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5
CARTER
“Could I talk with you in private for a second?” I ask Jada suddenly.
I pull her aside, though Heidi is still trying to listen from behind the bar. Her braids smack on her arms from me pulling, but I’m not about to let my sister hear this.
“You’re not thinking what I’m thinking, are you?” I whisper to her.
“Wait, come on, what are you guys talking about?” Heidi calls out. “I wanna know!”
I shake my head at my sister before Jada speaks.
“What if I was, Carter? What if we did the same thing?”
“You realize what that would mean, right? Deceiving everyone we both know and love?” I can’t believe she is seriously considering doing this. “That’s not practical, Jada.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, who cares if it’s practical or not? Think about itimpractically. We could pretend. We could tell my parents and your mom and they’d be none the wiser. I mean, it would make your momhappy, Carter.”
“It’s true!” Heidi’s voice breaks through us.
I look back at her and glare. “Not helping, sis.”
Heidi shrugs.
“I mean, even if we did it, it would be a lot of hard work to actually fool everyone,” Jada says, beginning to pace back and forth.
“It’d be insane! I mean, us pretending to be a couple. All the while we’re just lying to everyone around us.” Though even as I say it out loud, I’m starting to see the benefits of this whole thing.
Mom would finally get her wish. She’d see that I’m ‘happy’ with Jada. She’s beautiful and clever and funny, after all. Just the sort of girl my mom would gush over her.
I want nothing more than to make her happy, I really do. But how do I deceive her like this, especially when it could be the last thing I ever do to my own mother?
Jada shakes her head. “It would give my parents a reason to stop bringing boys from my church over for dinner. I could finally breathe around them again. I mean, it’s crazy, but like, what if the whole thing could work?”
“You guys just gotta do it right,” Heidi chimes in again. “Make sure your stories are straight and have a plan.”
“Heidi, please,” I tell my sister.
I hate that she’s right, though. It could work. If we put our heads together, we could come up with a way that we can make everyone else happy. And in turn, that could make the two of us happy.
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “I mean, could the two of us really actually make this work? Just showing up at each other’s houses claiming we’ve changed our minds about everything, and now we’re happily in love with one another?”
Jada stops her pacing and looks at me. “Depends on how long we’d have to keep up the charade. Weeks? Months?” She purses her lips, crosses her arms and lets out a huff. “But what if itworks? I can’t stop thinking about how it would fix so much for me.”
“I know,” I admit. “Going on dates, taking photos to send to our parents. Hell, telling my mom that Ithink I’m falling in love with her. It’s all so easy to think about.”
“Is it so unrealistic to think that you could both work together for a goal that would be beneficial to you both?” Heidi cuts in again. “Just think about how you could both get your lives back. You can meet other people on your terms. No pressure from anyone, just you trying to figure out your own happiness.”
Jada looks from Heidi back to me. “Your sister is truly meddlesome, but she has a good point. Carter, wecouldgo back to normal. You can focus on work or your mom’s health without having to hear how you need a woman in your life.”
I nod. “And you could find yourself.”
Jada laughs. “Honestly, you’re probably right. My parents haven’t really given me a chance to think about my future outside of men recently. They’ve been so up my ass that I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
Maybe I have a fantastic job and wealth and a great – although nosy – sister, but I can’t imagine not having a plan for life. I may not love every aspect of my work but at least I have something. Jada doesn’t. She has On the Rocks, this resort, and her parents. She should be allowed to find out who she is.
Even if it’s ridiculous to do it for me, maybe I could do it for her.
