Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Right. The mattress.
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry about that.”
“I took him to Mrs. Darvey's estate sale,” Tatum says, rising to stand beside me.
“I’ll take care of it now,” I say, striding toward the door.
“Wait, I'll help you,” Tatum says, but I can't be around her. I'll tear her clothes off. I’m an animal in rut that needs to be caged.
“No,” I say quickly, “thank you. I can manage. And you should elevate those knees.”
“What knees?” As Nina begins to fuss over Tatum’s injuries, I slip out, the taste of Tatum still sweet on my tongue.
four
TATUM
I don’t know what came over me, what made me bold enough to lean forward and just kiss him like that. But it was all I could do not to grip his gorgeous, salt and pepper hair and hold him against my lips, Aunt Nina be damned.
My cheeks are still flushed as Nina comes over to take my hands, urging me to sit beside her on the sofa. My head is swimming, and I hardly register the questions she lobs my way. But then she snaps her fingers in front of my face, forcing me to focus.
“My goodness, girly.” A sly smirk plays on her lips. “You’ve got it bad.”
“Got what? What have I got?” I ask, still dazed.
“A crush. A big one, by the looks of it.”
I roll my eyes, mostly because I can’t trust my own voice. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, no?” She waggles a finger at me. “Don’t think I didn’t see you shoot apart when I walked through that door.”
I bite my bottom lip as Aunt Nina tucks an errant curl behind my ear. “You don’t disapprove?”
“Oh, honey, as long as he’s kind to you and treats you right, what’s there to disapprove of?”
I flop back against the couch with a sigh. “You don’t think it’s weird that he’s old enough to be…” I don’t have to finish the sentence. My father is Aunt Nina’s brother, after all.
She shifts on the couch next to me, kicking off her shoes and tucking her feet beneath her. “It’s unorthodox. But I’ve never seen you this interested in a boy your own age, let alone a man.”
“I’ve never really been interested,” I admit.
Nina reaches over to the side table to fetch her tarot cards. This is her way of letting me know she has a client coming over or calling. I rise to my feet.
“Do me a favor, sweetheart,” she says, and I am already grabbing the folding card table she uses to do her spreads. I set it in front of her, and she pats my hand. “You’re a doll. I have a caller at noon, but it should only take an hour.”
“I’m on the schedule at the salon, one to eight.”
“I’ll have dinner for you when you get home,” she says.
My knees only burn a little as I head upstairs to my bedroom. The late morning light streams in through the venetian blinds, carving the sun into graceful shafts of light. Marcellus is in his terrarium, basking in a sunbeam. I open the little glass door and scoop him up, cradling him gently as I take a seat at my desk.
“I need my writing buddy.” I place him on my chest, just below my clavicle, and pull out my legal pad. I’m halfway through the latest letter to my dad. It’s already three pages along and I’m not finished yet. I go back and re-read some of what I’ve written.
And I like what you said about “all things happening when they’re supposed to.” That really resonates with me, because I think I’m the type of person who is just waiting to get to the next thing, you know? Okay, high school is done. Next. Okay, I finished beauty school, next. Okay, I’m a stylist assistant, next. I understand what you mean about trying to appreciate the moment. It’s just hard when everything feels like it’s the thing that happens before my real life begins.
But I have more to tell him. Something does feel like it is beginning. For the first time, maybe ever, I feel like I’m at the start of something important.
I write.
I’m coming back to this letter after a few days, and I know it might seem like it’s out of nowhere, but I have something to tell you. I met someone that I really like. He just walked into the salon one day—a total surprise—and he said he’d just been released from prison. I invited him to our house for dinner and Nina asked him to move in. I know it sounds fast, but he makes me feel so…special. And today we went to an estate sale, and he kissed me.
No, that isn’t how it went. I kissed him.
A thud on the other side of the wall catches my attention. I lay down my pen and return Marcellus to his terrarium before making my way to the far side of the room, to the wall behind my bed. I hear the thud again and press my hand against the wall.