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But who the fuck is loving me?
I was twenty-nine, and still alone. Laying in my bed on Thanksgiving, arguably the biggest American family holiday there is. Yup. Raj was right: it was time for me to reset my shit.
ChapterThirteen
I brought a cup of coffee to my mouth for a sip as Rachel, Kelly-Ann’s sister, entered the dining room.
“Damn,” she gestured to my laptop on the table that I’d been on. “You don’t let work go, huhn?”
At first, I couldn’t decide on my response. It was Thanksgiving morning, and we were at Kelvin’s family’s house, where dinner would be. We came over in the morning because Kelly-Ann’s car was in the shop, and she wanted to help her family cook. Also, Scott’s second cousins were in town for the holiday, and they wanted to hang out. So, I brought my laptop with me, only I wasn’t performing work duties the hospital paid me for. I’d been on the hunt for an apartment and tweaking my resignation letter.
I decided on a smile. “What were you working on in there?” They’d been at it since before we arrived an hour ago.
“I cut up my vegetables for the roast.” She rolled her eyes, voice lowering to a whisper, “I needed to get the hell out of there before I cussed out one of those bitches…” Her top lip lifted in a snarl, revealing her gold-capped tooth—an eighties thing. Even white girls emulated Black culture, still do. There were pictures around the house with her rocking the8 Balljackets I’d seen my father in, in my grandmother’s old photo albums. It was hilarious. Rachel had two kids, both by Black men, too. “I said, I’mma come out here to stay out of trouble.”
Oh, lord…
We typically spent Thanksgiving here at Kelvin’s family’s home, so I felt comfortable enough to stay with Kelly-Ann and Scott, as opposed to dropping them off, and going back to my house, only to have to drive back for dinner. Kelly-Ann’s family were the Nelsons. There were three sisters, all of whom were relatively close. I guessed they displayed the typical emotional seesaw behavior of siblings. They loved like sisters, and fought like them, too. It was hard to tell for me: I had no siblings to speak of.
The Nelson sisters came from a two-parent household, and lived in this very home. Kelly-Ann, being the oldest, inherited the house when their parents died. However, when Kelvin made it into theLeague, he purchased an even larger home for his mother. Rachel felt the house should have gone to her, since she was the next in line chronologically. It had been rumored that Marcia, the youngest sister, was favored by Kelly-Ann. That could have possibly been why Kelly-Ann told both sisters they could move in once she’d left for her luxury home years ago, instead of going in the pecking order. That still didn’t sit right with Rachel.
Rachel, the second oldest of the Nelson clan, ambled into the room for a chair closest to me at the dining room table. I knew right away what it meant.
Gossip.
And their southern accents made the fodder even more entertaining.
Rachel leaned toward me. “She in there playing boss like we ain’t all grown.”
“Who?”
“Who the hell else?” Her head rounded as she spoke. “Your goddamn mother-in-law! We do this shit every year. This year it changes because you got car issues?” she referred to Kelly-Ann. “Tell me why you ain’t got your car, Kelly-Ann! Huhn?” Rachel rolled her eyes then flipped her hair. That struck a thought. All the Nelsons had a gradient of blond hair, including the parents. Rachel, here, was the only brunette.Talk about the black sheep of the family. “Weallknow Kelvin did something to the car. The car drove just fine—hell! It just passed inspection the week before. Then Kelvin started driving it after leaving that mandated, drug rehab program. And all of a sudden, something’s wrong? She don’t like to talk about that there, though.”
I pulled my cup of coffee between my palms, elbows resting on the table. Kelly-Ann never told me what was wrong with the car. She rarely drove it even before Kelvin crashed hisBMW. It was in pretty good condition. She drove it to Kelvin’s court date on Monday morning as I was leaving out for work, but I noticed Marcia had dropped her off that evening, well after I’d gotten home. I didn’t ask, so wrapped up in my own conundrum of a future.
“Does she know what’s wrong with it?”
She rolled her eyes again. “Tuh! Something with the engine. I heard Marcia telling Cousin Sam about it the other day. But Kelly-Ann don’t wanna focus on the truth. She likes to criticize everybody else, and don’t like to share her own dirty laundry. She in there bitchin’ ‘bout how the fridge is on its way out, and that she told me to have somebody come take a look at it or replace it.” She clamped her palms to her wide waist. “Do I look like I got money shooting from my pussy?” Rachel counted on her hands. “I got Lil’ Jeremy’s sports, Layla’s gymnastics, still gotta pay my part here, and I done been cut down to part-time at theDixie Pig! I ain’t got no rich daughter-in-law. My kids don’t make good money!”
This was the same list of grievances I’d heard over the years from Rachel, who I liked a lot. None of the sisters were well off or particularly successful by any measure, but Rachel was the most down to earth. She kept it real, even when it was ugly. And, typically with the Nelson sisters, it was ugly.
“I’m sorry to hear that. What’s wrong with the fridge?”
“The light keep flickerin’, and Marcia swears it don’t stay cold consistently. But who is Kelly-Ann to tell us what to do with our fridge? She don’t even live here. She need to be worried about what’s going on with her son!” Rachel glanced over her shoulder before leaning toward me again. “You know she mad at you for not going to Kelvin’s court date on Monday. Right?” My neck whipped back. “Yup. The nerve of her!”
The nerve of her was right. Kelly-Ann didn’t have to support my decision to leave her son, but she could in no way criticize me either. She hadn’t mentioned anything to me about this, something she’d had plenty of opportunity to.
We live in the same house!
“She said it made him look bad to the judge that you weren’t there. Said Kelvin looked heartbroken and lonely with those cuffs on, standing before the judge. Marcia said the judge ain’t have no pity for Kelvin this time. You see all that time he gave him!”
I shook my head. “Time?” When Kelvin crashed his car on school property, the judge finally mandated a drug rehab program. But because Kelvin had always been treated with kiddie gloves in his hometown, and even state, the judge made it a short-term, ten-day program to begin immediately. Kelvin only stayed four of the ten days. I didn’t think of the consequences of him leaving prematurely, so emotionally torn between my need to get off this cycle with him and beginning a sexual relationship with Tobias. Kelvin’s shit had finally been placed on the back burner of my immediate worries. “She hasn’t mentioned anything. I assumed the judge would only have him stay in the program longer.”
“He is! Try nine months!” Rachel’s eyes were wide with disbelief herself.
“Whoa!” I blinked hard. “In a drug rehab?”
“The judge said if he fucks this one up, Kelvin’s going to prison!”
