“What does?”
“Not having to tell someone how to impress me.” She smiles. “Let’s eat.’
I honor her request with a nod.
She starts piling food on her plate and ignoring me. I cross my arms and lean back, assessing her.
This evening is certainly unexpected. Something brought us together tonight. My mother’s death so soon as after we reconciled was a reminder of how fleeting and miraculous life is. The timing is off. We don’t even live in the same city.
When we are forced to go our separate ways tomorrow, we’ll probably never see each other again.
But given how our paths have crossed today, I wouldn’t bet on that.
“Why aren’t you eating?” she asks around a mouthful of food.
“Have you heard of the frequency illusion?”
She nods. “You mean Baader-Meinhof? That’s not a real thing.”
“We both grew up here. Our parents are from Ghana. We have the same birthday but we’ve gone our whole lives without meeting. Then we both happen to be in the same city on the same day, staying at the same hotel.”
She frowns. “Okay, but I live in New York and you live in LA. So unless one of us is moving, it’s not likely.”
The thought is depressing somehow. “Unless wewantto see each other again.”
“Why would we do that?”
“It sounds like a good idea to me.” I shrug.
She throws her head back and laughs out loud.
I’d thought she was pretty, but damn, the way she laughs with her whole face, mouth open, eyes dancing. “That,Kwame, sounds like the first line of a cautionary tale.” She digs back into her food with gusto.
I am a firm believer that what’s for you will find you, whether you want it or not.
This woman is a whirlwind and I’ve been in her path all day. Chaos is the last thing I want but I find myself not wanting this to end. “Stay with me tonight.”
I blurt it out and then immediately wish I hadn’t.
Her smiles disappears and she coughs around the food in her mouth.
“Or not,” I retract my offer with a nervous laugh. “Did I misread?”
“Uh, excuse me.” She grabs her purse and slides out of her seat before I can even ask if she’s coming back.
Chapter Seven
Sin
Change of Heart
I stare at myself in the mirror of Dogon’s dimly lit bathroom.
The woman I see staring back at me is, admittedly, not an iteration of myself I’ve seen recently—bright eyes, glowing skin, not a worry line in sight—but I recognize her.
I have a lot of shit to clear up with Stephen but after what I saw, I know our relationship, as we know it, is over. I’m surprised at how little that realization hurts. In fact, the strongest feeling I have right now is relief.
It’s time.
