Page 64 of Happy Is On Hiatus
“Uh-oh.” Rita came over to reach behind Sharae and grab the glass bowl she’d been putting her cucumber slices in. “This sounds serious.”
Sharae nodded. “It is. I slept with Desmond again.”
Jemel looked up and popped a slice of strawberry into her mouth. “Okay, twice. That must mean he’s good. Give us all the deets.”
“Are we really going to have detailed sex talks?” Rita asked and crinkled her nose as if the mere thought offended her. “I mean, we’re not teenagers anymore.”
“If I’m not mistaken, you didn’t have much input on those conversations when we were teenagers,” Sharae said and raised a hand to stop Rita’s reply. “But anyway, yes, he’s good. I mean, like real, real good.”
“Oooooh yes! Sharae’s finally gettin’ that good-good sex. Girl, I’m happy for you,” Jemel added.
“It can’t be too good if it leaves you lookin’ like you look.” Rita got her dig in anyway, and Sharae let her have it without qualms. There were just too many other things on her mind.
She rubbed a hand to the back of her neck. “I’ve been to his house five times. Each time we had lots of sex. We ate and talked too, but there’s been lots of sex.”
“Wait, you just tellin’ us this. I thought you’d only been there once and then last night. That’s a lot of visits and a lot of sex for you. But okay, tell us more.” Jemel looked pleased as punch to be helping with an actual dish—albeit fruit salad so it didn’t require any cooking skills—and to be listening to Sharae talk about sex, which she didn’t do often because normally there wasn’t much to talk about.
To be fair, most of her silence on the subject of sex over these past years had just been because Jemel and Rita were having so much of it with their live-in dicks, and she was mostly partaking in the self-induced pleasure options.
“Last night I was there until five ... in the morning. He wanted me to stay, but I don’t do that.” Hearing herself now, she knew what was coming, but the words hit the air.
“I’ve got news for you, baby girl. If you left at five this morning, you did stay,” Rita replied with a bland look on her face.
Dropping her head back, Sharae moaned. “I know.”
“Where’s the problem?” Jemel asked. “’Cause I know you’ve been manufacturing one. That’s what you do when it comes to men.”
Sharae’s head snapped up. “I do not.”
“Yeah, you do.” Rita nodded. She’d resumed slicing the cucumbers.
It didn’t really bother Sharae that she’d taken over that task because she hated slicing onions, which were up next, and Rita always fussed that she wasn’t slicing them thin enough.
“I need to do something with my hands,” she said, because she was harboring a lot of nervous energy. This thing with Desmond was really freaking her out. “I’ll make the hamburgers.”
She went to the refrigerator and grabbed the plastic-covered bowl with ground beef.
“Get the ground turkey too. We’re having a few healthier options today,” Rita told her.
After a brief hunt for the second bowl of lighter-tinted meat, Sharae grabbed that one too and closed the refrigerator.
“Talk while you work,” Jemel said, her cheeks full of whatever fruit she’d just stuck into her mouth this time.
“Like you’re eating while you work,” Rita said.
Jemel shrugged and snapped a grape from its stalk. “You’ve got enough fruit here to feed a cruise ship full of people, so I can have my share now.”
Sharae had gathered the other ingredients to mix into the meat and stood at the other end of the island ready to get started. “He wants to date me.”
“Instead of just fuck you?” Jemel asked.
“Language!” Rita huffed.
Jemel rolled her eyes. “A’ight, Grandma.”
Rita smirked, and Sharae enjoyed seeing that the light had returned to her eyes. They’d talked on Thursday about the meeting with Nate and made more plans for the event and her new business that they were finally going to announce tonight. She was really happy to see Rita coming through this divorce situation. “Look, that’s all I’m used to,” she continued. “I’m not the boyfriend-husband-live-in-relationship type like the two of you are. I just like to do my thing on my own.”
“You’ve been doing that a long time. You ain’t gettin’ no younger,” Jemel said.
