Page 96 of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

“Chris Evans! Aman, honey.”

“I’d marry him tomorrow.”

“I know that’s right.”

Ricki rolled her eyes in Ezra’s direction, painfully aware that her sisters sounded like a pack of clucking chickens.

“But Brandy’s father and two brothers are Morehouse Alphas,” said Rashida. “Her great-aunt’s the national president of the Links. A Lithuanian husband is so off-brand.”

“It’s probably liberating as hell,” said Regina, finishing off her wine. “She can walk around with ashy ankles and unlaid edges and he’ll never know.”

“Did you see the size of her rock? Ten and a half carats,” whispered Rae.

Rashida shrugged. “Way too big. Only a cheating man buys such ostentatious diamonds.”

Rae lowered her hand under the table, twisting her ring to the back.

Full and satisfied, Rashidaginarae kept on like this as the night grew later and later. Finally, around 11:00 p.m., the conversation wound down, and Ricki couldn’t have been more relieved. Time for them to go.

“Well, I have to say,” started Regina, “I’m impressed by Wilde Things, Ricki. When we read theNew Yorkmagazine piece, we didn’t know what to think!”

“Imagine our surprise that you’d made such a prestigious digital publication,” said Rae. “I mean, this is the same girl who thought that a 401K was a gift of four hundred and one thousand dollars you get from the government upon retirement.”

“The same girl who thought buffalos had wings,” Rashida said, snickering.

“The same girl who got a ticket for parking in a no-standing zone, because she thought the sign meant you literally couldn’t stand there.”

All three sisters fell apart at that one, laughing loud and tipsily. Rashida banged her palm on the table, and Rae’s eyes spouted tears of mirth. Ezra watched them, deeply uncomfortable. Every instinct he had pushed him to defend her, but he also knew better than to insert himself into a family affair. He was the outsider here.

Ricki glowered, angry maroon blotches blooming on her cheeks. “Why do you keep bringing up mistakes I made forever ago? What do you get out of that?”

“Oh girl, relax,” giggled Rae airily. “You get so upset. Why can’t you take a joke?”

“Who’s joking? You’re dragging me, on purpose. And, by the way, I was ababywhen I said the 401K thing.”

“You were nineteen.”

“I was sheltered.”

“You still are. Which is why this Wilde Things success makes no sense.”

“No offense, but you’re a disaster magnet. Don’t fault us for being shocked.”

Disaster magnet?That was when Ezra’s reserve flew out the window. Fuck manners.

“With all due respect,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest, “I need to speak up. Ricki is a brilliant creative mind. She created this space from scratch. With clarity of vision, she executedthis shop exactly how she saw it in her head. Much of it with her own two hands. Wilde Things is objectively beautiful, she’s worked hard to make it financially viable, and she’s created community around her art! Sounds to me like y’all are discounting her achievements because, were the situation reversed, you couldn’t have done it yourselves.”

Regina looked like she’d bitten into a grapefruit with the skin on. “You’re a farmer, sweetheart.”

Ezra’s eyes blazed. “Actually, let’s be clear—I’m a sharecropper. And I’m the proud son of sharecroppers Big Ezra and Hazel Walker, who raised me and my sister, Minnie, to be good people. Kind. Helpful. Generous. I don’t have any education, and neither did they, but learning happens everywhere, if you listen. We don’t all come from kings and queens, and we don’t all make it to Harvard, and that’s all right. Pardon my directness, but you oughta rethink your narrow idea of excellence. And while you’re at it, rethink being the kind of folks who call on somebody unexpectedly and then insult them.”

The room fell silent. Ricki gawked at Ezra, wide-eyed. First of all, no one ever dared to challenge her sisters (not even their husbands). Secondly, she’d never heard him talk like this. And thirdly, no one had ever stood up for her to her family.

“Ezra, it’s okay…”

“Nah, it’s not okay.” Now he was really worked up. “And furthermore, what kind of Colored people never had okra? Ain’t y’all from Georgia?”

“Colored?”

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