It was a few days before Thanksgiving, and for the first time in a long time Alecia didn't have plans. She didn't want to go skiing, and she didn't want to be bothered with the families of any of the men who'd invited her to meet their folks, but she didn't want to be alone, either. She didn't consider Thanksgiving a major holiday, but it was a special day, and she always liked feeling special on special days. That wasn't going to happen if she lay in bed all week.
She knew she'd have to take action if she wanted results. No matter what the day would bring, she had to face it. Reluctantly, she threw back her Sferra Bros. lime-green duvet cover and three-hundred-thread-count lavender sheets and jumped out of bed. Deep purple and lime green were the color scheme of her bedroom. The rest of her condominium was decorated with the same bright California-inspired colors: The furniture was modern and varied, in outlandish sizes and artistic shapes.
After slipping into her Hanro of Switzerland robe and slippers, she sauntered into her living room, past her bright red sofa, to her plush sheepskin rug, and picked up her Louis Vuitton Palm case. Then she walked over to her dining-room table, sat down, and went through her addresses, starting with the letter A. Most of the entries were male. Being in the company of any of the names listed seemed too much of a chore. She only wanted to be with William, but she knew that was not going to happen. William would be spending time with his family, sitting at the head of the dinner table, carving the turkey.
The thought of spending time with her own family crossed her mind. It had been a while since she had spent a weekend with them. Maybe it would do her some good to be home. Instead of thinking too hard about it, she picked up the phone and called the airline. She wasn't going to ask anyone to pay for the trip—she would take care of it herself. She would use some of her frequent-flier miles and book a flight to Dallas to spend time with her mother and sister.
ARMED WITH A bouquet of flowers for her mother and a handful of fashion magazines for her younger sister, Alecia propped her luggage next to her and rang the doorbell to her childhood home. She felt giddy as she thought about how excited her mother and sister would be to see her. It was late in the morning, and, if she knew her family, they were just now starting to get dressed for the day. She looked around at the outside of the ranch-style, three-bedroom home. It needed a paint job, but her mother had done an exceptional job of keeping up the yardwork on their spacious lawn.
The door flew open and Alecia's sister, Tabitha Renee, stood at the door in faded jeans and a T-shirt. She was still wearing her sleeping scarf. After taking one look at Alecia, she let out a screech so loud it could easily have been heard throughout the working-class neighborhood. Tabitha hopped onto the front porch and threw her arms around Alecia, almost causing her to drop her gifts.
“What are you doing here?” Tabitha cried out.
“I was in the neighborhood, so I figured I'd drop by and surprise you guys.”
“Well, you've done your job.” Tabitha turned around and yelled in the house, “Mom, Alecia is here!”
Before Alecia could catch her breath, her mom, Gloria Marie, was at the door, as excited as Tabitha. “Alecia, honey, what are you doing here?”
“Tabitha asked me the same question. It is Thanksgiving, isn't it? I thought it would be a good idea to spend it with my family. These are for you.” She handed the flowers to her mother.
“These are nice, but where's my hug?”
Alecia embraced her mom. She could see their resemblance. She would look like her mother as she aged, only better, she assured herself. Her mother carried extra weight from age, which looked good on her; however, Alecia swore she'd not gain weight when she got older.
“We've been up for about an hour, but we're just now getting dressed. My friend Lou is picking us up in his limo and taking us out to breakfast. He's a limousine driver, by the way. Are you gonna go with us?” Gloria asked.
Before Alecia could answer, Tabitha grabbed at the magazines.
“These are for you,” Alecia proudly announced, handing them to her.
“Oh good! Did you bring me anything else?”
“Can I get inside first?”
“Oh yeah,” Tabitha said, and held open the door.
Alecia grabbed her suitcase and lifted it inside, and her mom and sister followed her.
“Louisa is gonna be at her mother's today,” Gloria commented while pulling at the rollers in her hair. “She asked if you were going to be in town.”
“Oh, really? How's she doing?” Alecia asked.
“Well, you know, she's on the radio every day,” her mom said.
“Are you going to hang out with her?” Tabitha asked.
Alecia looked at her younger sister. She was an overdeveloped, over-excited teen who hadn't had enough of a childhood, just as Alecia hadn't, because their mother was too busy schooling them on how to get every last dime out of a man's pocket to have ever played with them. “You're growing up much too fast,” she said.
“No I'm not. You just don't visit often enough, and you're missing the process.”
“Hush, Tabitha,” Gloria said. “Alecia, I'm glad you're here. We're going out for Thanksgiving dinner because I didn't feel like cooking this year. Plus, my new friend Caleb owns this hot, new soul-food restaurant, and he wants me to have dinner over there with him.”
“The food is good, Alecia—you'll like it,” Tabitha said.
“You're not cooking?” Alecia said, disappointed. Some things never changed around that house. Her mother was still exposing Tabitha to too many men, and Tabitha seemed not to mind.
“Well, Alecia, I didn't know you were coming, and everybody else in the family decided to stay home this year.”
“It'll be fun, Alecia,” Tabitha said. “Caleb is cool, and it's a nice place, and the food is good.”
“Whatever,” Alecia said, sulking like a child.
“Look at you,” her mother fussed. “You always have been spoiled. Think the world revolves around you. We're eating at the restaurant tonight, and that's the end of this discussion. Plus, it's free, and, like Tabitha said, the food is good.”
Gloria pulled a few more rollers out of her hair. “I'm getting dressed. Lou will be here soon. Now, Tabitha, if you're coming, you need to finish getting dressed yourself. You know how slow you are.” She turned and walked to her room.
“Okay, Mom, I will,” Tabitha said. “Why are you tripping, Alecia? You know things don't change around here. Mom has a flock of boyfriends. She always has, always will. How else could we afford this house?”
“I know,” Alecia said, disappointed and embarrassed about the circumstances surrounding the place that used to be her home. “So, how have you been?” she asked, changing the subject.
“I'm hanging in there, just waiting on responses from my college apps.”
“How many did you apply to?”
“Five. I applied to USC and UCLA so that I can be close to you. But if all else fails, I'll go somewhere around here.”
“With your grades, you'll get into UCLA.”
“Yeah, hopefully, but it's a scholarship that will make the difference,” Tabitha said.
“You just get in. We'll worry about tuition when the time comes.”
“So how are things in Cali?” Tabitha asked.
“Great,” Alecia replied.
“How's the acting thing coming along?”
“I'm going through the motions. You know, submitting head shots and auditioning,” Alecia lied. She hadn't had new head shots made in nearly two years, and she couldn't remember when she'd last auditioned for a part or taken an acting class. Alecia was not much different from her mother: She had also made a career of being a professional girlfriend, only in Alecia's world, the stakes were higher and the rewards greater.
She had dropped out of college after only two years but in that time took classes that would be beneficial in helping her secure a wealthy husband, life-enhancing skills like her foreign language and investment classes. She w
as very intelligent, just like her mother and sister, but getting a degree and working a nine-to-five job never appealed to her nature.
“Are you still wearing the ring I got you?” Alecia asked her sister. She checked Tabitha's hands, seeing it wasn't on her pinky.
“Tabitha, please don't tell me you—”
“Calm down, big sister. I always take off my ring when I get dressed in the morning. The lotion was dulling the stones. Don't have a conniption. I'm still a virgin, and I'm still trying to get my convertible.”
Alecia sighed. She found peace just seeing that ring on Tabitha's finger whenever she visited. She'd bought it for her on her fourteenth birthday and made her vow that she would at least wait until she graduated from high school before losing her virginity. Alecia stressed to her that she hoped she'd wait until she was married, but that she'd be proud of her for holding out until graduating. She further promised her a new car of her choice if she held out through college graduation.
“In that case, I do have something else for you,” Alecia said. “Let's go back to your room.” Alecia's room had been turned into a TV room when she moved out, but Tabitha's had twin beds in it. Alecia slept in one of them whenever she was home.
The phone rang. “I've got it!” Gloria yelled back to the girls. A few minutes later she announced, “Louisa's on the phone.”
Alecia picked up. “Hello?”
“Alecia Jewel Parker.”
“Louisa Montero!”
“What's up?”
“Just catching up with Tab. When did you get here?”
“Oh, about an hour ago. I didn't think you'd be here. So what are your plans? How long are you staying? I'd love to catch up with you,” Louisa said.
“I have no concrete plans. I'll be here until Sunday night.” Alecia opened her suitcase to find some items to give to her sister. “There is a jewelry store that I've been hearing about that I'd like to check out.”
“I see that diamonds are still your best friend,” Louisa joked.
“Always have been. Probably always will be. Friends are flaky, diamonds stand the test of time.”
“I'm not hearing that. I'm always trying to reach out to you, but since you've been in L.A., you've become all incognito.”
“I've just been focused, that's all,” Alecia replied.
She kept her distance from her handful of friends, like Louisa, because she was the only one of them who didn't have a career or a husband. She didn't want a career, so once Alecia had snagged a husband, she felt that Louisa would be more than welcome to visit them in their mansion in Malibu.
“I know how you are. That's why I'm coming over there right now, because if I don't catch you, I probably won't see you again for another two or three years.”
“Okay, Louisa, I'm dying to see you too. Just push the door open—it's unlocked.”
Alecia hung up the phone, ran to the dresser, and looked in the mirror. Louisa's mom's house was just next door, so she had very little time to freshen her face.
“Why are you primping? It's just Louisa,” Tabitha said.
“Oh hush, and hand me my makeup bag.”
TABITHA AND GLORIA went off to have breakfast with Lou, while Alecia rummaged through her mom's kitchen cabinets to find mugs and coffee for her and Louisa to sip on while they chatted, catching up and remembering old times.
“You treat me so bad now, but you forget I'm the best friend you've ever had, that you used to call me your twin. How soon we forget that I slapped Danika for you when she took your lip gloss and didn't want to give it back.”
“I remember like it was yesterday. You had my back. But who let you sit by her on the bus when you didn't speak a bit of English?” Alecia stood in the kitchen with a coffee filter in her hand. She couldn't figure out how to work the coffeemaker and didn't want to take the time to learn. “Louisa, could you help me? Mom's coffeemaker is not like mine.”
Louisa got up and removed the filter from her hands. “You're right. I was the lone Latina girl that nobody could communicate with, but that's all right.”
Alecia watched Louisa work her magic with the coffeemaker.
“Take a seat,” Louisa said. “I'll handle this.”
“But I didn't care. I thought you were intriguing, exotic. Cute. Not as cute as me, but cute enough to be my friend.”
“So vain. Still so vain! But who taught you to speak Spanish?”
“I taught myself. How else was I gonna communicate with you?”
They laughed.
Alecia plopped down in the chair, the same one she'd sat down in day after day, every morning for breakfast and every afternoon to do homework after school. It was comforting to be home. “Well, maybe you taught me a little, but I was a fast learner,” Alecia said.
“We both bridged the language barrier pretty quickly,” Louisa replied.
“And we were like peas in a pod ever since.”
“Yeah, until we graduated high school.”
“It's amazing how things change.”
“It is, but you're still my girl.” Louisa brought over sugar and creamer. She took a seat next to Alecia.
“And you're still my twin. So, how's the Morning Show gig working out? I listen to you every chance I get, but to be honest, you're usually already off the air by the time I wake up.”
“I love my job—Melvin Green is a hoot! We're now syndicated in over fifty cities, and if you listened sometimes, you'd know that they've created a Night Before Thirty birthday contest around my thirtieth birthday.” Louisa got up to pour the coffee, and then stopped short. “Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Speaking of being twins, this is perfect. We share birthdays, so you have to enter the contest. Go get some paper and a pen. We have to write your letter!”
“See, there you go with one of your 'brilliant ideas.' Please let me in on what's going on before we get started.”
Louisa explained the contest.
“Port Lucaya?” Alecia frowned.
“I know it's not as glamorous as the spots you travel to, but it's going to be a blast. Plus, cruises are always nice.”
Alecia gave Louisa the thumbs-down.
“Do you have plans for your birthday yet?” Louisa asked.
“Not yet, but …”
“Well, you do now, and I'm not taking no for an answer. Besides, I'm on the selection committee. Go get the paper, diva, while I pour us some coffee.”
Alecia looked at Louisa. She knew Louisa would make her a winner of the contest, even if she had to write the letter herself. That's how Louisa was, a go-getter. That's why she and Alecia got along so well growing up. Their attitudes were the same, only their energies were focused in different directions: Louisa on her career and Alecia on men.
ANYA WAS AWAKENED by her telephone ringing and someone knocking on her door. She looked at the clock. It was three in the morning. She sat up and picked up the cordless phone while slipping out of bed to see who was at the door.
“Hello?” she said while sliding into her slippers.
“It's Chris, baby. Come and open the door.”
“Okay, I'm on my way,” she said.
Because it was still dark out, there was little visibility in her living room as she walked through it to the door, unlocking each of the locks and opening it. A rush of cold Chicago wind gushed inside her apartment and down her gown.
“Get in here. It's freezing out there,” she said.
Chris looked at her with tears in his eyes. He stepped inside her apartment and pulled the door closed. Tanya nervously went around him and locked the door. Chris just stood there.
“Come here, baby.” Tanya threw her arms around him. The cold clinging to his jacket chilled her, but she didn't let go.
“Are you okay?” she whispered in his ear.
“I couldn't sleep. It's been two weeks since T-Roy was shot, and I still can't sleep,” he said. “I'm frustrated because the tears came, but I'm even more pissed that I can't stop them.”
“It's all right,” T
anya said. She wiped his tears with her fingers. “Chris, baby, you're gonna get through this. We'll get through this together.”
Chris wrapped his arms around Tanya. “I love you so much. Thank you for loving every fucked-up thing about me,” he said, and then sought comfort in her lips. He slid his hands on both sides of her hips and lifted her gown from her waist up over her head. His mouth found its way to her breasts. Then he kissed her neck and whispered again, “I love you.”
Tanya kissed the tears streaming down his cheeks. She unzipped his jacket and pulled it down his arms, allowing it to fall onto the floor. He pulled her arms around his neck, picked her up, and carried her into her bedroom, where he laid her on the bed and stared at his woman, showing visible appreciation.
Taking his time, he fully undressed. Then he went to Tanya, who wrapped her legs around him and created a safe place for him to release his emotional woes, filling him up with her goodness.
As he entered her, he whispered, “I need you, Tanya, and I promise I'm gonna be everything you need in a man. I love you, girl.”
“I love you too, Chris,” she said, while gripping his back with her hands.
“I'm gonna change, Tanya. I promise,” he said.
While he made love to her, he whispered passionate words of promise and hope. Those words traveled to the center of Tanya's heart, and she clung to them while receiving pleasure in the midst of their pain.
TANYA AWOKE TO the sound of her alarm clock. She had reset it to ring at eight a.m. so she could call in sick. She did whatever was in her power to miss days only when it was an extreme emergency, but Chris had asked her to stay in with him, and she'd agreed.
After Tanya hung up the phone, Chris put his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him until they both fell back to sleep.
Tanya woke up two hours later. She was wide awake, so she went to the living room and found her gown and her slippers near the door. She dressed and went into the kitchen to fix her and her man some much-needed nourishment.
To break the silence in the apartment, she turned on the little radio that she kept in the kitchen. Melvin Green and the Morning Show Crew were just closing out. Tanya got a boost just hearing Melvin's voice. She listened to the show every morning on her way to work, and then continued listening in while she sat at her desk.
The Night Before Thirty Page 10
