Page 76 of Happy Is On Hiatus
Rita made her way farther into the kitchen, going to the sink to wash her hands. Aunt Ceil came over and kissed her on the cheek. When Rita only stared at her aunt’s smiling face, another song came on, and Aunt Ceil bopped away to the Smokey Robinson tune. In no time, Rita was humming along with the music as she sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, tossing them into a huge bowl with the lettuce she’d already broken apart and washed.
Aunt Rose had glanced at her from the stove, offering a dimpled smile, and Rita had smiled back. It wasn’t until Rita was finished withthe salad and had gone over to the drawer to get the plastic wrap to cover the bowl that she’d bumped into her mother. The two stared at each other for a couple of wordless seconds before Vi said, “You look nice in that butter-yellow color. It softens your eyes.”
Knowing that this, what they were doing in this kitchen, was the “I’m sorry and let’s move on” that her family was used to, and feeling that it was all exactly enough, she smiled in return. “Thanks, Mama.”
Rita moved easily throughout Jemel’s kitchen because she’d used it more than her cousin ever had. She glanced up at the two weird-looking bamboo-covered pendant lights overhead. Jemel had been thrilled to find them on some website and had paid a ridiculous amount of money for them because that was what Jemel did. Shaking her head, Rita moved back to the refrigerator to see if there was something made for them to drink, other than the wine, because the Aunts probably weren’t going to drink that. Aunt Ceil loved herself some beer with her crabs, but otherwise didn’t drink much. Meanwhile, Aunt Rose preferred the same V.O. Vi had been saying she’d drunk since they were young. As for Vi, she’d have a glass of red wine or two, but that was her limit, and she didn’t partake often.
“We’re here with the drinks, Aunt Jemel,” Necole said as she came into the kitchen.
Rita closed the refrigerator and looked over to see her daughters. “What are you two doing here?”
Necole came over to hug her mother, passing her the plastic bags holding three two-liter sodas afterward. “Aunt Jemel invited us to dinner.”
Taryn came over next to hug Rita. “Yeah, but she didn’t say it’d be a full house.”
Rita knew her daughters hadn’t talked to the Aunts since the cookout because they’d told her so on one of the days they’d stopped by the house to see her. Taryn hadn’t thought she’d done or said anything wrong, so she wasn’t up to offering any apologies, and Rita hadn’t toldher she needed to. Although there’d been moments in the past few days when Rita started to call her mother—because they’d never gone days without talking at least once before—she’d refrained. What she’d said that night at the cookout had been necessary for her. If others had been offended or irritated by it, then she was going to pray that they could come to terms with it, but she wasn’t going to apologize for venting. Had she raised her voice to her mother and the Aunts? Probably. She’d yelled quite a lot that night. So for that she could’ve offered an “I’m sorry,” but they’d covered that already, and she felt they were good now. As for the girls ...
“Come on over here and give me my hug,” she heard Vi saying to Necole.
Aunt Rose had walked over to where Rita and Taryn now stood and swatted Taryn on the butt. “I remember when I could wear little shorts like that. You’ve definitely got my legs.”
To that Taryn had grinned. “You used to wear booty shorts, Aunt Rose?”
Aunt Rose struck a pose. “Girl, you ain’t nevah seen a booty like the one I used to have.”
“Used toare the operative words,” Aunt Ceil added.
Rita was shaking her head and grinning at the women in her family when it occurred to her what Jemel had done. She’d gathered them all together to make amends for what had happened this weekend. And they were doing so by preparing a delicious meal to share. It was no wonder Rita loved her family.
“Hey, y’all.”
Sharae’s voice had Rita’s smile slipping and her gaze turning to the doorway, where her cousin now stood.
Jemel came in from the deck at that moment, almost as if she’d been hiding out until this particular guest arrived. “Oh yay, gang’s all here,” she said and hastily made her way over to Rita.
She grabbed Rita’s hand and pulled her toward Sharae. Then she took Sharae’s hand and hustled them both into the living room.
“Well,” Rita said when the three of them were standing in the center of Jemel’s all-white living room. “I guess subtlety is out the window now.”
Sharae moved to set her purse on the chair. “That was never her strong point.”
“Hush it, both of you,” Jemel said. “Now, I’ve been left to deal with the Aunts, the concerned text messages from Tariq, Ivan, and Benny, and the plans for the event by myself these past few days.”
Because Jemel was standing between them with her hands on her hips like she was their elder sent to scold them, Rita raised her hand. When Jemel rolled her eyes in response, Sharae shook her head.
“If it’s okay to speak ...,” Rita started and put her hand down. “I’ve been emailing you about the event, and you and I spoke on the phone day before yesterday.”
Jemel gave an exasperated sigh. “We always talk every day. Since we were old enough to talk, that’s been the case.”
She wasn’t lying about that. Their mothers had always lived close, and the Johnson sisters were always at each other’s house, for one reason or another. So the three of them had talked just about every day, until this week.
“We’re not kids anymore, Jem,” Sharae said.
Rita glanced in her direction. Sharae looked good in distressed denim shorts that came to her knee and a simple white T-shirt. It was her face that seemed to have a sort of glow that Rita hadn’t seen before. She figured that could be attributed to a handsome lawyer who just might be exactly what Sharae needed.
“Then the two of you should stop acting like teenage girls who’ve had a fight,” Jemel countered. “Look, I don’t have time to stand here and play referee. Aunt Rose wanted to eat out on the deck, so I gottafinish getting the table set out there.” She pointed at Rita and then turned to aim the same finger at Sharae. “But there’d better not be a piece of furniture out of place or a smudge of anything in here if you two can’t keep this discussion civil.”
“My invitation didn’t say anything about a discussion,” Sharae said and then looked over to Rita. “Did yours?”
