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“Here you are ...” Billie said, kicking me under the table and making the glasses shake so that Kayla knew what was happening.
“I know ... I know,” she started. “He’s just gotten a divorce, and you two probably think I’m the Wicked Witch of the West. But the whole thing wasn’t my idea. Richard was in Birmingham, trying to figure out a way to tell his wife it was over. Before we knew that we were anything more than a tour guide and a passenger, he told me that the whole marriage had been arranged.” Kayla looked up at the ceiling fan above our table, her head tossing almost unnoticeably with each turn and I could tell that the blue liquor was probably getting to her and making her tell more than she should, but I wasn’t about to stop her.
“He got her pregnant on prom night and her father and his father said they had to get married, so Richard did it. Only she miscarried a few days after the wedding. He stayed anyway, thinking it was what a man should do. But after fifteen years of living with someone he wasn’t in love with, he wanted out. He just had to tell her ...”
“Damn! That has got to be the saddest shit I’ve ever heard. More sad than hungry kids in Ethiopia and Hurricane Katrina combined.... Damn!”
“Shut up, Billie,” I said.
“No, she’s right. It is sad. But the one thing happy that came from it is us.”
“But you have to be scared,” I said. “You left your whole life behind to move down here to be with a man who could be on the rebound?”
“Journey Lynn! Do you have to suck the life out of every dream?” Billie hollered, slamming her fist on the table jokingly. “Kayla, do you have a stun gun, because I need to put her down?”
We all laughed, but I was serious. Even if Richard knew he didn’t love Deena, how could he know he loved Kayla in just three months?
“I know it sounds crazy,” Kayla said. “But not as crazy as it feels when I’m not with Richard. And even less crazy than it feels when I’m with him. So I figured I might as well do the least crazy thing and just move. I tried not to do it this fast. But he kept begging me to come. Said I didn’t have to work or anything. ‘Leave everything behind,’ he kept saying. And he had me wrapped around his finger with that Southern talk of his. These Southern men are something else. Strong and sweet. Real men, who just want to take care of you and love you. They don’t make men like that up North anymore.”
“Oh, please,” Billie said with her voice as dry and bitter as mustard. “Stay a while!”
“I wanted to be with Richard so badly that I just woke up one day and packed my bags,” Kayla went on.
“But what if it doesn’t work?” I asked.
“You know, I don’t think I even care. I’m thirtyfour. I know how to pack my bags when I’m ready to go. I haven’t even sublet my apartment yet—you don’t let go of New York real estate. I’m in love, but I’m not crazy. I told Richard I need a marriage certificate before I do that. I’m a big girl.... I mean, haven’t you ever felt this way? Like in love and like you were willing to do anything for it? Just to feel it?”
“Girl, you’re preaching to the choir up in here,” Billie shouted, high-fiving Kayla over the table.
“It’s like nothing else matters. Just you and him—that’s how it is with me and Richard.”
“Yeah, I felt that way
about someone once, too. Only thing was half the women in Tuscaloosa feel the same way about him,” Billie cut in, her eyes averted and sad. “Linda!” she called to the waitress, “I need another martini!”
Standing by the bar, Linda shook her head no and held up her hands like she was managing a steering wheel.
“What about you, Journey? I’m sure you feel that way about your husband,” Kayla said to me.
“Yes, I love Evan. But I just.... I’d never do anything that crazy.”
“You know, I think love should be crazy. Like that should be a basic requirement,” Kayla said. “That love should make you feel something. Like in those songs Luther used to sing—just yearn for somebody to come home. And feel sick if they don’t. Love should be crazy like that.”
“Jalapeno pepper beneath your tongue crazy,” Billie announced.
“Headless chicken crazy!” Kayla added and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Bobby and Whitney crazy!” Billie topped it off, slapping her hand on the table.
“Hell, yeah, that’s it right there. Bobby and Whitney crazy love,” Kayla said emphatically.
“What?” I asked.
“Yeah, you know, imagine how she must’ve felt when his ghetto behind came sniffing around her skirt? She had it going on. Probably had princes and sheiks and all that after her, but no, Bobby stepped in and laid it down,” Billie joked.
“Yes, he did!”
“So this is about sex?” I asked.
