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Thankfully, my aunt’s family is more receptive to Caesar than my parents are. I think my siblings will like him, too, when they get here. Especially Dionne.
“Where’d you get those gorgeous shoes?” Johnny asks, pointing at the buttery Italian leather wingtips Caesar has on. “I’ve never seen ones quite like those.”
“I believe I got them when I was in Milan. I have a big collection of shoes back at home. If you want, I can have some sent for you and your brothers.”
“No way!” my younger cousin Lionel balks. “That’s too much money. What are you, a millionaire?”
“Lionel!” Aunt Denisha hisses. “You can’t run around and ask people how much money they’re making!”
Denisha pats my cheek before approaching my mother. She still doesn’t seem too happy, but at least the sight of her sister warms her up.
“We’ve got your rooms ready,” my mom says.
“The house looks beautiful, Adela.” Aunt Denisha touches my mom’s face. “Hey, what’s wrong, Addie girl? You look like you had a taste of something bad.”
“No, Denisha. I’m fine,” my mother says, convincing no one. I see Aunt Denisha look at her skeptically, then she throws her arm around her.
“And how are you, my beautiful niece?” Uncle Tommy asks. “That’s the new husband, huh?”
“In the flesh.” I stick my hands into my pockets, watching as Caesar shows something on his phone to Johnny and Lionel.
“Just make sure he takes good care of you,” Tommy says.
“I will, Uncle Tommy.”
“And don’t worry about your mama. She’s just protective. She was the same way when I started dating her baby sister, you know.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. She takes a long time to warm up.”
“Well, hopefully not too long.”
The rest of my siblings arrive, and I introduce Caesar one by one.
“I thought I had a lot of siblings,” he says to me.
Loretta pulls out the decades of photo albums and framed pictures that my mom keeps meticulously. We always loved looking at them.
Caesar trails his fingers along the wooden frames, carefully observing each image with delight in his eyes.
“Is that you? In high school?”
I suck in a deep breath. “Yep.”
“She was a beauty in disguise,” Loretta says.
It’s hard not to grimace at what I used to look like. Messy curls. Braces. Big glasses. The epitome of a nerd. “That’s the photo from the robotics team. I think I was the only girl who was even interested in that sort of stuff.”
“Who’s that?” Caesar points to a photo of myself and another girl. She’s blonde, wearing braces like I am.
“That’s Tammy. She was a good friend of mine during high school before she turned boy-crazy.”
“I thought all girls in high school were a little boy-crazy.”
“Not this one,” Loretta says, getting up to join Mama in the kitchen. “Couldn’t get her away from the books. I’ll see you later.” She gives me an encouraging look.
“When the house got too loud, I’d go out there,” I tell Caesar, pointing out the window to the backyard. “No one would come up to follow me.”
