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  “Did we determine that she is a stripper?”

  “I mean or where ever she be hanging out at,” Kenzie corrected.

  “We can’t drive cause we been drinking.”

  “Damn, that’s true,” Kenzie said.

  “We could call a taxi.”

  “That would be responsible,” Keeva said. “Cause you know what? I do deserve some answers from that muthafucka.”

  “You do! We can make him talk.”

  “Damn straight,” Keeva said jumping up from the chair.

  “How do we call a taxi though? And where is he staying?” Kenzie asked.

  “Damn, do people still use taxis? I think we can use my Uber app and get them to pick us up. Uber is like a taxi without the sign, right?” I was confusing myself.

  “It is like a taxi but we gone need a getaway car after we kick his ass. We can’t be waiting on the corner for a car to come,” Kenzie said and sat back down defeated.

  “Damn, that’s true,” I agreed.

  “Do you think a car would wait on us?” Keeva asked.

  “Oh, I got it!” Kenzie said standing up again. “Let’s trick him into coming over here.”

  “Right!”

  “He comes through the door and we all attack! He won’t know what hit him,” Kenzie said.

  “Damn you smart!” Keeva said. “Imma call his ass right now.”

  Keeva picked up her phone and dialed Kerem’s number.

  “It’s his voicemail what should I say?” Keeva rushed.

  “Just tell him to come over here because you want to talk to him, but he won’t know that we are over here waiting on him.”

  “Yeah don’t mention that we are over here because then he probably won’t come. But if he doesn’t come over then we will call a taxi and find his ass,” Kenzie finished.

  Squinting to avoid the bright light from shining into my eyes, I tried to read the time on the clock on my nightstand.

  Wait. My nightstand? When did I come home?

  I wanted to lift my head from the pillow to look around, but my head felt heavy, and even the slightest movement made the pounding that I was experiencing increase.

  “Good morning!” Samuel blasted.

  “Shhhhh,” I said. “Why are you yelling?”

  “I’m not yelling. You’re hung over.”

  “Oh my gawd. My head is pounding, and my bladder is screaming. Is it possible for you to close the blinds? It’s so bright in here.”

  “The blinds aren’t open, Vee.”

  “Baby, please. Is there any possible way that you could use your inside voice? My hearing is fine.”

  Nausea suddenly and violently washed over me. I jumped from the bed and made it to the toilet just in time to throw up the contents of my stomach. The stomach contractions continued forcing urine from my bladder. I tried to squeeze to hold in my pee, but that didn’t work. I threw up until I was dry heaving, finishing with a foul-smelling and tasting green substance.

  Samuel came behind me with a cold towel for the back of my neck.

  “I don’t know why this helps,” he said while helping me to my feet, “but it does.”

  He carefully pulled my nightgown over my head avoiding smearing the vomit that was on the front of it.

  “Come on and get in the shower. I thought you could hold your liquor better than this,” he chuckled.

  “You try eating pork rinds and Oreos for dinner and taking shots of tequila. Then tell me about holding liquor.”

  He turned on the shower while helping me out of my panties that were wet with urine. I wanted to be embarrassed, but I was far too hung over to care. Samuel left out of the bathroom after spraying a cleaning solution to clean up my mess. I stood under the warm stream of the shower willing my headache to go away and my stomach to stop hurting.

  After my shower, I stood at the sink and looked at myself in the mirror. I had black rings around my eyes from my eyeshadow and mascara. My lips were outlined in the dark lip color that I’d worn yesterday. I quickly reached for my makeup remover and face wash to clean myself up. Then I brushed my teeth until I felt like I’d gotten rid of the foul tastes that were lingering in my mouth. I opened the cabinet in search of some antacids and pain relievers. My head was pounding like all the HBCU drum lines were marching in my skull. My stomach was churning like if there were something left to throw up, I would be back over the toilet. I took some Tylenol then popped a couple of antacid chews in my mouth. I stepped out the bathroom and found Samuel sitting on the edge of the bed wearing a smirk.

  “What are you smirking at?” I asked while rounding the bed to climb back in. I wasn’t getting up again until the medicine started to work.

  “Do you remember anything about last night?”

  “Yes, I remember hanging out with my sisters and watching some movie, I can’t remember what it was. We had some tequila also.”

  “What about the pizza you ordered from Imo’s?”

  “Pizza? I didn’t order any pizza.”

  “Yes, you did. The pizza guy met me, Kerem and Travis at the house when we got there. He almost got murdered until I saw the pizza box in his hand.”

  “I didn’t order a pizza and why did you come to their house?”

  “Yes, you did. You paid for it with your credit card. And I came to their house because you three clowns had plotted to get Kerem over to his house to fight him but, the whole conversation was on his voicemail.”

  “What! No, we didn’t,” I chuckled.

  “You did. You and your sisters had a whole conversation about not telling him you all were there then if he didn’t come you were going to call a taxi and go find him. Keeva said something about finding a stripper and Kenzie was concerned about what color all of you would wear. You talked about getting something to eat before he got there because you would need the energy,” he laughed, “Kerem let me and Travis listen to the whole thing. Y’all talked until the voicemail disconnected the call.”

  “El, shut up!”

  “It’s true. He heard all of you drunk over there and called us to come and check on you. He was concerned about you all calling a taxi and leaving the house. When we came into the house, all three of y’all were sleep in the recliner under somebody’s jacket.”

  “No, we weren’t!” I gently laughed. My head was still pounding.

  “Look,” he said while pulling out his phone and navigating to his pictures and passing it to me.

  There was a picture of my sisters and me all sleep on the recliner like he said. Keeva was in the middle and had a jacket covering her. Kenzie and I had one of the jacket sleeves draped across us.

  “Oh my gawd! This is so stupid and embarrassing!”

  “I know, right? I’m going to save it for future blackmailing purposes.”

  “No, El!” I grabbed my head. My own voice was making my headache worse.

  He snatched his phone and put it in his pocket.

  “I know your unlock code. I will just delete it later.”

  “Okay but I already emailed it to myself, so, have at it.”

  “Ugh, you are so irritating!” I rolled my eyes. “You brought me home?”

  “Yes, Travis took Ken back to his parent’s house. Something about not wanting to explain to Ms. Estelle. Reem stayed with Key.”

  “Oh no. I don’t know if that was the best idea.”

  “I called and checked on him this morning. She is awake, hung over and okay. She hasn’t tried to kill him, yet.”

  “Thank you for coming to get me, baby.”

  “Of course. I will always take care of you, sweetheart.”

  “Where is my phone? I need to call and check on them.”

  Samuel handed me my phone, and I dialed Key’s number.

  “Hello?” Kerem said into the phone.

  “Did I call you?” I pulled the phone from my ear to look at the screen.

  “No, I was close to Key’s phone,” Kerem responded.

  “Can you give her the phone, please?
”

  “Yes, but Vee…I’m sorry.”

  “Shouldn’t you been apologizing to your wife, not me?”

  “No, I should apologize to you too. I know my actions affected more than just me and Key. I messed up, and I promise I am going to try my best to fix this. Thank you for coming when I called and thanks for taking care of Key.”

  “Do you really think it’s something that can be fixed, Reem?”

  “I love Key. She loves me. I just have to remind her why.”

  “Good luck, I guess. I really don’t know how to feel.”

  “I understand. Here is Key.”

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Key. You alive?”

  “Barely,” she chuckled.

  “Hold on let me call Ken.”

  I connected the calls.

  “Ken? You sick?”

  “Hell yeah! Why y’all grinches let me drink like that? What is the use of having two older sisters when they just sit around and watch you being reckless?”

  We all semi-laughed. I think we were all in too much pain to do too much.

  “Did they show you the pictures they took of us while we were sleeping?”

  “Travis showed me after I was I able to fully open my eyes. That was some dumb shit. I was certain we were on the big couch together,” Kenzie said.

  “Where did that jacket come from we were sleeping under?” Keeva added.

  “I don’t know! Why did we all think we could fit under it?” Kenzie said.

  “Ken, when did you change into that black catsuit and where did you find it?”

  “The better question is why did I have it on backward?”

  We laughed.

  “No more tequila for me! I would like to announce that I am officially retiring from tequila. That shit got me messed up, for real!” Kenzie said.

  “Key, are you okay with Reem being there?”

  “Reem is there?” Kenzie asked.

  “Yeah and yes. He’s cleaned up throw up and other bodily fluids. I appreciate him being here even though I don’t think I want him to stay.”

  “He apologized to me.”

  “Really?” Kenzie said. “At least he knows he fucked up.”

  “Maybe he does. Maybe he doesn’t. Today is not the day for us to have that discussion because I am sick as hell!” Keeva said.

  “Well we gotta get better because we have to go over to the house to meet with mommy about the wedding,” I reminded them.

  “Oh, gawd…” Kenzie dramatically said, “Is that today?”

  “Yes, it’s today! It’s your wedding! How did you forget about the meeting?” I chuckled.

  After trying every hangover remedy known to man and none of them working, I settled on another dose of pain meds and large sunglasses to get me to my parents’ house for the meeting about Ken’s wedding. My mother was in super mommy planning mode since Ken wanted a winter wedding. Last night was not a good idea when having to deal with super planner mommy. Turning off my engine in front of my childhood home, I took a long drag of the water. I’d been drinking trying to rehydrate myself. I pulled out my phone and sent Samuel a text.

  Pray for me. About to go into the lioness den to plan for the wedding.

  You got this. – Samuel

  My mother is Vivian on speed when it comes to planning stuff especially weddings.

  Might as well get used to it. She is going to plan yours too. - Samuel

  Let’s just elope and keep it a secret. I can’t do this twice.

  I will file the paperwork for the marriage license on Monday. I have a judge friend who could handle the ceremony for us. - Samuel

  Babe! I’m just kidding!

  You probably should add lol or lmao or haha when you’re kidding. – Samuel

  (Straight face emoji)

  I should have told you that we eloped last night. You wouldn’t have known any different. – Samuel

  Not going to let me live that down.

  Not ever. Love you. See you later. – Samuel

  Love you too.

  Looking up after hearing a tap on my window, I saw Ken standing next to the car wearing a large pair of sunglasses as well.

  “Come on in so we can get this over.”

  “I’m coming.”

  My sisters and I sat on the couch watching my mother’s poster board presentation of how Ken’s wedding would go. The boards were complete with fabric samples, color stories, time frames, and budgets. It reminded me a lot of the presentations my sisters, and I sat through when Mommy was planning each of our sixteenth birthday parties. We all knew that Ken wasn’t going to have a whole lot of say in what happened. If we weren’t so hung over, we might have asked more questions, but we all just went with Mommy’s ideas. They weren’t bad ideas just devoid of the bride’s opinion.

  “So what do you think?” Mommy asked after going over her last poster board.

  “Great job, Mommy,” Ken said. “My only question is why is my dress budget so low?”

  “Kenzie, two thousand is enough to find a really nice dress. Your father and I are going into our savings to pull this off.”

  “Mommy, I will put in on the dress,” I said.

  “I will too,” Keeva said.

  “You girls don’t have to do that,” Mommy said.

  She and my dad never were comfortable with taking money from my sisters and me. She made us give her money when we worked as teenagers, but as soon as we left for college, she returned all the money to us with interest because she’d put it all in a savings account for us.

  “It’s our pleasure, Mommy. Let’s make this a grand affair for Ken and Travis,” Keeva said.

  “Awww, thank you, sisters!” Kenzie said while grabbing us both around the necks.

  “Are you sure? I still say we can find something for a couple thousand,” Mommy said.

  “It’s fine, Mommy!”

  Honestly, we would have agreed to anything for this presentation to be over.

  Averie

  “Thank you for taking this meeting, Ms. Patterson,” Evander Smith, the newly elected District Attorney said.

  Evander Smith had been elected to the office of district attorney by a landslide vote. The prior district attorney didn’t campaign hard because he thought he had the election in the bag. He didn’t realize how tired people were of a DA who talked about being tough on crime but only locked up black and brown people. Tyrone Smith was a breath of fresh air. He had fresh ideas, the background, and knowledge to push those ideas through. He was Black with locs, tattoos, and wore a lot of purple and gold.

  “No problem. How can I help you?”

  “I am considering offering Barry Leathen a plea deal. I want to offer him ten years in jail and another three on paper. He wouldn’t be able to practice law again, and he would be registered as a sex offender. I wanted to know what you thought about it.”

  “You are asking my opinion?”

  “Yes, you are the victim. I know I can’t be this liberal with every victim that I come across but you are special.”

  I raised my eyebrow.

  “Special in that you worked with DA’s office, so you’re still considered family even though that was years ago. You are a fellow attorney even though we may be on opposite sides of the case. I may need to ask for your help or maybe an associate from time to time to help us out. I don’t know what the prior DA had planned for Leathen. Probably a slap on the wrist. They were a part of that good ole’ boy network. I assure you, I am not. I want to see him pay for what he did without the stress of a court trial. I know you’ve been through a lot.”

  “I like the idea of my associates working with the DA from time to time. Yes, I have been through a lot, but I’m not afraid of a trial. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m a fighter. I never back down from adversity.”

  “Your reputation precedes you, Ms. Patterson.”

  “Good but I would say do what you think is best. I agree with the jail time and probation.”

 
“Good. There is also the matter of a video tape that appeared on my desk. It shows Mrs. Leathen leaving the floor of your old office space and then walking into a room with you near the security desk in the same building. According to the recording attached to the video, it sounded like she threatened you. Is that true? And if so, why didn’t you report it to the police.”

  “Who sent you that tape?”

  “It didn’t say who it was from.”

  “Well, if you recall at the time of the incident, my fiancé was fighting for his life after being shot. I told her that if she came around again that I would report her but I just didn’t have it in me to report it. Reporting it would have led to more questions and I was all out of fight at that time. She stayed away, though.”

  “I can’t ignore it so she will be brought in as well. No one is above the law. It won’t even require you pressing charges because we have the proof that we need to charge her with witness tampering,” he explained.

  “I think I felt sorry for her to a certain extent. She had to be devastated by what Barry did. I don’t know if she really knew what she was doing,” I tried to explain.

  “Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Besides, she knew what she was doing. She just didn’t count on you calling her out. I will let you know how it goes.”

  He stood to leave.

  “It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Patterson.”

  “Same here, DA Smith.”

  Samuel

  “Are you sure you are up to this?”

  Averie had been sick for the past week.

  “I’m fine. I am going to drink this white soda and eat these crackers. That’s been giving me some relief.”

  “White soda and crackers? That sounds like something my Nana would have told me to eat to feel better,” I chuckled.

  “Yes, but not just any white soda. It has to be flat and white,” Averie added.

  “Usually though, if Nana found out I wasn’t feeling well, she would ask me if I’d had a bowel movement and force me to drink some cod liver oil.”

  “Ugh! Cod liver oil is a form of child abuse. I don’t care what anyone says!”

  “I agree,” we both laughed.

  Brick pulled up to Chambers Security building. Countee called a meeting about my shooting at his office.