Page 93 of Moros

“But he’s supposed to look at me the way a man looks like a woman.”

“No—that’s the bare minimum. That’s settling.” Morgana stopped in a thoughtful pause. “Your man is supposed to look at you like a man looks at his queen. His eyes are supposed to hold a kind of storm that he only gets in his eyes when he looks at you. When he arrived here, he had that. Now?—”

“It’s gone.” I hung my head.

This time, I couldn’t stop the tears.

“I don’t know how to fix this.” I admitted.

“It won’t happen overnight.”

“I know.” I sighed, wiping away my tears. “That part of it sucks because I have no patience.”

“You didn’t get that from your father.”

I chuckled.

“Men like Khadri are easy to figure out.”

“How do you know?”

“I married one.” Morgana spoke proudly. “They are simple. Don’t lie to them. Don’t cheat on them. Feed them and give them regular lovin’.”

I blushed.

“Aww, Nana!”

“I was young once.” She winked at me. “I can tell from the way Khadri gets along with Teddy that they are the same kind of man. They don’t ask for much. If you can give them all those things I’ve mentioned, and let them win an argument here and there, they’ll love you forever.”

Morgana lifted the plastic covering in the album, plucked out one of my father’s pictures and handed it to me.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.” She replied. “Take it.”

My hands shook as I accepted this precious gift then hugged her. When we were seated again, my attention back on the computer, Morgana didn’t leave me.

I could almost feel her wanting to say something else to me.

Smiling, I looked at her.

“Tell me.”

She shrugged. “I don’t want to overstep.”

“Um—you were giving me relationship advice after knowing me all of two days?”

Morgana laughed.

“It’s nothing—just that—you called me Nana just now.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat. “I didn’t mean to?—”

“It’s not bad! I promise.” She held up a wrinkled hand. “It’s just a little emotional. When Paul told me you’d died with my son and Anne—I thought the chance of having a grandchild was gone forever. I’d given up on ever having someone call me grandmother.”

“Aww.”

I hugged her again.

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