“See,” I said. “I told you that girl is smart.”
“Well, I made it clear to her that I didn’t love him anymore.”
Asia said that with a lot of bass in her voice, like she meant it this time. Like having her daughter shout, “I hate you,” had changed her whole game. Well, I was glad because she deserved someone so much better than Bobby.
“So, are you ready for the party, Sheridan?” I asked.
“Yup!” It was her turn to show off her Colgate smile. “I’m so excited; even Tori is coming home for the weekend.”
“And Christopher doesn’t know anything?” Asia asked.
“Nope. He has no idea about the party and he’s gonna be shocked, especially when he sees his grandmother and uncle and sister there, too. I may not have been at his wedding, but this is going to be a reception that all of us will remember.”
“I can’t wait,” Asia said. “I am so ready to get out and have a good time It’s been way too long for me.”
“Did you invite Quentin and Harmony?” I asked.
A cloud passed right over Sheridan’s eyes. It was there for only a couple of seconds, but just like I’d been thinking for a few weeks now, something was going on. Ever since that day when Sheridan called me and Asia and told us to meet her at the church right away. She’d been so frantic on the phone, but when I rushed into that church and knelt next to her, she was completely calm. She’d said she’d left it all at the altar, and I respected that, but something had happened. And because Sheridan never went over-the-top-drama-queen on me, I suspected that whatever happened was something big.
Sheridan shook her head as she said, “I thought a lot about it and I really don’t like leaving Quentin out of his children’s lives in any way. But I don’t want Chris and Evon to feel any kind of tension . . . so I thought it would be best if he wasn’t invited.” She paused. “And Brock certainly agrees with that.”
I peered at Sheridan just a little longer. My friend wasn’t a very good liar. Or maybe I shouldn’t say she was lying. Maybe it was just that she wasn’t telling the whole truth. But how could I push her? I couldn’t, not when I was the master secret keeper. She’d tell me what was going on in her own time.
“Do you need any help with anything?” Asia asked.
“Nope, everything’s set. Brock’s gonna pick the kids up from the airport and tell them that I’m at home expecting a delivery, but that I’m dying to see them, so they have to stop by for a minute or two.”
Asia clapped her hands. “So much fun.” Her glee died down just a little. “The only thing is, I don’t have a date.” She sighed and looked over at me. “I guess it’ll just be me and you, Kendall. You’ll be my date.”
I looked her dead in her eyes and pressed my lips together.
When I didn’t say anything, Asia frowned, then slowly, her eyes widened. “Wait a minute . . .”
Still, I didn’t move.
She said, “You have a date? Like with a real man?”
Sheridan laughed. “A real man? As opposed to a blow-up one?”
I let the two of them laugh, but I still didn’t say a word.
“Oh. My. God! You better tell me what’s going on,” Asia said as if she really thought she could make that demand of me.
My face was as hard as stone when I finally spoke. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said to Asia.
But then even Sheridan moved to the edge of her seat. “Yeah, you’re hiding something,” she said. “And I’ve known it for a couple of weeks.”
All I did was shake my head. But before my girls could really go in on me, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” I said, thinking it was my assistant saving me from this inquisition.
The door opened slowly, and then I heard the soft cry of a baby, a second before my sister peeked inside. “Hi, Kendall,” Sabrina said in her signature soft voice.
I rose slowly from my chair. “Wow! Sabrina.” It took a moment for my brain to compute that my sister had come to my office. And then I wondered why. There was no reason for her to be here—except to bring bad news. “Is something wrong with Dad?”
“No, no,” she said, now fully stepping inside. “I just wanted to see you. I wanted to talk to you. But it looks like I interrupted something.”
“No,” Sheridan said as she stood. She looked at me, then she looked at my sister. When I said nothing more, Sheridan did what she always did; she took over. Holding out her hand, she said, “You’re Kendall’s sister, Sabrina. I’m Sheridan.” Then she pointed to Asia, the only one still sitting, “And this is Asia. We’re good friends of Kendall’s.”
“It’s so nice to meet you,” Sabrina said.
As I took in the scene in front of me, my best friends meeting my sister, it occurred to me that my sister had no clue who these women were. They knew all about her, but she’d never heard of them. She’d been kicked off Planet Kendall so long ago that she had no idea what was going on in my world.
There were too many moments of silence, but then it was all broken by cooing.
“Oh, your baby,” Sheridan said as she moved closer to Sabrina.
My sister held up the carrier that held my niece. “Yes.” There was nothing but pride all on her face and in her voice when she presented her daughter for Sheridan to see.
Then Asia spoke up in the way that she always did. “Wow! You had a baby!” she exclaimed, spoiling the mood. “With Anthony . . .”
I’d filled Sheridan in but not Asia, for this very reason. I didn’t want to hear her mouth. But now she’d spoken, and I wasn’t sure which glare got to her more—mine or Sheridan’s. But either way we did something that we weren’t often able to do; we shut Asia down.
Looking down, Sheridan said, “Your daughter is beautiful. What’s her name?”
“Ciara,” Sabrina and I said at the same time.
And then Sabrina smiled at me. As if she was pleased and proud, but a bit surprised that I even knew her daughter’s name.
That was when Asia jumped from her chair. “Let me see.” A second later, “Yeah, she’s really cute. She must look just like her father.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I mean,” Asia began. “You’re cute, too, Sabrina. I was just looking at the baby’s coloring. She’s kinda chocolate. Like her dad.”
“Asia,” I said. “Just . . .”
“I know. Let me just sit right back down over here.”
“Don’t sit down at all,” Sheridan said to Asia as she picked up her purse and motioned for Asia to do the same. “We’re going to go now so that you two can talk.”
“You don’t have to leave,” I said to my friends. Then I looked at my sister. “Is there something I can help you with, Sabrina?”
She looked from me to my friends and her eyes settled on Sheridan as if Sabrina thought that out of the three, Sheridan was her best chance to have an ally. “I did want to talk.”
And Sheridan did what Sheridan does. She said, “Well, your timing is perfect because we were just finishing up.” Then, when she stepped over to me, she held me close and said, “Be nice.”
Then it was Asia’s turn. She hugged me and whispered, “Girl, I wish I could be a fly on these walls!”
I pushed her away and chuckled before I walked my friends to the door. When I turned back, Sabrina had placed the carrier atop my desk and she was leaning over the baby.
“Is everything okay with her?” I asked.
“Yes,” my sister said. “Do you want to see her?” She beckoned me with her voice.
“I can see her from here.” I walked away from Sabrina and the baby to the other side of my desk.
The way her shoulders slumped and her smile faded let me know that my words had hurt. It wasn’t like that’d been my objective, but I guess that’s what happened when you didn’t rea
lly care.
I sat in my chair, looked up at my sister, and asked, “So, what did you want?”
“May I sit down?”
For the first time, I noticed how weary my sister seemed. She always spoke softly, that’s why I didn’t catch it at first. But she seemed to be overly tired, which I guess was to be expected with having a newborn.
If she didn’t look so tired, I would’ve told her to just stand. People always spoke more quickly standing, and that’s what I wanted—for Sabrina to say her piece and get out.
But I nodded and Sabrina took her time sinking into the chair in front of my desk. Right away I regretted that decision. She looked so relieved the moment she took the weight off her feet; she was too comfortable already.
As she settled into the chair, I tried to remember the last time when we sat like this, face-to-face, just the two of us. My memory bank was empty; obviously, it was years back, when I still loved her as a sister. Before everything else.
Even after all these years, it was hard for me to understand how Sabrina and I were in this place. There was still a place in my mind’s eye where I saw Sabrina as the little baby doll that my dad brought home when I was just seven and it was love at first hug.
And as my doll grew, she wanted to be just like me. Sabrina practiced walking like me, talking like me, we even dressed alike. And while she tried to emulate me, I adored her. We were so close, or so I thought.
“So, Sabrina, what can I do for you?”
My sister smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. All I saw there was exhaustion. She said, “First, I just want to say this is really nice, Kendall. I walked around the spa a little before I knocked on your door.” She paused as her eyes swept through my office. “I hear women talking about this place all the time. I’m really very proud of you.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re doing such big things, such great things,” she said with the same adoration in her tone that she had when we were kids. That tugged at my heart just a little.
“Well, you’ve done something pretty big yourself.” My eyes moved to the carrier on top of my desk.
That made Sabrina peek inside for a quick check on her daughter before she said, “I don’t want to take up too much of your time.” Her eyes were still on Ciara. “I have a very huge favor to ask you.”
I tried my best not to shake my head, not to even blink. I didn’t want to show any emotion, even though I was feeling a bunch of stuff inside. How in the world could my sister ask me to do anything for her?
She said, “I really am hoping that you’ll consider this, Kendall. It will mean the world to me.”
She was dragging it out, so I pushed her. “Okay, what?”
Sabrina took a deep breath. “I’d really like you to be Ciara’s godmother.”
Was she freakin’ kidding me? She should’ve sent me an e-mail or a text asking this so that she wouldn’t get her feelings hurt right to her face. I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I’m not taking this lightly—after all that’s happened between us. But I think if you got to know her, you would love her. And a godmother is so important. I want Ciara to be in the hands of someone who will love her, and guide her, and teach her . . . that’s what you did for me.”
I shook my head. “Clearly, I didn’t do a good job with that.”
Sabrina looked down, and when she looked back up there were tears in her eyes. “You gave me every good part of you. The mistakes I made were me.”
I reached down inside myself and I still felt . . . nothing. So I shook my head. “But thanks for the invitation.”
She waited a moment and then she looked around my office as if she were waiting for someone to come and rescue her. “That’s it,” she said finally. And then her irritation with me and this situation rose. “This wasn’t an invitation, like an invitation to a party. This was from my heart and it would mean so much to me and Anthony as we start to think about her christening.”
My sister was smart. Just like me, she’d received her MBA, though she chose to go the corporate route rather than run on the entrepreneurial track like me. But she must’ve missed that day in statistics when the probability density function was taught. Because mentioning Anthony’s name at this moment added no value to this discussion. In fact, my ex always subtracted anything that I could ever feel for my sister.
“Well,” I began, “if you keep searching your heart, you’ll be able to find somebody else. Somebody who really wants to do this for you.”
If the tables had been turned, if I’d stolen her husband, and now I’d come to ask for a favor, and my sister treated me this way, this would’ve been the point where I would’ve stood up and stomped out of this room.
But not Sabrina. Her nature was much kinder than mine, her spirit so much more giving. She would’ve been the perfect woman in all ways if betrayal wasn’t part of her character.
She smiled and nodded, even with tears still glistening her eyes. “Okay, I understand. I just wanted to ask you in person.”
She stood and coughed a bit.
That made me frown; that couldn’t be good for the baby. “Are you okay?”
“Not really, just tired.” She looked down at Ciara. “I love this little girl, but I didn’t know it was going to be so much.”
I wanted to ask her how was it to be a mother. You know, all those things that a sister would want to know: was Ciara sleeping through the night, did Sabrina feel all the love that every woman said she experienced giving birth?
But I asked nothing.
“Well,” she said, “I’m going to head over to Dad’s. This is Ciara’s first outing and I wanted her to visit the people most important to me.” She paused and added, “The doctor said that it was fine for Dad to be around Ciara,” as if she felt I really needed to know.
“That’s great,” I said, feeling good about being able to finally say something positive. “Dad’s been taking all the precautions that the doctor told us.”
Sabrina nodded. “He told me all about it, flushing the toilet twice, washing his face and hands, drinking plenty of water.”
The baby gurgled and it was only reflex that made me stand and take a peek. And just like Sheridan had said, Ciara was beautiful.
As if she knew that I was looking at her, the baby blinked like she was focusing, then turned her head toward me. Her lips spread into something that looked like a smile. A smile for me.
I backed away.
Sabrina gave me her own small smile before she hooked the carrier onto her arm and then walked slowly toward the door. When she opened it, she turned back to me. “I hope you’ll reconsider. And if you do, the offer will always stand. I don’t care if Ciara is ten years old; I want you to be her godmother. Not for me, but for Ciara. She deserves the best that I had with you.”
I smiled because that was my way of saying no way and good-bye.
After another moment Sabrina got it, and finally, she walked out the door.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
I didn’t know why it was taking me so long to do this.
It had been on my mind all week, long before Sheridan and Asia came to my office on Tuesday.
Actually, I’d started thinking about it a week ago last Friday when I spent the afternoon with my dad and D’Angelo. When I stayed, my plan had been to have just a couple of forkfuls of shrimp fried rice and then head to my office. But I got caught up in playing games. First, dominoes and then D’Angelo actually went old school and we played Spades.
I was having such a good time that I didn’t even notice the flying time. Not until my dad yawned and through the window I saw that somehow nighttime had traded places with the day.
“When did we turn on the lights?” I asked, seriously wondering since I didn’t remember moving from the kitchen table.
/> “See,” D’Angelo said, “that’s what happens when you’re around a man like me. You lose track of time, you lose your mind . . .”
My father had looked at D’Angelo and me, and then back at D’Angelo. The way they grinned at each other, I actually thought my dad was about to bump fists with this man like they were in a locker room somewhere.
But all my dad did was hug me, hug D’Angelo, then excuse himself, telling us that we could stay as long as we liked, but it was time for him to turn in.
I’d actually been happy about it. It was the first time that my dad had stayed up so long after chemotherapy. And he’d even gone into his bedroom with a smile on his face.
“I think you’re good for my dad,” I said to D’Angelo as I started cleaning up the table. “Thanks for all of this.”
“I keep telling you, no problem. I got to spend time with him and with you. So what’re we gonna do now?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m going home.”
“Okay. Want a ride?”
I laughed. “You know my car’s here.”
He shrugged. “No problem. I’ll have it towed.”
“Do you own a tow company or something?”
“There’s probably one in my portfolio. But even if I didn’t, I’d still tow your car so that we could spend a little more time together.”
“Well, tonight I really do have to get home.”
He lowered his head, shook it a little, and chuckled.
I said, “But what’re you doing tomorrow? Or Sunday? Or Monday?”
He was already grinning when he looked up. “What do you have in mind?”
And so, we’d gone out to brunch on Sunday and then to the movies on Monday. Since that time, I’d spoken to D’Angelo every day. Just casual, how-ya-doin’ chats.
I had to admit, it felt good to have someone to talk to besides Sheridan and Asia. D’Angelo loved sports as much as I did (though he rooted for the wrong L.A. team; he was a Clippers fan). And he was into business as much as I was (though he was pretty secretive about what he did exactly), and then there was the fact that I could beat him in Spades.
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