Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Eyes narrowed, I searched for a sign to verify the room’s occupancy. If they were at capacity, we would be the first to bounce.
“You sure you’re ready for this?” Madison asked.
“Long as Glass & Sass doesn’t burn down, bébé.”
After dressing for Dungeons and Dragons, the teacher handed out molten blobs. When he got to me, I glanced around. I almost said, No, sir, not me, until Madison said, “Thank you, ma’am.” Okay, he was a she. And the woman played with fire. My eyes swept the room. Damn, everyone was holding their own. Beginner class, my ass!
“Watch me first,” Madison said.
Observe and try not to spontaneously combust. Got it.
Madison twirled her rod, shaping the glass. Then she leaned over. “Twist gently. Follow me.”
“Follow you?” Bébé, I’ll follow you into the Ritz-Carlton on Canal Street or The Roach Coach Inn on Claiborne Ave. But right now, I was ready to lift two fingers in the air and leave her with the man buns. I was pretty sure they weren’t checking for any beautiful ladies, no way.
“I’m done, bébé.” I was over here spraining my eyeballs. In my peripheral, I watched her manipulate fire using only a stick and her bare hands. Did she know how hard that was, watching her rework hell itself, while half my body had stretched itself out of the room.
My soul damn near faded when she leaned closer to me and whispered, “Wash, you barely touched it. You are one misstep from totally undoing a wealth of training I’ve done.”
Training? We should’ve started with If the glob of fire comes near you, tuck, duck, and roll away because I was ready to do all of that. But she stared at me, head tilted, having the nerve to look cute and curious. Again, my heart sped up, and my eyeballs stretched, glancing at that fire in her hands from the corner of my eye. “I don’t know what training you’re talking about, woman. If you haven’t forgotten, anytime you offered to take a beginner’s class with me, I flaked on your ass. So, this is a brand new me.” Woman, I’m fighting for my life!
And she had the nerve to smile. “I mean training as in my pursuit of you. And once I had you, shaping you.”
“Chère, I’m the one who flirted and tried to get you to talk to me.”
“You call it flirting, I call it training day. That cute face and muscular body worked on all the other girls on campus. They knew you were a hit it and quit it. Guess why I waited until I was eighteen to let you have the cookie?”
“Because …” I stopped and tilted my head. She played me.
“Yep. Make him wait, make him fall.” Madison chuckled under her breath. “Anyway, during all that waiting, I was training you, Washington. Had to eradicate your judgmental facade. You know the idiom, watching paint dry?”
I rolled my eyes. “Woman, gimme a break.”
“No, you weren’t that. You weren’t boring. Just tedious. You were the paint if someone painted all the walls, the ceiling, floors. Everything. Everywhere. You were dry. You had those judgmental eyes watching me. You even interrogated all my best friends.
“Interrogated. Oh, you’re funny now.”
“Yeah, and honest. You learned my favorite flowers. Color. The superficial crap, all because I didn’t give you any. But I thought it was sweet. Plus, I heard how you got down at Stanford. You and that,” she whispered, “third leg. You needed to distinguish me from all your others because I was born a princess. So, I trained you to socialize and be fun outside of the bed.” She winked.
“Tell me more?” We had another forty minutes in this class, and she could use that mouth the entire time.
Days later, Momma had our Wednesday dinner at her Creole cottage right outside of Covington. I parked in front of her house. It wasn’t a bad size or anything, but Montana’s mansion dwarfed it, higher up the slope. As I closed the door to my car, I checked a text message from Madison.
“Not coming,” I grumbled, leaning against the door and breathing in the Bogue Falaya River. I dialed her number. She killed the call and texted again.
WIFEY: So you got my text. Don’t debate me.
ME: WHY?
WIFEY: When ex-wives appear, people get testy asking about when this creature of the night is gonna leave? I’ll pass.
ME: You’re Zuri’s bridesmaid. How you gonna handle wedding stuff if you can’t attend a cookout with fewer people?
WIFEY: I’ll suck it up then. It’s a pass today, though. If your cousin is there, she’ll say something outta pocket. And I’m not afraid of Genèse anymore. Heartbreak has its perks
ME: Come … for me, bébé.
I turned around and placed my forearms on the hood of the Land Rover. Waited two minutes. Yep, I’d counted in my head. She wasn’t gonna respond. I sent one more message to the effect of, I always want you beside me, but I respect your decision.