Page 12 of Happy Endings

Andre pressed his lips together. He hated when his sister was right.

“Besides, if you’d ever sat in the hair salon, you’d know all those ladies talk about is sex.” Her eyes narrowed. “You men don’t talk about that in the barbershop?”

“Maybe.” Why the hell was he talking about sex with his sister? Again.

“It’s not just about selling sex toys, you know. Trixie is helping people.” Keisha rummaged around in the fridge. “Especially at the clinic.”

His sister was right. Trixie seemed to love what she did. Based on what he’d seen that evening, she was good at it, too. How long had Keisha known his ex-girlfriend? Andre didn’t realize the two of them had crossed paths at their neighborhood clinic.

“How come you never told me about Trixie? When did you meet at the women’s clinic?”

Keisha shrugged. “You’ve been in your broody cloud, worrying about the restaurant. I didn’t think you wanted to hear about my volunteer work.”

“I always want to know what you’re doing.” Being a good brother was yet another thing he was failing at. Though he and Keisha saw each other most of the day, they didn’t seem to have much downtime to check in with each other lately. Whenever she wasn’t at the restaurant, she was in class or studying. As for him, he was always at the restaurant.

“Hey, broody brother! You still here?” She snapped her fingers in front of his face.

“Yeah, I’m here.” He leaned in closer. “Tell me about the clinic.”

“As I was about to say before you started daydreaming, Trixie and I met a few months ago when one of her classes canceled at the last minute. She offered to help me pack hope purses, and we hit it off. She has a good heart. She helps people.”

“Helping people in the bedroom isn’t exactly changing the world.” Andre shrugged.

“Men.” Keisha scoffed. “It’s more than that. She teaches sex ed to seniors, both the high school and the older adult variety.”

This conversation was going all sorts of sideways. Now he had images of elderly people having sex in his head.

He must have grimaced because Keisha laughed at him.

“You’re such a prude, Andre.”

“Am not.” He cleared his throat. “Folks can do whatever they want. But I don’t need to know about it.”

“Whatever.”

“Want another bowl?” Andre picked up their empty bowls.

“I’m stuffed. That was exactly what I needed before my exam on tax liabilities. Even if you won’t cook at the restaurant, you should experiment at home. My stomach will thank you.” Keisha patted said stomach.

“It’s silly for me to cook when we can just bring home the leftovers from the restaurant. I’d rather work the bar. I’m infusing coffee-and-orange bitters for a new cocktail recipe.”

Since New Orleans, he’d dived into the art of craft cocktails. Mama Hazel’s wasn’t the right place to serve cocktails like a Sazerac with house-made bitters. Their food was too homey and comforting to serve with fancy craft cocktails. Noway their clientele would pay for the fancy drinks, but he enjoyed the creative outlet.

“Now back to my idea,” Keisha said. “Let’s invite Trixie to hold another bachelorette party at the restaurant. Her customers are exactly the new blood we need. Then they’ll tell their friends about us, who’ll tell their friends, and so on.”

His sister had a point. Maybe they’d come back for lunch service, then visit the bookstore next door. They could even create some kind of incentive to get people to visit all the stores on their block. The foot traffic would benefit everyone, not just Mama Hazel’s.

“But it’s August. Wedding season is almost over.” At least it had been in New Orleans when he tended bar. “She’s probably done with those.”

“So it doesn’t have to be a bachelorette party. How about a pop-up?”

He sighed.

“You said we made more money that night than we did the rest of the month! Let’s try, please?”

Keisha was so annoying when she was right. She flashed puppy dog eyes at him.

“Wait, is it because you don’t like Trixie?”

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