Yael
In the end, Simone broke me. I couldn’t stay away from her any longer, so I sucked it up and called my brother back. The second I saw him, I launched myself at him, and he hugged me like our absence in each other’s lives had lasted decades instead of nine days.
I had spilled my guts to him, and he’d spilled his right back. Mic told us we were both crazy for thinking we could possibly survive without the other. We told her she was exactly right—in unison, because we were extra like that.
Then, Simone pooped, and I had missed her so much, I volunteered to change her.
Everything wasn’t right with the world, but everything wasn’t wrong either. That was until my mother called on my way back home from Mo’s place.
“Where are you?” she asked, sounding breathy and frantic.
“I’m heading home from Mo’s. Where are you?”
“I’m in the cafe across from your building. You weren’t home.”
“Uh...why are you in the city?”
She choked on a sob, and I knew what was coming. “Your father...actually. I’ll tell you in person. It’s not for polite company.”
Dread swept over me. The high of reuniting with Mo quickly faded. I wished I could turn around and go back to his apartment, but that wouldn’t make my problems go away.
When my driver pulled up to my building, my mother stepped out from the awning over the door, her chin tipped high and imperious.
“Yael, I can’t believe you don’t have me on the approved visitor list.”
Any sobs she’d faked over the phone had mysteriously disappeared.
“You never come to visit me. I hadn’t thought of it.” And I did not want her to have free access to my home. I gave her too much access to me as it was.
I escorted her into my building, and we stood side by side in the elevator. Her stare poured over me, pausing at my hair in a top knot and making judgments as she went down.
“I hope you didn’t go anywhere important dressed like that,” she said.
“I did.” I raised an eyebrow at her perfectly shiny coiffed hair, made-up face, and tailor-fitted clothes. “I went to see Mo, Mic, and Simone.”
“Oh.” She huffed. “Well, at least no one who really counts saw you then.”
“That’s a really terrible thing to say, Mother.”
She rolled her eyes, stepping from the elevator on my floor. “Oh, Yael. Obviously, I’m joking.”
She led the way down my hallway, oblivious to the horror show underway in the doorway opposite mine.
Alex Murray had just stepped out, his wet hair piled on top of his head, chest bare. As if the very sight of him wasn’t enough to rip the marrow from my bones, stepping out with him was the girl I’d dubbed ‘hot ass’ weeks ago. My brain turned their movements into slow motion. She grinned at him, and he smiled back. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and he very much returned her embrace.
Somehow, my feet kept moving until I was upon them, my mother directly in front of me at my door. My eyes were on my lock. The keys in my hand rattled as I jammed one home, fitting it properly the first try. At least one thing went right.
Mother brushed past me to go into my apartment first, and with my heart in tatters, I moved to follow her.
“Yael.”
I took another step forward. I would not look at him. Not until I could regrow my stone-cold ice veneer and let everything about Alex Murray slide right off me.
“Boo.”
That stopped me. My knees threatened to buckle. I couldn’t turn around. I couldn’t look at him with another woman.
He gave me no choice. His hand caught mine gently, turning me. I released a sigh when I saw he was alone, but the relief was brief.