Chapter 10
MAHOGANY
I flipped my sun visor down to check my make up, preparing to get out of the car to head up to the restaurant to meet with Em for lunch.
Once I was satisfied with the way I looked, I got out.
As soon as I did, a cool breeze brushed against my face, and I smiled.
If it weren’t for Tami convincing me to leave for lunch, I would have been cooped up in the office, depriving myself of a beautiful day.
The hustle and bustle of Downtown Detroit was exciting.
The birds were chirping, and the sun was high in the sky.
It was the perfect day for a brunch date with my girl. It’d been so long since we caught up.
We walked up to the restaurant at the same time and immediately embraced each other, rocking back and forth.
She missed me as much as I missed her. I didn’t use the best friend term loosely—in fact, I didn’t use it at all but if I had to call anyone my best friend, it would be Emerald.
She knew all of my business and sometimes, if I let her be, she was a safe space.
“Hey bitch, you look cute!” Emerald said.
Pulling away from the hug, I sized her up. “Me? You! Ain’t never met a bitch who could rock all white like you.”
She adjusted her Cartier frames and made a cocky face. “I meeean.”
We shared a laugh and headed into the restaurant.
“What’s been going on? It’s been how long since we sat down for lunch?” She asked, shaking her head. “Ain’t heard from you or nothing.”
“Girl,” I said with a sigh. “Life’s been lifing. Like a muthafucka.”
“Same, girl same,” she said as we were escorted to our seats.
“Your waitress will be with you shortly,” said the hostess before walking off.
“You won’t believe who my newest client is,” I said with a smile, getting right to it.
“Who?” She asked, sitting her bag on the table as we sat. “Kash? If so, slide her an invitation—
I laughed and said, “Girl no. What the fuck?”
Her ass was always trying to plug somebody to that freaky ass club.
She shrugged her right shoulder. “I’m just saying. Who then?”
With a smirk, I said, “Armani suit.”
She drew back, confused. “Armani suit? Who in the hell is Armani suit?”
Tilting my head to the side, I twisted my lips up. “The guy from my first night. The one I talked about for months.” Pausing, I mumbled, “Hell… years.”
“Oh! Armani suit,” she said with wide eyes. “You lying! How long has it been? Eight damn years?”
I sucked my teeth. “No, bitch… five. And nope. Not lying. I’ve been working with him for about three weeks now.”
She drew back and tilted her head to the side a little, offended. “Three weeks and you just telling me?”
“Don’t act like you ain’t hard to get up with,” I reminded her.
She rolled her eyes and turned the corners of her mouth up. “Girl, please. You were just at the club not too long ago.”
“That was before, stalker,” I told her. “Didn’t do shit but have a couple of drinks. Anyway, he’s back. Ain’t that some crazy shit?”
“Very crazy,” she said, with a confused looked. “No… like, for real crazy.”
I sized her up, skeptical. Although it’d been a few weeks, I still wasn’t convinced that it was simply a coincidence.
Emerald had connections. Big connections.
And if there was anybody who could make something like that happen, it was her.
Crescent owned an investment firm; Emerald owned a club.
Because Detroit is so small, I wondered if they were in the same circle.
I wondered if during all of this time, she knew him all along and didn’t tell me because of protocol.
I wondered if Crescent contacted her about who’d decorated the club and she put him on to me, finally giving me what I desired without breaching anything.
I was looking for logic. That’s what it was. Something that could connect the dots.
“Mmmh,” I mumbled. “You sure you don’t know him? That’s just too much of a coincidence. Crescent Carter… Skylight Industries… I know it rings a bell. You probably sent him my way.”
She drew back with a frown. “Crescent Carter? That’s his name?
Bitch, I don’t know no Crescent Carter. What did I tell you all of them years ago?
I don’t have personal relationships with members like that.
I don’t know why you think I’m just cool and buddy-buddy with every got damn body just because I’m like this with you.
Them muthafuckas pay my bills—that’s it. ”
I tilted my head to the side, observing her, waiting for her to crack a smile or something but she never did.
Damn. Was it really just a coincidence? While I sat there, observing her, the waitress came over with water and asked if we were ready to order.
I ordered chicken and waffles and a mango mimosa.
Emerald ordered the same, except she got a tequila sunrise.
“Damn,” I said with dipped brows once the waitress walked off. “I actually believe you.”
She laughed. “Uh, yeah, ya should. I fuck with you Mahogany, but I don’t play like that. I’m already going through enough. You think I’m really about to breach my own NDA clause? Hell naw.”
I shrugged. “I know. I just… damn. It’s really just a coincidence then huh?”
“Mmmh!” Emerald mumbled, as she took a sip of her water. “Have you heard of…” she snapped her fingers. “Umm... What is it called again? Shit… The red string theory! Have you heard of it?”
With furrowed brows, I shook my head. “No. What the hell is that?”
“We both know that there aren’t such things as coincidences, right? Red string theory, bitch. Look it up.”
I rolled my eyes, huffed, and fished my phone from my purse to look it up. As I sat there reading, she ‘mmhmm’ed’ and ‘see what I’m saying’ me to death before the definition could even come up.
“The red string theory is an East Asian mythological belief…” I paused, reading to myself until I got to the part that she had to be talking about.
“…Two people who are destined to belong together are connected by an invisible red string tied to their pinky fingers or an—” Sucking my teeth, I stopped and looked up at her. “Bitch, what?”
“Keep going!” She urged, gesturing for me to read.
With a deep breath, I kept going. “—kles, despite time, distance or circumstance. The people connected to the string are fated lovers, be it through soulmate, divine, or karmic connections. You might meet at the wrong time, or hurt each other, but you’re bound.”
The red string theory reminded me a lot of the soul tie I told Sienna about a couple of years back.
I didn’t think the red string theory applied here simply because it felt one sided.
Like I was the only one experiencing whatever the hell it was I experienced.
Honestly, I was starting to believe what Chanté told me when I first told her about him.
That maybe I was just so sad and desperate for touch that I imagined what I felt.
And now that he was back… maybe I was just excited.
“Nah,” I said sitting my phone down. “I don’t think—”
“I do! A couple weeks ago I saw a TikTok about it. This couple met overseas for the first time three years before they lost contact and ran into each other at a basketball game in the states. Crazy ass coincidence. What are the odds, bitch? I say it’s the red string theory—I don’t care.”
“Or it could just be—”
“Bitch, years ago he was your knight in shining armor. For years you talked about how he made you feel and how it was different… now you sittin’ up here acting like you don’t want it to mean something?
Girl… It means something. Shit like that don’t just happen.
I told you… Pandora’s is just...” She took a deep breath and smiled. “Magic.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Bitch… okay.”
“It is. I told you then, I’m telling you now… It’s a little slice of heaven on earth. The things I’ve witnessed… the way people light up. I don’t just sit there and watch the screens because I’m freaky. I watch the screens to see the transformation happen. They come in heavy and leave lighter. I—”
“Em, please. Of course they do. They fuck and have orgasms.”
“Mm mm, it’s not that. I saw it happen to you before you that night and you weren’t even fucked, soooo.”
She was sensitive about her shit so what I do?
Let her talk about Pandora’s and how it was a link for special connections.
I didn’t mention how she’d been singing that song more since I told her about Sienna and Jahad.
Yeah, I told her about their connection.
I had to. It came a time I almost had my membership revoked because I breached the NDA by telling Sienna I saw Naoki’s nigga there. It was a whole thing.
Anyway, Emerald’s always said Pandora’s was ‘special’ but since I told her about Si and Jah, she’d been on it heavy.
Even if it was, I didn’t think that was the case with Crescent and I.
I couldn’t think that. I’d been feeding my delusion enough.
Besides, I didn’t believe in things like that for me.
Never had. People thought Duke and I had a fairytale love.
A hood fairytale love, at least. It was the furthest thing from that.
Duke and I had struggle love and struggle love was the only thing I’d ever get.
There was nothing magical about Crescent and I.
I didn’t want to keep feeding that delusion because what if I was wrong?
Yes, there was chemistry between us, but I’d rather think it was a freakish coincidence before I said it was something special.
Spent too many years in delulu land already.
“I’m just saying,” With a sigh, I shrugged. “I don’t get shit like that, Em. Life is just life and all this has really shown me is that the world is pretty fucking small.”
She poked her bottom lip out. “I thought you would be happier.”