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“No. I’m okay. I can do it. We don’t have much.”
“Okay.” Val smiled.
“I see you’re carrying your own bags,” Kerry pointed out.
“Yeah. I figured I’d give Ernest a break this morning. But this is only until we get to the airport. Then it’s all him,” Val joked and the women laughed. “Please, this bridge ain’t my back.”
“I like him for you,” Kerry said knowingly. “I think he’s—good for you. I see it in his eyes.”
“You really think so?” Val scrunched up her face.
“I know so. Don’t let him get away.”
“Girl, I couldn’t get rid of this fool if I tried. Stuck on me like glue,” Val said and then she added what was a secret even to her until that very moment, “And I like it.”
“You deserve it.” Kerry reached over the threshold and touched Val’s shoulder lovingly.
“Okay. Well, let me get down to the lobby to tell the driver to wait. Think you’ll be ready in, say, ten minutes?” Val peered down at her watch.
Kerry turned and looked into the room at her open bags on the floor, Tyrian sleeping peacefully in the bed, and the window curtain drawn to a sky that was now fully lighted.
She looked back at Val. There was a long pause.
“You’re not coming home, are you?” Val asked.
Kerry stepped over the threshold and kissed Val on the cheek.
Tears began to fall from both women’s eyes as they looked at one another.
“No,” Kerry said. “Not right now.”
“But I can’t just leave you here.”
“You’re not leaving me, Val. You’ve done all you can do. Been a real friend to me—a sister. But now it’s time for me to do my own work. To push myself forward.”
“And you think you need to do that here? In Cuba?” Val asked. She looked into the room at Tyrian, still dreaming. “And with him?”
“I do.” Kerry looked at her son too. “And I think he needs this. To be away from everything. To relax. Build something new.” Kerry turned back to Val, her face wet with new tears. “Look, don’t worry about us. I’m an Atlanta girl. I’ll be back home real soon.”
Val hugged her new friend again and allowed her own tears to flow. She stepped back from the threshold and waved with a weak heart as Kerry closed the door.
DON’T MISS
Have You Met Nora?
by Nicole Blades
An ex-classmate who Nora betrayed many years ago has returned to her life to even the score. She’s a woman who won’t be bought off, reasoned against, or pleaded with. Her machinations are turning Nora’s privilege into one gilded trap after another. Running out of choices, Nora must decide how far she will go to protect a lie or give up and finally face the truth . . .
Chapter 1
Nora opened her eyes and stared through the darkness at the ceiling. Three twenty-eight, she thought, before rolling up off her back a little and craning her neck to look just past Fisher’s shoulders at the blue numbers on the clock by his nightstand. He was dead asleep, the rhythmic flow of his deep breathing like white noise. The numbers gleamed: 3:41 AM. Close enough, she thought, and returned to the ceiling. Although Nora had long been an early riser—she couldn’t remember a time when she had slept later than the sun—this was different.
She eased the covers off and slid out from under Fisher’s muscled arm, moving slow and steady toward the edge of the bed. She hopped down, landing with a soft thud, and then froze, shifting her eyes back to Fisher. No change. Not even a break in the beat. Nora grabbed her iPhone and padded along the hall. The moon, pushing through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse, provided more than enough light for Nora to find the handle to the mini champagne fridge that Fisher bought for her last year. Nora gave the half-drunk bottle of Armand de Brignac—a gift from a client—her deepest bow with prayer hands before grabbing it and shutting the fridge door with her foot. She pulled the orange stopper from the bottle, letting it drop to the floor, and started typing into her phone on her way to the bathroom at the far end of the penthouse. Nora waited until she was inside the empty, freestanding tub before taking her first, long swig from the bottle. She rested her phone on the ledge of the tub and pressed a button on a remote that sent the massive blinds skyward. Nora stayed there in the empty basin, soaking in the city’s glow, and waited.
Her phone buzzed and vibrated against the acrylic. She took another sip before answering it.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” a croaky voice said.
