Page 43 of Happy Is On Hiatus
Jemel frowned and jerked away so hard she stumbled back a couple of steps. Then she pitched forward, holding her arms out like she was an airplane, in an effort to steady herself and keep from meeting the concrete in an embarrassing splatter. “You can close your eyes and turn around too,” she said and then hiccupped so loud and hard her entire body vibrated.
In the next seconds, Jemel was running down the parking lot, stopping so fast that Rita really did think her butt was gonna meet the asphalt. That was when Rita realized Jemel was standing right next to Nate’s gold Lexus. He’d pulled into the spot headfirst, so she’d probably spotted the license-plate frame with the McCall Motors logo on it. She pumped her fists in the air and did a victory dance like she’d just scored the winning touchdown, instead of standing in a dark parking lot about to break the law.
“Jemel Nikkita Coleridge, you get yourself over here ... right ... now!” Rita hush-yelled like she thought they were in church and then looked around to make sure nobody else was in the parking lot to hear her.
Jemel waved her away and crouched down low so Rita could no longer see her. “Jemel,” she hush-whispered this time. “Dang it!” She stomped and then turned again to confirm that she hadn’t seen anybody in the parking lot. Not even Sharae.
She should run down there and find her, pull her drunk behind up, and drag her back into the hotel. But when she took the first step, those mojitos really hit, and the entire parking lot swayed like a broken TV screen.
“Run for it!” she heard and then felt a swoosh of air in the next seconds as Jemel ran past her.
Taking off behind Jemel, Rita wanted to curse and scream before they were side by side at the hotel’s secondary entrance.
“Stop looking guilty,” she hissed, yanking Jemel’s hand away from the door handle. “Catch your breath so we can walk back in there normally.”
“I gotta pee,” Jemel whined and then held up her pocketknife. “But I slashed the hell outta his tires!”
“Shhh!” Rita pushed down the hand holding the knife. “It figures you scared the piss outta yourself with that stupid stunt.”
Jemel rolled her eyes. “Only you could still manage to chastise when you’re drunk and just caught your husband cheating ... again!”
Rita didn’t respond to that. Instead, she pushed the button to call for the elevator while Jemel focused on standing upright. Her face had gone ashen, and she looked like she was struggling to fight both pissing on herself and losing her dinner all over the tiled floor. Their room was on the fifth floor, and they made it inside in just enough time for Jemel to jet to the bathroom.
Tired, irritated that Nate could still hurt her, and now extremely sleepy, Rita fell facedown on the bed closest to the door. Sharae had been lying on the other bed.
“She did it, didn’t she?” Sharae asked.
“You knew she would,” Rita said. “You should’ve helped me drag her irrational behind up here instead of leaving.”
“Nah, the last thing I need is to be at the scene of another family-involved crime.”
That comment had Rita turning so that she could look at Sharae. “I’m sorry.”
Sharae quickly held up a hand to stop anything else Rita was going to say. “Stop. I told you that’s over. And to be clear, I’d do it again. So just drop it.”
But there was something bothering Sharae, and if it wasn’t her job, Rita couldn’t figure out what else it could be. Rita could barely figure out her own life right now, let alone attempt to decipher what was going on in someone else’s.
When Jemel finally came out of the bathroom, she held a wet cloth to her forehead.
“Feel better?” Rita asked as she stood and fished out a bottled water from her duffel bag. She gave the water to Jemel.
Jemel accepted it with a half nod. “Li’l bit,” she said and opened the water to take a very slow sip.
Sharae grinned and shook her head. Jemel sat on the bed beside her, and Sharae wrapped an arm around Jemel’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Rita said, her face smashed against the floral bedspread. She was either tipsy or just too damn stressed to care about the yuck factor of her face touching the hotel spread she’d yet to spray down with Lysol.
“I can’t believe you didn’t help me,” Jemel replied and reached behind her to find a pillow. She pounded the flat pillow and then cupped it between her arm and her head as she lay gingerly on her side.
“I can’t believe I had to leave the two of you down there so I didn’t witness any more law breaking this month,” Sharae added.
She sat at the end of the bed where Jemel was lying and reached down to take off her sandals.
“I should’ve busted his windows too,” Jemel added and then groaned because she was obviously feeling nauseated again.
“And what good was that gonna do?” Rita raised herself up on her elbows and stared over at Jemel. “He went right back to sitting with her at that table. They probably have a room here. Taryn said he was staying at a hotel.”
“Not at this hotel, Rita,” Sharae added. “This is three hours away from the dealership and the girls. Why would he stay down here?”
