Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
He looked away again. “We weren’t.”
“Oh. But this is good news, right?”
“Yeah—well, I mean as far as baby-related news goes. It’s good. But as you know, with a baby comes expenses and not only that, Ana wants to bump the wedding date up now.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Silence thickened the space between us. “So it was Ana’s idea to cut me off?”
“No—Mira, don’t think of it like that.” He sat forward. “We’re just trying to get our ducks in a row here. You have to understand.”
I folded my arms and worked my jaw.
“We have a baby on the way and we want to get married, sis. We’ll need a bigger house, a place with a yard and all that. I’ll be getting a promotion at the firm soon too and it couldn’t be coming at a better time.”
My head shook hard. “This is all Ana, Kell. I know it! She fucking hates me! I mean she called me a moocher at your Christmas party in front of everyone last year and never even apologized for it. She’s been waiting for this day. She’s been so ready to tell you to cut me off for something more important. Your baby is more important than helping your sister and she knows it. She also knows I’d never stand in the way of you and my niece or nephew. I would never, no matter how much I’m struggling.”
“Mira—” Kell reached for my hand across the table but I moved it away.
“No—it’s fine, Kell. It’s fine.” It wasn’t fine. My eyes burned and my throat thickened from unshed tears, but I refused to cry in front of him. All he would have done was tell Ana that I cried in public, made me look like an even sadder bitch to her, and she’d rub his shoulders with her pasty hands and tell him it was okay—that everything would be fine for me because I’m “so smart” and “so beautiful” and have a whole life ahead of me. She was so full of shit. Our mother would have despised her.
I pushed back in my chair and placed the strap of my tote on my shoulder. “Well, I don’t want to hold you up for your important meeting so I’ll just text you later.”
“We can still have a quick lunch, Mira. I’ll pay for it. It’s no problem.”
I scoffed at him. Pay for what would probably be our last lunch together? He paid for every lunch we had—it was our thing and he never minded taking care of the bill. But with his baby news and knowing that Ana was probably in her cozy, overly furnished condo that my brother paid for monthly, laughing about this in between puking her guts out over the toilet, I refused to entertain lunch today. I’d only end up saying something rude about his fiancée that would make matters worse, and neither of us needed that right now.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to you later.”
I turned and walked out of the restaurant, ignoring Kell’s pleas for me to come back.
My brother was all I had left and yes, I was upset about this news. Not about the baby in particular, but the way that it was happening.
I was twenty-eight years old and going nowhere. Truth was I relied on him too much and I knew it. He knew it too, but being his only sister and the only immediate family he had left in the world, he never minded taking care of me when I needed him—or at least he never acted like it.
He always looked out for me. If I needed help with a bill, he gave me money. When I needed a car, he cosigned and helped me buy one. When I moved in with Shelia as her roommate and had a few rough months where I couldn’t pay the rent, he helped me out with no problem.
But then he moved in with Ana and all of that started changing. I was certain it was because she was in his ear, saying little things that got to his head and making him recognize my flaws. Making him resent me.
Now he’s about to get married and has a baby on the way. His career is soaring—big-time manager of the biggest public relations firm in Miami—meanwhile I can’t hold a job for more than two months.
In truth, it’s only a matter of time before a person cuts off their deadweight so they can evolve, and I guess what hurt most in that moment was that I wasn’t at all prepared for it.
CHAPTER THREE
“So, he cut you off? Just like that?” Shelia stood in our kitchen with a knife in hand, slicing through a cucumber. She was prepping salads for her and her boyfriend, Ben, who would be coming over any minute.
She looked gorgeous in her sleeveless turtleneck top and low-rise dark jeans. The top was a light purple that complemented her golden-brown skin. Her hair was braided into two cornrows with gold jewels perfectly spaced throughout each section. Shelia always looked put together, unlike me. I hardly ever wore makeup unless I was going to a club or party, and my wardrobe didn’t consist of bright colors like my roommate’s. Neutrals were a favorite, but I did love bursts of color in jewelry, and especially loved me a pair of gold hoop earrings. I often wore crop tops, high-waisted jeans, and sandals. My hair had been natural since birth, though I did have it silk-wrapped once and didn’t care for it. The unruly look suited me best, but I did love a good perm rod two-strand twist-out. If not the twist-out, I was definitely rocking a springy afro.