Gabrielle buttoned her lips tightly, then relaxed them as she looked down at her hand. She looked up. “I’ve never been to nor had a slumber party before.”
“What? You’ve never been to a slumber party before?” Tiffany said.
Gabrielle shook her head slowly. “Nope.”
“Your folks must have been overprotective or something,” Tiffany said.
Gabrielle shrugged nonchalantly. “Actually, my mother died when I was close to four. I was raised by my aunt and her husband.” Gabrielle stopped referring to him as her uncle years ago after what he’d tried to do to her when she was in her teens.
Tiffany reached over and touched Gabrielle’s wrist. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. If you don’t mind me asking, what happened with your mother? Was it cancer?”
Gabrielle tried to smile so her words wouldn’t seem so heavy when she spoke them. “No. Domestic violence. My father killed my mother. He’s still in prison, although he’s up for possible parole at the end of this year, in fact.”
Tiffany jumped to her feet and went and threw her arms around Gabrielle’s neck. “Oh, Gabrielle. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have pried. I had no idea.”
“It’s okay.” Gabrielle patted Tiffany’s arm, which was still around her neck. “It’s a part of my life, and I’ve learned to keep going in spite of what may have happened in my past.”
Tiffany sat back down. “Well, I agree with Fatima. I think we should plan a slumber party for the three of us. We could have it the same night you have Jade and maybe a few other girls over for Jasmine. There’s Johnnie Mae’s little girl, Princess Rose, and Sasha’s little girl, Aaliyah. They’re all close to the same age. I think Princess Rose is around eleven now. Having a slumber party for them and for us would be so much fun! I’ll help you plan it, Gabrielle.”
Gabrielle nodded. “It really does sound like fun.”
“Then is it a go?” Tiffany asked. “A slumber party for the girls and a slumber party for the three of us?”
Gabrielle smiled. “Yeah.” Gabrielle clapped her hand one time. “Let’s do it.”
Fatima began to look toward the direction of where the waiter had disappeared to. “I wonder where on earth is our food? What could be taking so long?”
As though he’d heard her, the waiter stepped into view with a large tray. “I apologize, ladies, for the delay.”
“I was starting to wonder if the chef had to go out and catch the pig and the chicken himself before he could cook them,” Fatima said with a chuckle.
The waiter gave a short laugh as he set the food down in the appropriate places. After ensuring they had everything they needed, he left.
“This looks and smells so good,” Gabrielle said. “Let’s pray.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to do it,” Tiffany said. They held hands and Tiffany prayed.
After the prayer, Fatima passed around a small bottle of hand sanitizer. They all squirted some in their hands and rubbed their hands together.
“Okay, women of God, let’s dig in!” Fatima said. “And let’s not be cute. Tonight, we’re using our hands.”
Chapter 28
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whatsoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doeth the same things.
—Romans 2:1
“Would you like to go out to dinner?” Andrew asked Paris Thursday evening when she came in. It was the first evening she’d been home when he got there in a long time.
She shook her head. “No. I’m tired. This work thing is no joke.”
“I told you so. You were always questioning why I didn’t want to go out after I came home from work. Now you see why.”
“Yeah.” Paris smiled and tilted her head slightly. “Now I see why.”
Andrew grabbed her around her waist and rocked her in his arms. “So what would you like to do for dinner? Call for delivery or fix something ourselves?”
Paris pulled out of his embrace. “I’m really tired, Andrew. Why don’t you get us something? I don’t care what. I’m going to my room to relax.”
“Okay, then. We can just have a nice romantic evening here together, if that’s what you’d prefer to do. Although I still owe you a birthday dinner since you were working the night of your birthday. And we missed celebrating the Fourth together.”
“I really don’t feel like doing anything much. We were out until after one this morning. Then we had to be at this rally they were having downtown for almost six hours that started at nine this morning. I am so beat, Andrew, you just don’t know. And tomorrow, it’s another late-night function. I’m about ready to crash and burn.”
“By ‘we’ you mean you and Darius?”
“Yeah.”
“So you have the time and energy for that, but when it comes to me, you don’t feel like being bothered?”
Paris walked over to him and placed her hand on his chest. “I told you from the beginning: Darius and I only have a working relationship. That’s it. That’s all it ever will be. Just like the women on your job, including your secretary and paralegal assistant. Darius and I are together because we have to be . . . it’s our job.”
“I haven’t accused you of anything more than that. I’m just pointing out that you can do all of these things, but when it comes to you and me, you never feel like doing anything much anymore.”
“It’s July eighth. It’s only been two months. You act like it’s been years. Maybe had you supported me more when I was trying to do something that meant something to me, things would be different between us.”
“You mean if I had gone along with your plan to try and take Jasmine from Gabrielle,” Andrew said. “I told you: I’d rather spend my time and energy on making our own little family and leave Gabrielle and whatever she’s doing alone.”
Paris stepped back. “Look, Andrew, I don’t care to talk about Gabrielle. I still say there’s something between the two of you that you haven’t told me, I don’t care how much you say differently. But if you want to keep your little secrets, then just know that two can play that game.”
Andrew stepped in front of her and looked into her eyes. “What do you mean by that remark?”
“I mean: If you want to keep things from me, it’s fine. Just don’t be mad when you feel like it’s coming back on you.”
“So you have some secrets you’re not telling me?” He crunched down and gazed into her eyes.
Her face was stern, not a smile to be found. “Nope. I’m just saying that if later on it feels like I’ve kept anything from you, then don’t judge me since you’re doing the exact same thing with me. That’s all I’m saying.”
“All right, Paris. You have your job to do and I have mine.”
“See what I mean?” Paris said, pointing a finger at him. “It’s little things like that. ‘You have your job to do and I have mine.’ We’re both bringing money into this household now.” She shrugged. “Enough said on the subject. But whenever you want to come clean about your secrets”—she started walking away—“then I’ll be happy to come clean with mine. It’s as simple as that.”
She strutted up the stairs, turning once to look back at him still standing there with a grimace on his face.
Chapter 29
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
—Ecclesiastes 11:10
The slumber party was on and getting ready to be popping. Despite the disappointing news Gabrielle had received hours earlier from Robert Shaw about her court case, Gabrielle found herself more excited about the party than even Jasmine, who was literally skipping and dancing around the house, counting down the minutes until six o’clock.
Gabrielle and Tiffany had worked hard putting together a princess-themed party complete with crowns and royalty party favors. All of the girls invited (Jade, Princess Rose, and Aaliyah) were now in the middle of the den Gabrielle had transformed to loo
k like a castle, along with Jasmine, in a group hug, jumping up and down, and screaming as only young girls can do.
Gabrielle couldn’t stop smiling. Fatima and Tiffany were also there for their slumber party time together.
“I’m so glad you decided to do this,” Tiffany said while they were in the kitchen making hot dogs. “This is just what I needed. I am so stoked!”
“What did you do with your other children for tonight?” Gabrielle asked.
Tiffany speared a hot dog and placed it inside of a bun. “Brace yourself. Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . Darius has them.” She beamed.
“He’s their father; he should have them,” Fatima said with a little more edge than was probably necessary or expected.
Tiffany frowned. “I know he should. But he’s been working so much lately. I was surprised when I told him we all were doing this and he said he’d make sure he was off work to keep Dana and Junior so that I could come. This new job has changed him so much. I just hope he survives at home with those two all by himself. Junior, especially, can be a handful.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Gabrielle said. “Zachary keeps Jasmine for me when I have things I need to do, and he manages just fine.”
Tiffany picked up the plate of finished hot dogs, two for each girl. “Well, Darius is no Zachary.”
“I know that’s right,” Fatima said, again with smugness to her tone.
Tiffany laughed. “Wow, Fatima. Go easy on my husband, why don’t you?”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just Zachary is such a good man.” Fatima picked up the tray with the condiments for the hot dogs. “I’ll carry this in,” she said to Gabrielle, who had the bowls of chips and dip and was reaching for the tray before she scooped it up.
They took the things in to the girls, who now had on their matching pink and purple princess pajamas Gabrielle had bought for them. Pillows and lounging things were positioned in the room already.
“Did you also make us strawberry milkshakes?” Jasmine asked.
“Yes,” Gabrielle said. “We have strawberry milkshakes in the kitchen, with real strawberries in them. They’re coming in a second.”
Jasmine got up off the floor. “I’ll go get them.”
“We can all go,” Jade said, standing to her feet as well.
“We’re going to bring them to you,” Tiffany said. “You princesses stand down, why don’t you. Y’all say your grace and get started eating. Milkshakes are on the way.”
“We just don’t want y’all thinking we’re too much trouble,” Jade said. “We’d like to do this again. We’re having so much fun!”
“Don’t worry,” Gabrielle said. “We’ll definitely do this again.”
“Yay!” all four girls said in unison as they jumped up and down.
“I’m having so much fun!” Princess Rose said. “Maybe I’ll ask my mother to have one next.”
“That would be so awesome,” Jade said. “We could have a slumber party every week for the next three weeks if all of us get our folks to have one.” Jade turned to her mother. “Mommy, can we? Please?” She put her prayer hands together.
“Please, please, please.”
“Whoa,” Gabrielle said. “Now don’t go getting me in trouble with all your folks. I don’t want anyone mad at me for starting something here.”
“My mom would probably be the only one who doesn’t want to do something like this,” Aaliyah said. “But my dad and Mama Melissa would. I’ll ask my daddy.”
“You have two mothers?” Jasmine said to Aaliyah.
Aaliyah paused for a second. “I guess you can say that. My mother is Sasha. But my daddy married someone else and she’s like a mother to me. I stay with them a lot, a whole lot—my daddy, Mama Melissa, and my little brother, Marc-Marc. They’re about to have another baby soon. Daddy says it’s a little girl. I saw a picture of her inside Mama Melissa’s stomach. I don’t know how they can tell she’s a girl, but that’s what they say. So I’m going to have a baby sister soon.”
“I have two mothers. My other mother died. Now I have Miss G,” Jasmine said. “She’s like my mother now.”
“I thought you said you have three mothers?” Jade said. “You remember you told me that you have three mothers.”
Obviously uncomfortable, Tiffany twisted her mouth a few times, then left and went to the kitchen.
“Three?” Aaliyah said, shaking her head slowly. “That’s a lot of mamas.”
“How do you have three mothers?” Princess Rose asked. “I guess you could actually say that I have two daddies or I would have. My real daddy died when I was too young to remember. Now Daddy Landris is my father. He’s a great father, too. Mama says we’re both blessed to have him in our lives. And I agree.”
Gabrielle thought about shutting down the conversation, but decided it was better to let them talk unhindered. That’s what she was told was part of the slumber party experience: being able to talk about secret things and things that were on your mind. And Jasmine wasn’t saying any of these things to her, so this just might be her only opportunity to hear what Jasmine was really thinking and feeling. Although she was pretty certain what Jasmine meant about her having three mothers, she was curious to hear why Jasmine had told Jade that. What was going through Jasmine’s mind at this point?
“Here you go,” Tiffany said, bringing in a tray of capped, tall plastic princess cups. “Strawberry milkshakes for everyone!”
The girls started jumping up and down again. “Yay!” They took the milkshakes off the tray and went to the princess tent Gabrielle had made using pastel-colored chiffon strung from the ceiling in the corner of the den.
And just like that, the conversation was over.
Chapter 30
Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
—Ecclesiastes 9:8
Gabrielle, Fatima, and Tiffany went up to Gabrielle’s bedroom after playing a couple of games with the girls and dancing to a few songs. The women changed into the white satin pajamas Gabrielle had bought them for the slumber party.
Fatima did a little dance. “Look at us: we look like triplets with our identical white pajamas. Thanks, Gabrielle. These are too cute.”
“You’re very welcome,” Gabrielle said.
“That was such fun!” Fatima said. “I still got it. Thirty-seven years young and I still got it. Did you see me doing the Twist down there?” She started doing the dance called the Twist.
“What decades did you get those dances from?” Gabrielle said.
“Those are classics,” Fatima said as she went and got her bag with her rollers in them, a pale pink comb, and a jar of hair grease. “Don’t act like you don’t know.”
“You had my daughter cracking up.” Tiffany began to move like a movie scene being advanced one frame at a time with one-second pauses. “What was that supposed to be? I thought I was watching a rerun of Soul Train.”
“It was the Robot,” Fatima said. “And I was doing it way better than whatever that is you just called yourself doing.” Fatima opened the jar of hair grease, took her comb and, parting her hair, greased her scalp.
Gabrielle laughed. “Both of y’all were funny, if you ask me. Where did you two learn to do the Bump?”
“Girl, that was the dance back in the day. At least, that’s what my mother used to tell us when she was showing us how they did it when she was growing up. These children don’t have anything on us.” Fatima stopped and stood up. “I started to break out with the Funky Chicken on them.” Fatima tucked her fists under her underarms and began flapping them like they were chicken wings while wobbling her legs.
“That’s called the Funky Chicken?” Tiffany said. “If you hadn’t told me, I would have guessed you were trying to do the Stanky Legs or the Butterfly or something, only badly. If you had done that, those girls really would have laughed us from down there even faster than they ended up doing.”
“Gabrielle let Jasmine turn on the Wii
and put in that Just Dance game,” Fatima said, sitting back down and continuing to roll her hair. “They have all kinds of songs on that thing. ‘U Can’t Touch This’ by MC Hammer, ‘Pump Up the Jam’ by Technotronic, ‘Le Freak’ by Chic.” She stopped rolling her hair. “I didn’t get that song called ‘Dare.’ But Tiffany seemed to like it.”
“That’s because it was slow enough not to wear me out and I could get the steps easier,” Tiffany said.
Fatima finished with her last roller, put the grease and her comb back in her bag, and zipped it closed. “What was the name of that song the girls kept playing over and over again?” She crossed her eyes to show how crazy that had made her.
“‘I Like to Move It,’” Tiffany said, singing the title of the song.
“I’m not familiar with that one, but they sure knew it,” Fatima said.
“If you had children, you’d know it. It was in a movie called Madagascar and later in one called Happy Feet.” Tiffany began to sing the hook of the song again. “I’ve seen both of those movies so many times I know most of the characters’ parts by heart.” She grabbed a can of hair sheen and sprayed her hair, then began wrapping it as she continued talking—brushing it to make it lay down as she wrapped. “I don’t know what it is about children, but when they find a movie they like, they want to watch it every single day.” Tiffany pinned her hair in place with large bobby pins.
“That was how one of my cousins was,” Gabrielle said. “We had VHS back in the day. And my cousin Luke taped Ghostbusters. He would watch that movie over and over again; it absolutely drove us crazy. And we didn’t have but one good television, so if we wanted to watch television, we had to watch that or go somewhere and play. I hated it. ‘Don’t cross the streams.’ That’s all he ran around saying from that movie.”
Fatima placed a baby blue satin bonnet over her rolled hair.
They all sat on the floor on the pallet Gabrielle put down for them.
The Other Side of Dare Page 16
