Page 8 of Taste The Smoke
Kenya glanced over at the nightstand clock. “Goodness. It’s been almost three hours. I didn’t realize we’ve been working that long.” She slowly got to her feet and stifled a moan. “If you’re hungry, I can fix us an early dinner.” It was close to five. She had planned to eat the leftovers from last night, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough for two, so Kenya planned to take them to work for lunch tomorrow.
“Or we can have something delivered,” Avis countered. “I saw you wincing when you got up. How long has your back been bothering you?”
She shrugged. “A couple of days. I had to break out the cane yesterday. And ordering something works for me. Anything in particular you want to eat?” Grabbing her phone off the bed, she opened the DoorDash app. After throwing out several choices, they decided on seafood. “Delivery should be about forty-five minutes.”
“Sounds good. I have time to do a few more things while we wait, and you can sit and rest that back. Have you started going through her papers yet?”
Once a mother, always a mother. She reclined on the bed. The look her mother gave said arguing would be useless. “Not really. I’ve been dealing with all the notifications to creditors and the bank. Phaedra helped a little.”
“If you need me to do anything, please let me know. You can’t take on all this alone. Her sorry ass kids should be doing some of this,” she muttered.
Kenya let out a little laugh. “Mom?”
“Oh, did I say that out loud?” she asked innocently. “Seriously, though. Mom knew exactly who would be the best person to handle her affairs. Has your father called?”
Sighing, she said, “Yes. He’s called about four times, mad that GiGi didn’t leave him anything and saying a good daughter would share with him and Aunt Ellen.”
“He has a lot of nerve. If Gerald and Ellen had been anywhere close togoodchildren then maybe Mama would’ve left them something. Neither one of them were there for her these past few years. I remember her almost begging them to visit, but they didn’t have the decency to show up. Mama told me your father stopped by a few times, but was gone in less than five minutes. Oh, Ellen called once or twice, then had the audacity to fall out over the casket with all that hollering. I wanted to slap her trifling behind into the middle of next week.” Avis waved a hand. “Ooh, let me stop. They just make me so mad.”
“It’s okay.” Her mother’s thoughts mirrored her own and, admittedly, she’d wanted to do the same. GiGi had often said Avis was more like a daughter to her than her own.
“Where do you want these boxes?”
“I’m going to stack them in the garage for now, so it’ll be easier when they come to pick everything up this week. I’ll bring in the dolly from the garage.” As she left the room, she heard her phone ring. “Mom, can you answer that and tell whoever it is to hold on?” She went to get the dolly and came back.
Her mother smiled and held out the phone. “It’s someone named Alonzo, and he has averynice voice,” she whispered. “Is this the date you told me about?”
“Yes. Well, no. I’ll explain later,” she added at her mother’s curious look. Kenya took the phone. “Hey, Alonzo. I didn’t expect to hear from you today.”
His low chuckle flowed through her ear. “I did say I’d call you. Is this a good time to talk?”
“Yes, now’s fine to talk. And you did. I mean, I know you said you’d call, but I thought it would be later in the week or something.” She was rambling and took a deep, calming breath.
“Actually, that was my original plan. Would you believe me if I told you I wanted to hear your voice and didn’t want to wait that long?”
She nearly swooned and sank down onto the bed. No man had ever said anything like that to her before. Clearly, she’d been hanging out with the wrong men. “I don’t know what to say. I’m flattered.”
“It’s the truth. So, how’s your back today?”
Kenya had met this man less than twenty-four hours ago and he was inquiring about her health. “Not too bad. I took some pain medication last night, and it helped a lot. I still have to pace myself.” She probably needed to call it a night with the packingand moving boxes because she could feel her back tightening up again.
“I’m glad to hear it. What does your schedule look like in the next couple of weeks? If you’re opposed to getting together during the week, we can wait until the weekend.”
Did she really want to wait for the weekend to see him again? Once again, her anxiety surfaced, but she pushed it back down. She’d promised to go out with him again, and she always tried to keep her word. And he’d been the perfect gentleman. She had a couple of late evening meetings this week and remembered she’d made plans with her sister for next weekend. “My schedule is a little busy this week and weekend, but I’m free Wednesday or Thursday of the following week, any time after six.”
“Wednesday of next week works for me, too. How about I pick you up at seven? That’ll give you a few minutes to unwind.”
“Seven on Wednesday is perfect.” And she planned to be ready. Kenya still couldn’t believe what he told her about that other woman’s stunt.
There was a pause, then he said, “I feel like I’ve known you for a long time, instead of less than twenty-four hours.”
“Same here,” she said softly. “It feels strange, though.”
“Hopefully, not in a bad way.”
“No. But this has never happened to me before.” Kenya looked up and saw her mother watching her with a strange look on her face. She’d completely forgotten about her presence and quickly changed the subject. “Um, how did dinner go at your parents’?”
“Just as I expected,” Alonzo said with a chuckle. “Fried pork chops, candied yams, sautéed cabbage, cornbread, and for dessert 7-UP cake and brownies. I’m definitely going to have to do an extra workout because I enjoyed every single bite, and had seconds.”
