Page 27 of Broken Clocks
I smiled.
Just my lips. No teeth.
His mother’s gaze locked onto mine from the pew. Smug. Satisfied.
Fuck. You.I mouthed, slow as cold syrup.
Her nostrils flared, and she clutched her pearls—literally.
Really,fuckher.
She had never liked me. Wanted a Sinica-type for him—somebody light, respectable, bougie enough to make the family photos look expensive.
She glanced around to see if anyone else caught it.
They hadn’t.
So she smiled like a First Lady, but her eyes said she wanted to lunge across the aisle and snatch my soul.
But she wouldn’t. Couldn’t.
Nobody knew what he’d done but the three of us.
She enabled Donte—smiling in Sinica face while helping him lie, cheat, cover his tracks. Pretending like her son was just being coerced instead of manipulative.
Like I was the problem.
Like I made him continue to deal with me.
At the reception, I became a problem on purpose. I was on demon time—flirting with every tall, brown-skinned man who smelled like money and trouble.
I laughed too loud. I touched too much. I threw back shots I didn’t even want.
Donte watched me the whole night.
He barely blinked. Didn’t speak unless someone spoke to him first. He nodded when he was supposed to, even smiled once or twice, but his eyes kept finding me.
They were mine.
Sinica noticed.
She kept touching him. Her manicured fingers skittered acrosshis chest. She tossed her hair, leaned in close to whisper something that made him nod absently. But every time I moved—every time Ibreathed—his attention snapped back to me like a rubber band.
I slid into Jalen’s lap just to test the theory.
Donte’s jaw flexed. Once. That’s all he gave me. No scene. No confrontation. Just that tick in his cheek like he was grinding his molars into dust.
Sinica’s champagne flute trembled in her hand. I smiled at her with teeth, all thirty on display.
I left before cake-cutting. Couldn’t stomach them anymore. But I needed to see everything I saw to feel the finality of him marrying another woman.
I was tipsy and needed a ride. I slid up to Jalen with a look he thought meantcome get it. He followed me like a puppy.
I didn’t say a word the whole ride.
He had barely put the car in park before I hopped out.
“Damn, you not gonna let me walk you to the door?”
