Chapter 33 Giselle #2
be their same loving selves. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting before the sliding glass door opened behind her.
Kamryn.
“Good morning,” she said tentatively.
“Morning.” Kamryn took a seat in one of the other chairs a short distance away but didn’t say anything.
Giselle wondered what was going through her mind. Was she coming to refuse her apology?
After a few tense moments, Kamryn said, “You’re lucky I’m a forgiving person; otherwise I’d tell you where you can stick that apology.
” She turned toward Giselle and pointed a finger her way.
“But I’m telling you right now, if you start up with this crap again, I promise you I’m going to snatch you. ”
Giselle believed her. “I won’t.” She hesitated. “So . . . what do we do now?” Before Kamryn could answer, the screen door
opened and Taylor and Chanel walked out laughing.
Both froze, then Taylor said, “Ah, is it safe to approach? We aren’t going to be struck by any flying objects y’all are throwing?”
She divided a wary glance between Giselle and Kamryn.
“No,” Giselle said. “I was just apologizing to Kamryn. I owe both of you an apology too.”
“Does this mean you two are cool now?” Chanel asked.
Giselle dropped her head. “I wouldn’t say cool, but I want to try.” She shared some of the same things with them that she’d
told Kamryn about her childhood.
“Girl, I know how you feel.” Chanel leaned against the railing. “At least your mother was in the house and had a job. Mine
was drunk most of the time and quit her job every time the seasons changed.”
“How did you learn to not internalize all of those things?” she asked.
“I decided not to let my mother’s choices and words define who I wanted to be. You can do the same thing. I think that’s what
we’ve all been trying to say to you all this time.”
“I wish I’d listened a lot sooner. And I’m so sorry, Taylor, for not being there for you like I should’ve with Austin and
your dad.”
Taylor shrugged. “Better late than never. Although Dad has no idea who I am anymore and can no longer eat except by tube,
he’s still here, and I’m grateful that I can at least hug him.” She gave Giselle’s hand a gentle squeeze. “We’ve got you,
sis, and we want to help you. You just have to let us do it.”
Giselle’s emotions rose up swiftly and overwhelmed her. She’d missed out on so much. Once again, guilt assailed her.
Kamryn said, “We’ll take it one day at a time.”
“Thank you,” she said softly. “Please help me. I want to be better.” The three women surrounded her with hugs and promises
that things would be better. Once they separated and wiped away tears, she said, “I need your help. I think Shawn is going
to leave me. He . . . he told me I’d crossed a line that he wasn’t sure could be erased.” The thought made her break down
even more. “I was talking to Mama Yvonne yesterday, and she told me to let myself fall completely in love with him. I didn’t
understand what she meant at first, then I finally realized I’d been scared to love him completely because I didn’t want it
to hurt so much if he left . . . like it did when my father walked out. But I see what you all have, and I want it too.”
“I get that,” Chanel started, “but you can’t punish Shawn for your father’s mistakes. And he said he wasn’t sure, and that means there’s a chance that it can be erased.”
Kamryn came and sat next to her. “You have to be honest with him, Giselle. Tell him everything, and I do mean everything. Let him know that you’re ready to give him your entire self, and don’t hold anything back.”
“And a little seduction to prove your point afterward wouldn’t hurt either,” Taylor said with a smile playing around her lips.
“You ain’t said nothing but a word.” Chanel whipped out her phone. “I know we talked about the family having dinner together,
but I think Giselle and Shawn should have a private one in their bedroom. We need to go shopping.” She typed away, then said,
“Okay, there are lots of shops in the village.”
“Then let’s go. When we get done, Shawn isn’t going to know what hit him.”
Giselle stared at Kamryn. “Um, I don’t really know a lot about how to seduce him.”
She shook her head. “Girl, we’ve got work to do.”
Laughing for the first time, Giselle said, “Maybe I should’ve let you snatch me a few years ago, and then it wouldn’t have
gotten so bad.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
They laughed as they entered the house. Giselle regretted it had taken all this for her to get herself together. She’d missed
out on so much with her sisters-in-law, but she wasn’t going to miss another moment.
Hours later, Kamryn waved around the room. “Well, what do you think?”
Giselle surveyed the bedroom, which had been transformed to resemble an elegant restaurant. “This is . . . I don’t even have
words to describe how much this means to me. It’s amazing.” Taylor and Chanel had brought up a card table from the game room
and covered it with the black tablecloth they’d purchased on their shopping expedition. Matching cloth napkins, black-and-white
patterned plates, and wineglasses had been placed opposite each other, and a low crystal-cut vase filled with red roses and
flanked on either side by candles sat in the center. They’d strung mini red lights around the room, casting a romantic glow.
Taylor placed her hands on her hips. “I have to agree. We did that.” She and Chanel exchanged a high five.
Chanel picked up the dress they’d purchased and shoved it into Giselle’s hands. She shooed her toward the bathroom. “Hurry
up and change.”
Giselle’s courage began to falter. The dress was shorter and tighter than anything she’d ever worn. “I’m not sure about wearing this. I mean, I’m not exactly skinny.”
Kamryn marched over to where she stood, dragged her over to the full-length mirror attached to the closet door, and stood
Giselle in front of it. “Look at yourself, and I want you to say, ‘I’m beautiful. I am enough.’ Embrace these beautiful curves.”
When Giselle didn’t say anything, she said, “Say it. And keep saying it until you believe it. You are beautiful.”
She’d never thought of herself as particularly beautiful. Her mother and sisters certainly hadn’t reinforced that message.
She didn’t think she looked like something that had been dragged in off the streets either, but after enduring years of criticism,
she’d begun to see herself as they did—overweight, just regular and okay. “I’m beautiful. I am enough.” The words sounded
unconvincing even to her.
“Say it like you mean it, because if you don’t believe it, no one else will. Oooh, I really want to snatch your mama for making you feel so insecure.”
“Can you include my sisters too?” They looked at each other through the mirror and burst out laughing.
“Girl, go put that dress on. I thought about putting your hair up, but I figure we should just leave it down.”
“No sense in working that hard if all he’s going to do is mess it up anyway,” Taylor chimed in.
“I see I need to be getting a whole lot of lessons from y’all.”
“Cooking is first on the list,” Kamryn said. When Giselle opened her mouth to respond, she added, “If you’re going to be planning
events, you should at least know how to cook if you get in a pinch.”
She couldn’t do anything but smile as she went to change.
Slipping the dress on, Giselle studied her reflection.
The deep red sleeveless V-neck dress dipped low in the front, exposing a good amount of cleavage, had a ruched midsection, clung to her curvy body like a glove, and stopped five inches above her knees.
She added three-inch red strappy sandals, fluffed her loosely curled ear-length hair, then surveyed the final look.
“I can do this,” she repeated to herself. She reentered the room. “Well?” she asked them, tugging on the hem.
“Girl, Shawn isn’t going to know what hit him,” Chanel said.
Kamryn clapped. “For real. And leave that hem alone. Let that man see a little leg.”
“You look great. Now work it like you own it.” Taylor snapped her fingers and strutted across the room.
“I don’t know how to thank you for this.” Even though she’d spent so many years with a “them versus me” attitude, these beautiful
women had come through for her in a way she’d never experienced.
Blunt as always, Kamryn said, “Just don’t start acting like a butthead again.”
“I promise.”
“Okay, okay. Let me send the text to Tariq to send Shawn up. Remember what I told you—honesty and openness.”
She nodded. She’d tearfully apologized to Tariq earlier, and he’d been as gracious as the rest of the family.
“Then rock his world,” Chanel said with a hip swerve. The women broke out in a fit of laughter. “Okay, we’re out. Be ready
to tell all tomorrow, dear sister.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
On the way out, Taylor said, “We’ll see you around lunchtime. Oh, don’t forget the playlist.”
Alone in the room, Giselle felt nervous jitters attack her once more.
Every what-if scenario flashed in her head, none of them good.
Giselle synced her phone to the wireless speaker Chanel had loaned her and started the music, a playlist filled with romantic R&B songs, old and new.
The door opened, and she spun around. Shawn froze two steps into the room with the tray.
“Giselle? What is all this?” Shawn’s gaze made a slow tour down her body and back up again.
It had been a long time since he’d stared at her that way, and it warmed her in places that had grown cold. Tariq and Kamryn
had prepared a special dinner for the two of them, including her prized pound cake, which Giselle had hidden in the closet.
They’d used the excuse that she wasn’t feeling well and asked Shawn to bring some food up to her. “An apology, dinner, and
an honest conversation—if that’s okay.”
He hesitated as if warring within himself. Finally, he said, “Yeah, it’s okay.” He placed the tray of covered dishes on the
table, seated her, then took the chair across from her.
Under the tops were steaks, roasted potatoes, and green beans. “I thought about cooking myself, but I didn’t want to start