Page 73 of Happy Is On Hiatus
“Oh yuck,Law and Orderreruns,” Necole said.
“Yep, we’ll all be asleep in no time.” Taryn’s giggles made Rita smile.
“Not me, I loveLaw and Order,” she said and turned to fluff one of her pillows.
“That’s right, well, we can watch one episode,” Taryn said. “And then if I’m still awake after that, I’ll find something else to take your mind off things.”
It was that last part that had Rita going still. “You know that’s not how I deal with issues,” she said solemnly.
Taryn sighed. “No. You keep them all bottled up inside until you explode like you did tonight.”
“Or you bury them in scriptures and prayer and hope that’ll be enough to make things better,” Necole said softly before easing her hand over to cover Rita’s.
They were right. That was exactly how she’d handled any difficulties that had ever been thrown her way. “Not this time,” she told them and laced her fingers through Necole’s. “This time I’m confronting all the nonsense head-on and then pushing it right outta my way.”
“Ooookay, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.” Taryn sat up and held her hand in the air for a high five.
Rita released Necole’s hand and obliged Taryn. It was past time she took control of this situation and her life. If that meant cutting Nate and his drama completely out, then that was exactly what she planned to do. As for Sharae, well, Rita settled back down in the bed and tried to focus on whatever case Jack McCoy needed to win in court this time. She still didn’t know how she felt about what Sharae had done. Hurt, dismayed, conflicted—all those words came to mind.
What also occurred to her was that Sharae was probably lying in bed wondering how she was going to deal with Rita the next time they saw each other too. They were family, so there was no doubting that they’d see each other again, and most likely soon, but how would that first meeting go? Would there be apologies, forgiveness, tears, or more arguing? Rita didn’t know, and for tonight at least, she didn’t want to think about it anymore.
“What are you thinking about over there?” Desmond asked Sharae.
They’d been at her apartment for an hour now, and she was still sitting on the couch, fully dressed and just as somber as she’d been when she’d finally left Rita’s house.
“I let her down,” Sharae replied. Her hands were in her lap, and she didn’t have a clue how long she’d been staring down at them.
She wasn’t totally comfortable with Desmond being here. No, it wasn’t the first time he’d ever been in her apartment, but it was the first time since they’d started sleeping together. That would explain why this time, him being in her private space felt different. It could also be that a few hours ago, he’d witnessed her cousin have a complete meltdown and some of her family members—herself included—come dangerously close to beating down a pregnant woman. The part she played in Rita’s implosion was what rested so heavily on her shoulders at this moment.
“By trying to protect her?” he asked from where he sat at the other end of the couch.
“We don’t lie to each other, and we don’t hold back,” she continued. “That’s always been an unspoken truth between the three of us. We share everything, no matter how painful, embarrassing, or uncomfortable.”
“That’s a pretty strenuous rule.”
She shrugged.
“Rita was nineteen when she married Nate. The night before the wedding, we were in the bedroom at Aunt Vi’s where we all practically grew up.” She could see it as clear as if it had been yesterday.
Rita was sitting on the top bunk bed, her legs dangling down and barely missing Sharae’s face as she lay on her side, propped up on her shoulder. Jemel was sitting on the floor, weighing whether it was worth it to risk Aunt Vi’s wrath by lighting a cigarette in the house.
“We asked her if she was sure,” Sharae continued. “She had this dreamy look in her eyes, and she said yes in this breathy voice. How could we argue with that?”
They couldn’t, and so they hadn’t even tried.
“Did you really know he was a bad guy that soon?”
Sharae nodded. “I found out about his reputation before Rita did. About five minutes after he swept her off her feet and she introduced us to him, I was at a party with some girls in my class, and some frat guys showed up. We were in high school, so everybody wanted a college guy. And the college guys wanted some fresh meat.” Even now the thought made her sick. “Nate was in the group. But when he saw me, he backed down, sticking to the sidelines, acting like he wasn’t interested in anyone there. But I knew. From the way he’d walked in casing the joint like he was on the prowl, I just knew.”
She laced her fingers together, then pulled them apart, huffing because she couldn’t figure out what to do with them. Or what to do with the emotions welling up inside her.
“Jemel’s younger than us,” she continued. “But once we got her that fake ID and she could slip in and out of certain clubs, she tended to party much more than Rita and I did. She saw Nate a few times, and he wasn’t actin’ like he had a girlfriend at home that was madly in love with him. So yeah, we knew pretty early on.”
He moved over so that now their legs almost touched. “And did you tell her all you knew then?”
He’d worn black cargo shorts to the cookout; a T-shirt with a black, orange, and white silhouette of Eddie Murray on the front; and black Vans on his feet. She glanced down at where his shorts stopped and the light coat of black hair on his legs began.
“Yeah, we did. And apparently, every time he saw one of us, he’d told Rita too. So it didn’t seem like our information was incriminating when we went to her with it. He was damn good at his game.”
