Chapter 11 Hendrix
CHAPTER 11
HENDRIX
N o one’s looking at your coochie, Sol,” I laugh through a cloud of steam.
She has everything crossed to cover her nakedness. She’s crossed her arms, her legs. That girl crossed her heart. Yasmen and I are letting it all hang out and air out. There’s only one other woman in the steam room with us and she’s had her eyes closed the whole time. I think she’s fallen asleep.
“Well, I got it waxed just in case.” Soledad giggles, looking girlish with her face free of makeup and her hair curling riotously around her shoulders.
“Who waxes before they come to the spa?” Yasmen asks, eyes closed and lips curved into a smile. She’s regal, her coppery brown skin glistening with sweat and her braids gathered atop her head. “You know they offer that as a service here.”
“Yes, but me and my man are the only people who get to see the bush in full bloom.”
“How is our hot accountant, by the way?” I ask, leaning back and crossing my ankles. “I haven’t seen Judah in forever.”
“It’s been bonkers for him at work.” Soledad grimaces. “There’s an audit he’s overseeing. And Aaron just started this new group for cubers.”
“Like Rubik’s Cube?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Soledad says. “We hope it encourages socialization. And Adam is in this new programming club, and Judah’s been helping him navigate some of that. Like getting him some support at school.”
Judah, a dad of twin boys on the autism spectrum, is a perfect match for Soledad. They both love their kids fiercely. After all the shit her ex-husband, Edward, put her through, it’s amazing to see one of my best friends happy and finally being loved the way she deserves.
“Judah’s such a great dad,” Yasmen says, reaching for a small plastic cup of water.
“You both lucked out in the dad department,” I tell them, standing to pour eucalyptus oil over the sauna rocks. “Not Edward, though, Sol. He wont shit.”
Soledad snort-laughs and spits out a little of her water. “Agreed.”
“Amen,” Yasmen joins the joke.
“You guys still thinking about fostering, Yas?” Soledad asks, wiping the water from her face.
“I don’t think so.” Yasmen rests her chin on the knees pulled up to her chest. “We just got things on track for the kids. Hell, with each other. We’re gonna hold here for a little bit and let the dust settle on our little family.”
She looks between the two of us, a sad smile on her pretty face. “My therapist and I have concluded that longing for another baby may have stemmed from something I wanted to fix or make right for Henry.”
Yasmen and her husband, Josiah, have been through a lot the last few years—losing his aunt who raised him, losing their baby Henry very late in Yasmen’s pregnancy, financial struggles with their restaurant Grits, divorce, and then reconciling and remarrying. Yeah, letting the dust settle is probably a good choice.
The one other woman in the sauna stands, naked as the day she was born, and walks out without a word. Perfect timing because I wanted to broach the subject of what happened in Miami, but not with another set of ears present.
“Now that we’re alone,” I say, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “There’s something I wanted to get your perspective on.”
“Wait.” Soledad stands, strategically covering the girly parts with her hands, and reaches for a towel. “I accepted your damn dare, but I cannot have a serious conversation with my nipples and snatch out.”
“Pass me a towel, too.” Yasmen casts me a sheepish look. “I was determined to outlast Sol. I love y’all, but sitting around naked with you for the last ten minutes is a new level of bonding.”
“Well, I’m not gonna be the only bare bitch up in here.” I laugh, grabbing my towel from the corner to wrap and tuck it around me. “But let the record show I was the last woman standing.”
“Kudos to you.” Soledad rolls her eyes teasingly. “You win.”
“So what’d you want our perspective on?” Yasmen asks, lying back on the bench with a towel now tucked around her torso.
“When I was in Miami—”
“Oooh, I been waiting for this.” Soledad’s face is wreathed in avid curiosity. “You got any tea on Zere and Mav?”
“Um, kinda?” I shrug. “I mean, not much more than what everybody already knows.”
“I heard he cheated on her.” Yasmen turns her head to catch my eye through the steam. “Did he?”
“No.” I shake my head and frown. “At least not as far as I know. She didn’t say that. She said…”
I glance around the hot box furtively as if I’m making sure we’re the only three in here.
“This stays in the vault,” I tell them, smoothing all humor from my expression. “For real.”
“You know we got you,” Soledad assures me, leaning forward. “Now tell it.”
“I’m dying over here,” Yasmen says. “I know I look calm, but the questions are eating my stomach from the inside out.”
We all laugh, and I allow myself a smile.
“It’s not that serious,” I say. “But Zere’s really hurting, and I want to be sensitive to that in how I handle this thing.”
“What’s the thing?” Soledad asks.
“Okay, so like I said, as far as I know, he didn’t cheat,” I tell them. “But the split may not have been as mutual as their statement made it out to be.”
“I knew it!” Soledad covers her mouth with both hands. “She dumped him. She cheated?”
“Nobody cheated,” I start, but swallow my next words when two more women enter the sauna.
“I think we’ve been in long enough,” Yasmen says, sliding off the bench and heading for the door. “Let’s finish this outside.”
We go to the locker room, which is packed. I give them a meaningful look that says Hold that thought . By the time we’ve showered, gotten clothes on, and are seated in the dining area with our sushi, my friends are practically vibrating with anticipation.
“Oh, my gosh, spill,” Soledad says, eyes stretched wide. “What happened?”
Carefully glancing around to make sure no one is near enough to hear, I drop my voice, and lean in.
“She wanted kids and he didn’t.” I sit back and lift my brows to the How ya like them apples? level.
Their expressions fall.
“Dassit?” Yasmen demands. “That’s your juicy tidbit you need our perspective on?”
“Gotta say.” Soledad tsks and lifts her bottled water for a sip. “I was expecting more.”
“That’s not what I need your perspective on,” I say. I’m not sure how to put it. There is no hard evidence supporting the misgiving that’s been building in my belly every time I think about my interactions with Maverick Bell. “He and I…”
“He and you ?” Yasmen straightens in the chair from her disappointed slump. “Y’all what?”
“Not like that.” I sigh. “Before I knew who he was, we had a moment at the bar. Like… not flirting, but vibing.”
“Vibing?” Soledad looks rapt again. “Go on.”
“To be clear, he was not flirting with me,” I say. “We just kind of connected? And he said he had seen me on the dance floor.”
“On the dance floor?” Yasmen chuckles. “You turned that party out, didn’t you? Did you harass the DJ into playing ‘Feels Good’?”
“Of course not,” I scoff, rolling my eyes. “It was ‘Candy’ by Cameo.”
“That was gonna be my second guess,” Soledad offers smugly. “Cameo always brings them to the floor.”
“I may have led a few… okay, half… the people at the party in the electric slide.”
“Oh, Lord.” Yasmen shakes her head, reaching for her Diet Coke. “Please tell me you did not mesmerize that man with your hips.”
“I do have a rather hypnotic ass,” I say with a cackle. “But I digress. He mentioned that he saw me cutting up on the dance floor. And then we started talking about what I do for a living, and I mentioned the Aspire Fund. He said he might want to invest. And then I noticed a line of people hovering, wanting to see him, and found out he was the host. He was Maverick Bell. I didn’t recognize him at first.”
“Wow.” Yasmen rests her chin in her hand and watches me closely. Too closely. “How was he?”
“He was just a guy.” I shrug, forcing nonchalance.
Best not to mention how my cells seemed to pulse when he focused all his attention on me. Or how the energy around him magnetized the room. It feels like my skin is thinning. Like I’ve been hiding something, maybe even from myself, and I’m turning translucent under my friends’ scrutiny.
“By the time I realized who he was, Chapel and Zere came over. Then Aunt Geneva called all upset.”
“Was it your mom?” Yasmen’s brows snap together. “What happened?”
“Mama was anxious, so I got her to calm down, but the three of them overheard.” I pause and then finish. “ He overheard and shared that his grandfather passed away of Alzheimer’s a few years ago. Then when we were down by the dock—”
“What was y’all doing down by the dock?” Soledad asks, a piece of rice flying from her mouth with the rush to get the words out. “Girl.”
“It wasn’t like that.” I rub the back of my neck, which feels inexplicably hot. “It really wasn’t, but he said if I ever needed to talk, he’s available. It’s such a unique experience, what I’m navigating with Mama, and he understood.”
“And that was it?” Yasmen turns her lips down. “That’s nothing to—”
“And then he called me,” I add.
The muted conversation of other diners is the only sound around us for a few seconds.
“Called you to say what?” Soledad asks, her chopsticks clutching sushi and hovering at her mouth.
“He said he wanted to know more about the Aspire Fund.” I look between the two of them as if for confirmation. “Which is totally normal, right? We’d been talking about it.”
“Yeah.” Yasmen stretches the word out like an accordion. “Hen, what aren’t you telling us?”
“Oh, I think I know what she’s leaving out,” Soledad says, studying her phone with brows lifted. “This.”
She turns the phone around and dammit . The Instagram photo of Maverick Bell says the quiet part out loud.
“Dayummmm,” Yasmen mutters, taking the phone from Soledad.
Maverick is on the beach, holding a surfboard stuck in the sand. Against the backdrop of the gloriously azure Pacific Ocean, he’s a brushstroke of golden-brown skin, still dripping wet from his swim. There’s the beginning of a smile on his face, but not quite fully formed. The confidence that radiated off him in waves when he was dressed is just as evident with him half naked. Maybe even more. His wetsuit is rolled down to his waist, exposing that devil-made V slashing at his hips. There was a hint of muscle in the loose-fitting shirt he wore at the party, but this photo tells the whole carved, unmitigated truth of this man’s chest and arms and shoulders. Even his neck looks…
“Okay,” I mumble. “I was just getting to the part about him being really fine and lickable.”
Two sets of eyes bounce from me to the photo of Maverick and back again.
“What’s going on, Hen?” Yasmen asks.
“Nothing is going on.” I slice one hand through the air. Decisive. “At all, but when he called…”
These are my best friends. I need them to help me sort this weirdness out and to make sure I don’t do anything stupid. Don’t feel anything stupid. Their patient silence encourages me to go on.
“When he called,” I continue softly, toying with my chopsticks, “my heart kinda skipped a beat and my pulse picked up and I… I think I’m attracted to him.”
“He’s an attractive man.” Soledad glances at the photo. “I mean, Black surfer boy. Whew. I’m getting Judah a board.”
Giggles overtake the table for a few seconds, but we sober and I wait for them to say more as Soledad keeps scrolling across his socials.
“Ohhhh, nice,” Soledad says, brows raised high. “He donated twenty million dollars to Finley College.”
“The HBCU?” I ask. “Didn’t know that. Generous.”
“It’s natural to be attracted to someone who looks like that.” Yasmen nods to the phone at the center of the table. “And he’s wealthy, successful—”
“Kind,” I interject, because that was probably the most magnetic thing about him—how kind he was. How he understood and offered compassion that maybe no one else at that party even knew how to.
“Kind,” Yasmen echoes, watching me closely. “That’s a pretty compelling combination, so it’s natural to find him attractive, but that’s it, right? I mean, isn’t Zere your business partner? Aren’t you doing Chapel’s show with her?”
“Yes, I am. For sure. That’s why I wanted to bounce this off you guys. He called to follow up about Aspire—learn more about the fund and meet current portfolio companies.”
“That’s fine,” Soledad says. “Still okay, right?”
“Yeah. He asked me to text him the information once we nail down the details and I… I felt like I should make sure he knew that I planned to tell Zere about him possibly investing so she would know about our business connection.”
“Good,” Yasmen says. “And what’d he say?”
“He was fine with it.” I lick my lips. “I just want to make sure that all sounds aboveboard to you.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Soledad tilts her head and considers me. “Hell, I get a pounding heart and a racing pulse at an estate sale. I haven’t heard anything that sounds out of bounds.”
I chuckle, allowing my shoulders to relax. “Okay. Just needed a gut check from you guys. Make sure I’m not crossing any lines. I can’t afford to. Pretty sure Zere’s still in love with him.”
Yasmen nods. “And if she even suspected for a moment there was something up with you and Maverick—”
“It might ruin my chance to do this show and possibly Chapel’s chance, too.” I trace a pattern on the table with my index finger before glancing back up at them.
“You don’t think she’d take it out on Chapel, do you?” Yasmen asks.
“I honestly don’t know.” I shrug. “She’s hurt and I haven’t known her long enough to predict how she would respond.”
I bounce a look between my two best friends.
“Though to be clear,” I say, “right now it’s all moot because attraction or not, I’m not acting on it.”
Yasmen watches me for an extra second. “You’ve gotten this far knowing what’s right for you, for your business. Trust yourself to keep doing what’s best for you.”
“Don’t worry.” I gulp my water and the last of my reservations. “I will.”