a thoughtful gift!” Auntie Mack exclaimed. “You know for sure that your brother intends to visit if he bought you bourbonand a space to hold his cigars.”
Kendra chuckled. “Too true.” As she turned, she imagined the layout of the rest of the room. “I love that it’s such an openconcept, right? So we’ll put some stools at that island, and we’ll put a big L-shaped couch in that corner over there.”
Lani surveyed the space. “Most importantly, where are you going to put a TV? It doesn’t really seem like there’s a good spacefor it.”
“Well, we can either put a projector screen that kind of covers the banister here—” she gestured “—or, we could make partof the basement a family room so that we have, like, a full movie bar situation.”
