She looked at me for half a second then said her goodbyes to my father and Namier without missing a beat. Shook my father’s hand, nodded at Namier who gave her a genuine smile back and walked out that dining room with her head up like she hadn’t just sat through forty five minutes of my mother picking her apart piece by piece.
I waited until I heard the front door close.
Then I looked at my mother.
She was already looking at me. Calm. Like she’d been expecting this.
“Ma.” I kept my voice low and respectful. “That was a lot.”
She picked her coffee cup up. “Was it?”
“You know it was.” I wasn’t going to go back and forth with her about it. I said what I needed to say and left it exactly there.
She set the cup back down and looked at me with a look that was all too familiar. “Your father and I chose that girl. We put this together. If I’m going to have her carrying the Carter name and raising Carter children then I needed to know what she was made of.” She paused. “She sat at my table, took everything I put in front of her and didn’t crack once. Didn’t embarrass you. Didn’t embarrass herself.” The corner of her mouth lifted just slightly. “She passed.”
I looked at her sideways. “So it was a test?”
“It’s always a test.” She folded her hands on the table. “You’ve been in this family long enough to know that.”
I couldn’t argue with that because she wasn’t wrong. Everything in this family was a test. Always had been.
“Just ease up going forward,” I said. Quiet. Respectful. Leaving it exactly where it needed to be left. “That’s all I’m asking. I need her in order to make things happen. I can’t afford a setback of finding someone else that’s just as qualified,”
My mother looked at me for a long moment. Then she laughed. Small and unbothered, the laugh of a woman who had never once in her life felt the need to explain herself to anybody including her own son.
“Go check on your future wife, Kaseem,” she said, and picked her fork back up like I was already gone.
I stood there for one more second. Then I turned around to walk out.
“Oh, and just so you know, I have eyes and ears everywhere. Next time you decide you wanna have a brawl in your home, at least open up bids so we can have the opportunity to put our money on who we think will win. She may have sat through breakfast like a wholesome and well put together woman, but your home security system shows otherwise. And still, I like that fight in her. Carters aren’t pushovers. Good day son!” my mother spoke, and just like that, I was dismissed.
—
Tattiana was already in the truck when I got outside.
Sitting on her side, arms folded, looking straight ahead. She’d gotten in and gone quiet like she was holding something in that she didn’t have the energy to let out yet. The breakfast had bothered her and rubbed her the wrong way. I knew it even if she’d never say it.
I got in and closed the door behind me. My driver pulled off without a word.
I reached into my jacket pocket and held her phone out without looking at her. I was gonna wait til we were back inside the house but after what just happened, I needed to do some shit quickly to smooth things over. Although I knew I was in control, I just didn’t like that shit my mother did. Tatti was the only outsider and I didn’t want her to feel like I walked her into a trap. Her phone was my peace offering right now.
She took it. Fast. Like she’d been counting down the time, waiting for that moment since she woke up this morning and the only thing that had kept her moving through my mother’s entire interrogation was knowing this was on the other side of it.
“One hour,” I said.
“I know.”
“Even when we get home, remember, somebody’s listening to every word.”
“You said that already.” She was already unlocking it. Already moving through her contacts with a focus that told me this wasn’t just a routine check in. Whatever this call was, she needed it. She’d sat through Zuri Carter for forty five minutes and swallowed every single thing she wanted to say just to get to this moment right here. The call had to be hella important.
I kept my eyes forward, but I couldn’t lie like I wasn’t curious.
She pulled up a contact, pressed call and turned slightly toward the window. The line rang twice before somebody picked up.
“Hey,” she said. Her whole voice changed. Not softer exactly — just different. The hard edges she’d been carrying since yesterday dropped about three notches and somethingunderneath them came through that I hadn’t heard from her yet. “I know I’m late. I couldn’t get to a phone.” She paused and listened. “I’m fine. Everything is fine and I’m sending it now on Zelle.” Another pause. “I know. I know, I said I’m fine.” She laughed a little at something the person said and it was so quick and so real that I almost turned my head.
I didn’t.
