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She looks back at me. “When are you leaving?”
“After the funeral tomorrow. How about you? Are you staying?”
She shakes her head. “I’ll be back in New York in a week or two.”
“Why has the line stopped moving?” Duke’s voice booms across the room as he strides in. Everyone shifts down a seat and he drops his visibly drunk body into the chair next to her and looks up at me with cold eyes. “How nice of you to come.” He doesn’t spare Porsha a second glance before he turns to address the person next her.
“I’ll see you when I get back to the city,” Beth says.
“Okay.” I give her a small smile and move down to Phil.
“Hey, man.”
“Hey, thank you for coming,” His eyes are hollow and unfocused. I feel guilty for not being even slightly moved by Andrew Wolfe’s passing, and I don’t want to linger here anymore.
When we get to the front door, I look back at her one more time. She’s shaking hands. I hate leaving her here. She is alone. She looks wrecked.
“She’ll be okay.” Porsha puts a hand on my shoulder as if she can read my mind.
I nod and I start to turn around when I catch Duke watching me with open contempt on his face. He looks away when we make eye contact, the muscle jumping in his cheek tells me I didn’t imagine what I saw.
We’re walking down the porch steps to wait for the rest of our party. “So, she’s married to Biff Tannen’s doppelgänger?”
I chuckle at the movie reference. “Yeah.”
“He hates you.” She says.
“We have a complicated history.”
“I don’t think it’s history, at all.” she says and she looks at me with sad eyes. “You’ve got stuff to figure out.”
I sigh and nod. “I know.”
“And we should probably break up.”
I nod. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. You’re much nicer than your brother.”
I look at her askance. “What does that mean?”
“Ugh, that was awful” Penn groans when they come out onto the porch and Porsha gives me a tight smile before she turns to face.
“Where’s Jack?” I ask when I realize he’s not with her.
“He’s eating, I told him I’d ride back with you.”
“I’ll stay, make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble,” Porsha says. She lifts onto the balls of her feet and gives me a kiss. “See you.”
I understand she’s saying goodbye, and as much as I like her, all I feel as I walk to the car with Penn is relief.
57
Carter
Icing on the cake
We stop at the Hot Griddle on our way the airport after the morning after the funeral. I’m in knots over not being able to be there for Beth. And as luck would have it, Duke is there stuffing his face like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
