Page 15 of Labria

“Yes. If there are any minority lawyers at the firm, I haven’t bumped into them yet.”

“That’s not good.” Khia hissed into her wineglass as she brought it to her lips.

“Lord has a biracial sister, and I invited her to dinner with us tonight.”

“She got a White mother or a Black mother?” Khia inquired, and I knew why.

“I’m not going to tell you so you can judge this girl before you met her.”

“I’m just trying to see something. Like which side she pick?”

“Both. I can’t with you right now.”

“Okay fine. One more question. What’s her name?”

“Alexis.”

“Umh, well, it’s not Madison, but it’s not Lakeisha either. Is her name Ah-lexis or A-Lexus?”

“I’m not doing this with you.” She joked.

“This girl did not pick her parents. Your name is Khia Jamillah, and my name is Labria Nicole. You better not judge this girl you never met.”

“I ain’t got nothing against the biracials. Geez, that might end up being you one day in the future… Hold up, you didn’t call me here to tell me you’re pregnant?”

Something about her words shut me up. As stupid as it sounded, I never even thought about having a mixed-race child. I always pictured my future children as Black.

Khia cleared her throat.

“No, no, I’m not pregnant.”

“You sure?”

“Very sure.”

Chapter Six

LABRIA

We got dolled up for dinner at Push restaurant. It was a Black girl magic kind of night since I invited Alexis and her sister Brittany to join us also. Khia hadn’t been to Vegas in years. Once she became a mother, all her vacations were kid-friendly venues, amusement parks, and waterpark resorts. Las Vegas wasn’t really the best local for little ones. It was too crowded and there were a lot of odd things happening on the strip.

My sister wanted to let loose. And because she was married, she had a watered-down version of letting loose. Basically, that meant a four to five star dinner at a sit-down restaurant. There would be absolutely no clubbing. I had outgrown clubbing years ago, but Alexis and Brittany were young. I didn’t know what kind of Black women they were since we weren’t a monolith.

I had to explain all that I knew about Alexis and Brittany to my sister before we arrived. Khia didn’t like surprised, and she didn’t like to meet new people, but this part she was doing for me and I appreciated.

I told Khia that Alexis was mixed with Black and Italian. I wasn’t even sure she claimed her Blackness. You could never tell with biracials, which way they were leaning. I never would’ve thought too much about it, but Khia had a knack for putting unnecessary things on my mind.

Alexis could easily be a tanned Italian woman or racially ambiguous. I hoped Alexis wouldn’t act too privileged at dinner. I could deal with it, but Khia loved calling out racism, sexism, colorism and all the isms. I was trying to eat, drink and be merry. I didn’t want to debate any topics on anything. I wanted to just have fun, so I didn’t have to think about Lord.

I met Alexis formally at the law firm. It seemed the new Bregoli sister might stay in Vegas permanently. She was looking for a property to buy. Homeownership was a big deal, and I hoped she could handle it at such a young age.

Dave drove Khia and me to the restaurant. Khia thought it was weird that I had my own driver, Sis didn’t know the half of it and I didn’t want her to know. We were in the elevator, headed to the rooftop restaurant. I had another bodyguard escorting us in the elevator, of course. This was a different guy. They had shifts and various jobs they did for the family. This guy worked nights. The security that I couldn’t name rode in the elevator with us. I could tell Khia thought it was strange, but she didn’t say anything about it since he was right here with us.

She couldn’t hold her tongue as we were in the steel box. “So tell me who are these chicks again.”

“The oldest one is Alexis. She’s Lord’s half sister, and the Brittany is Alexis’ younger sister. But she isn’t Lord’s sister. Basically, these girls are sisters but with different fathers, same mother.”

“Oh okay. And they are in their early twenties.”

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