Page 45 of A Lifetime in 30 Days
“I’ve got a pink bathing suit, girl.” Jamaica rolled her eyes and started looking through the pile of suits she’d dropped onto her lap. “I ordered it from Amazon,” she said.
“Amazon sells bathing suits?”
“They sell everything. I keep tellin’ you and Ronni, y’all be missing out.” Jamaica held up another suit. “You try this one on? It’s a two-piece. Sexxxxy!”
“Oh yeah, let me try that one,” Vanna said, and began easing out of the second one. “This one goes in the keeper pile.”
“Definitely,” Jamaica said. “Okay, now let me get this straight: the senior home is putting Granny out because she threatened two of the tenants?”
“Not just threatened them. She mooned them, then waved her gun in Sylvia Randolph’s face. And when the night manager came into Sam’s apartment to try and gain some order, she cursed him out too. Told him she’d beat his ass all up and down the halls.” Vanna shook her head as she accepted the two-piece suit from Jamaica and handed her the other one.
Jamaica laughed. “Girl, you can’t write this shit! I mean, woooowww. Granny’s pushing eighty, and she’s out in these streets fightin’ over some man.”
“And she don’t even want him,” Vanna said. “That’s the kicker. She’s been sleeping with every man she can in that building, whenever she feels like it, so I don’t even know why she’s trippin’ over Sam doing the same thing.”
“It’s different, you know that,” Jamaica said.
“No. That’s the other way around. Men are cool when they cheat but can’t take it when a woman cheats. Granny’s out here in her feelings over Sam, when she’s getting it in with anybody who can get it up.” She pulled the bottom piece up and over her stomach, loving how it smoothed out her side rolls there.
“True, true. But that Sylvia woman was runnin’ off at the mouth too, right?”
Vanna put her arms through the top piece and took a step back so Jamaica could snap it. If she were in here alone, she would’ve worked itlike she put her bra on in the morning, but since Jamaica had brought her silly self in here, she might as well be of some use.
“That’s what Granny said, and she said that’s what really pissed her off. If Sylvia wasn’t gloating and acting like she’d stolen Sam from Granny, then Granny would’ve told her she could have him because his breath stank when he didn’t clean his dentures properly.”
The howl of laughter Jamaica let out from behind her had Vanna chuckling too. “Girl, it’s not funny. When I finally managed to leave my house late this morning and get to the senior building to talk to the manager, they told me I had seven days to get all of her stuff out of the apartment. I told them absolutely not, she’s paid up until the thirty-first, so that’s how long I had to move her out. But I did grab her some clothes and Frito’s food.”
She started her turns as she surveyed this suit in the mirror. It was a darker shade of pink than the first one—which she would never admit to Jamaica did put her in mind of cotton candy. But she liked this almost-fuchsia one too.
“It’s giving great cleavage,” she said.
“Don’t gloat. I swear I hate you big-titty girlies,” Jamaica said.
“Aw, don’t be salty—there’s plenty of room in the pool for you B-cupsters,” she joked.
“Ha ha. That’s why you’ve got a permanent houseguest now, and just when you finally started getting some in-house dick.”
“You’re not funny,” she replied. “That’s not even the worst part—plus, Granny always uses the bigger guest room, which has a bathroom and is the farthest away from mine. But the worst part is, I stepped in Frito-poop this morning.”
Jamaica’s frown would’ve been hysterical if not for the memory of that nasty mess on her bare feet at seven thirty this morning when she’d made her way downstairs to start a pot of coffee. “Granny says he gets nervous poops and forgets to go out to handle his business. I’m like, really? That dog has been to my house a million times, and now he’s nervous.”
“No, he’s nervous because his owner just ran his little ass through the front window of that house,” Jamaica added.
Looking at her through the mirror, Vanna nodded. “You got a point there.”
“So, what’s the verdict? ’Cause you can’t possibly be buying all of these. The pool party is only four hours long. You gonna be making outfit changes like you’re hosting an award show?”
Vanna ran a hand down her very smoothed-out stomach one more time. “Definitely this one and the other one with all the strings on the side. And no, I’m thinking one change. I’ll wear the first one as my party outfit, then put this one on when I’m ready to get in the water.”
“That’s a plan. And that’s definitely the one you get wet ... you know, before Aden gets you even wetter,” Jamaica said with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
Vanna couldn’t help but recall Jamaica’s parting remark when she walked into the conference room later and saw Aden sitting next to Jovani. The call from Jovani’s assistant telling her about this evening meeting at the Metro Police Department had come just as she was leaving the mall with Jamaica. So instead of going home to check on Granny and Frito, she’d driven there. She hadn’t known what to expect from this meeting, but she knew she hadn’t expected to see Aden here.
She hadn’t spoken to him since he’d checked in via text earlier this afternoon. After waiting at her house for the construction guys who had worked on the renovations for his gym to show up, he’d had to get to work himself. That hadn’t been a problem for her; he’d already helped so much throughout the night, with getting Granny and Frito settled, talking to the police who showed up at the house because one of her neighbors had called them, and then talking Vanna down from the ledge she was ready to toss herself over after all that had happened.She’d just made it to her office when his text came in, so nobody had been able to see the way his words made her smile.
Right now, she wasn’t smiling, though, as she moved farther into the room. Aden stood and walked toward her. He touched a hand to her elbow and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek before leading her to a seat between him and Jovani.
“You doing okay?” Jovani asked when she was settled into the chair. “How’s your grandmother?”
