“What about the late lunch you made?”
“I forgot all about that.”
While Carmen warmed up the food, Marcus went and changed out of his suit into some shorts and a tee shirt. They sat and ate quietly, after which Marcus walked Carmen to the door. She gave him a good-bye kiss on the cheek at the door, which led to another, which led Marcus to kiss Carmen's lips. That kiss led to another, which was a bit more passionate and much longer. And as it always does, one thing led to another and Carmen left an hour later.
Once she was in the car, Carmen called Dominique and told her to be ready when she got there. Roland wasn't at the house when they got there, but Melissa gladly let them in. When they got to Desireé's room, Dominique picked up where she'd left off. Carmen stood and looked at the computer.
“What're you standing there for, Carmen, we still have a lot to do.”
“I know, but I want to see if there are more letters to me on her computer.”
“What letters? You're sister never wrote a letter in her life.”
“I know, but she would start these letters to me and never finish them,” Carmen divulged, as she sat down in front of the computer. “Much less mail any of them. But they read like a journal. She doesn't write them every day or anything like that, but when she had something on her mind, she'd write it in the form of a letter to me. I've probably read a hundred of them. They've made me feel closer to her.”
“You two were closer than any two people I know.”
“Yeah, but there's a lot of things about Dez that I never knew. Some things that you don't know about her.”
“You mean about her being bi-sexual?” Dominique said matter-a-factly.
“She told you?”
“No, Carmen, of course she didn't tell me,” Dominique said, noticing the hurt look in her eyes. “I dropped by here unannounced one afternoon. I rang the door, but no one answered. So I got back in my car and was about to leave when Desireé came out with a woman. I got out and was walking toward the house when Desireé kissed her. And I'm not talking about a little peck either.”
“Did they see you?”
“No they didn't. So I walked up like I didn't see anything. They were surprised to see me standing there. Desireé introduced me to her. She was a tall pretty woman. What was her name? It was some country or something like that. I want to say Paris, but that's not it.”
“India.”
“India! That's it, India.”
“I met her. And she’s been calling me all weekend. I hate that I gave her my cell number.”
Dominique stopped what she was doing. “Carmen.”
“Yes.”
“Are you gay, too?”
“No mother.”
“Then why has she been calling you all weekend?”
“She likes me. And she’s a nice person, very friendly and she’s so funny. But she's starting to get on my nerves, always talking about how I'm making her clit hard.” Carmen looked wide eyed at Domin
ique and covered her mouth. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that in front of you, mommy, I'm sorry.”
Dominique laughed. “It's all right, Carmen. I've heard talk like that before. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I had one of those long before you were born.”
Carmen laughed. “I am so embarrassed.”
“Please don't feel like that, Carmen. I'm just glad that you feel that comfortable around me to say something like that. It's all I want, Carmen, is for us to be friends. You're all I have now,” Dominique expressed on the verge of tears. She turned away from Carmen and picked up one of Desireé's dresses and began to fold it.
“No I'm not, you still have daddy,” Carmen said as she turned on Desireé's computer. Dominique sucked her teeth, but didn't comment.
Once Windows opened Carmen searched for more letters. As she looked she thought that there had to be an easier way to find what she was looking for. Once she changed the search parameters, she found 2471 files.