It was the perfect day for swimming, and I’m glad Mama suggested we all take a dip. Alessia dressed for the occasion but never actually got into the water. She just stomped around the backyard, cursing Jace’s name and screaming. Hopefully, all the neighbors were at work. I rather enjoyed the brief diversion from violent thoughts. Even though Less and I had fun plotting Jace’s demise, I didn’t enjoy feeling so unhinged. Sophia always enjoyed the water, so I didn’t have to wonder how she was. My parents, though… Well, they were…interesting. I was used to Mama being all googly-eyed around Dad, but the interesting part was how smiley he was around her. What she had done to Dwayne still frustrated me, and I wished she would choose one way or the other and accept the consequences. Choose Dwayne and leave Dad alone, or confess her feelings to Dad and cut off Dwayne for good. All that straddling the fence she did really pissed me off. These men weren’t toys she could play with one day and throw in the attic the next. I didn’t doubt that things were complicated like she said; being in love with two men couldn’t have been easy. But this had gone on for much too long, and she needed to be mature about it and choose! Dwayne’s absence spoke volumes, and she didn’t talk about him anymore, so maybe he beat her to the punch and chose for her. Good for him, if that was true. Based on how she’d been eyeing Dad lately, I’d say it might be.
We had as much summer water fun as we could before our skin wrinkled and headed back inside. All day, we waited around for something to happen, but not one contraction came. Eventually, Dad got tired and went home. Naturally, Mama told him he could stay there, but he insisted on going home. Sophia needed to eat and didn’t want to skip out on our date, so we also left and went down the street to Viviana’s, so if something happened we could get back quickly. Mama told us not to rush and said she’d call us as soon as the labor started.
Even though I had plans, I was kind of glad we got a chance to eat there again. I was feeling nosy and wanted to know if Sophia had been right about Yasmine being pregnant. She probably wanted to know as well. I looked around as soon as we arrived but didn’t see her. Maybe she was on maternity leave. Oddly enough, they seated us at a different table for the first time. True, it was right next to our usual table, but still. Since everything was free, I made sure to order the most expensive steak they had. My sweet Sophia order bangers and mash.
“What?” she asked when she caught me eyeing her suspiciously. “Who can resist free mashed potatoes??”
I freakin’ LOVE this woman.
