Chapter Eight
Rome
“W HERE THE FUCK IS MY RING?!”
My eyes creep open at the sound of thunderous yelling outside of my room.
Sleep was just starting to come to me after evading me the entire morning after I left Janelle’s room, and now this shit.
Pulling on some sweats I walk over to the door and peer out to see Amerie pacing back and forth, her hands waving animatedly.
“Babe, calm down. We’re gonna find it.”
“Calm down!? The fuck? My ring is missing and you telling me to calm down? You’re not upset it’s gone!?”
“It’s not gone. It’s around here somewhere.”
“It better be and everybody needs to help look for it.” She lifts her hand up to knock on my door, but I pull it open before she gets a chance.
“Morning.”
Arnold scratches the back of his neck and Amerie offers a tight smile. “Morning, Rome. My ring is missing so I’m asking for all hands on deck to find it.”
“What the hell is going on?” We turn toward Janelle who is rounding the corner with Dani beside her.
Janelle looks beautiful as always, but looking closely at her eyes, I see how tired they look. They’re red around the rim, slightly puffy underneath. Her shoulders seem heavy with weight and like the fool I am my first and only thought is how to take it from her.
“We heard you yelling from our rooms. What is happening?” Dani asks.
“My fucking ring is missing!” Amerie exclaims, her hands flying to her hips. I’m amazed at her sheer audacity to look like she’s tired of telling everyone about her ring, as if she’s not asking for our help to find it.
“How is that possible?”
“You think I know?!”
“Well, wasn’t it on your finger last?” Janelle asks.
Amerie sneers at Janelle. A deep crease forms in the middle of her forehead as her eyes sink to impossibly low slits. “I must have taken it off after y’all got me high as a kite and now it’s gone.”
“I think I remember Janelle telling you not to eat that second portion,” I chime in. Amerie grimaces at my words but doesn’t address me. Interesting.
A smirk graces Janelle’s face but it’s gone as soon as it appears.
She and Dani exchange a look and turn to Amerie like she’s a wounded animal they’re trying to coax into their arms.
“Okay, it’s fine. We’ll help you find it. You don’t have any memory of taking it off?”
Steam practically shoots through her nostrils before she exhales through her mouth and speaks. “I don’t. I just realized it wasn’t on my finger when I woke up this morning. I just need…” Her voice cracks as she pinches the bridge of her nose and heaves out a sob.
Arnold, Janelle, and Dani all freeze at the sight of Amerie’s tears but they don’t move me.
She’s the one who lost her ring, but she came to us demanding we help her find it, and when she was called out for being rude she resorted to tears instead of just correcting the behavior.
It doesn’t sit right with me. I haven’t taken the time I probably should have as Arnold’s friend getting to know Amerie, but I’m unimpressed with what I’ve seen during this trip and what I saw during the engagement party.
Arnold wraps Amerie up in his arms, kissing the top of her head. “Babe, why don’t you go lay down. We’ll look for it.”
Oh, we will?
“No, I can’t sleep ’ til I find it. I just need everyone to help me.”
“Okay, so how ’ bout you go get Eve, Christian, and Micah to go with you? I’ll stay with this group, and we’ll divide and conquer.”
The color drains from Amerie’s face as she looks back and forth between Arnold and Janelle.
Arnold is standing in front of Amerie so Janelle can’t see the scathing look on her sister’s face, but I can.
My hackles rise with the clear discomfort she feels with leaving the two of them together.
Who is she implying can’t be trusted? Her man or her sister?
Neither answer is acceptable.
Arnold offers her a reassuring smile and squeezes her hand. She blinks and literally shakes it off, offering him a warm smile. “Yeah. Okay, that works. I’ll go find everyone else.” She looks past Arnold to Janelle and Dani. “Why didn’t Evie come with y’all anyway?”
“Now you know her ass could sleep through a hurricane.” Dani laughs.
Amerie doesn’t crack so much as a smile at Dani’s comment. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, good luck looking, guys. I’ll call to check in.”
Amerie walks toward Janelle where Eve and the guys’ rooms are, when Janelle snakes her hand out to grab Amerie’s wrist. “It’s gonna be okay, sis.”
She looks down at where their arms connect briefly then untangles herself from Janelle’s grasp. “I’ll believe that when we find it.”
With that, she walks off leaving Janelle staring at the back of her head and Dani hanging her head.
“Follow me, I know where to start.” Arnold waves us on.
He leads us to the patio where the rehearsal dinner was held and spins around to face us, rolling his shoulders back and holding his head up high.
“Okay, after dinner when y’all left we stayed behind and danced around so it could’ve fallen off here.
” He puts a British spin on his voice, pulling a laugh out of both Janelle and me.
“Oh, shit. Not Sherlock Black on the scene,” I say, cackling.
Janelle’s laugh becomes even louder. “Oh my God, Sherlock Black is wild. I used to call him Luther.” Arnold grins at her former nickname for him.
“That’s a good one. I would never compliment him by comparing him to Idris, though.”
“I’m so confused. Someone fill me in,” Dani interrupts.
“Arnold loses stuff all the time.” The man can make millions of dollars for athletes in his sleep but can’t keep track of his keys, phone, or wallet.
Janelle chimes in to finish the explanation. “And when he does, he has this whole bit where he becomes a British detective while he retraces his steps to find whatever he lost.”
“Hence Sherlock Black,” I finish.
Dani tilts her head at Arnold and snickers. “Men are so dumb.”
“Facts. Okay, so around here?” Janelle waves her hand around the patio area and Arnold nods.
“Yep. Specifically, right here. ” He stands in a spot two feet away from the now empty table. “So, if it fell off her finger it probably would’ve rolled around this side.”
Dani blinks rapidly, her mouth slightly ajar. “Are you…gonna do that accent the entire time?”
Janelle laughs and throws her arm around Dani’s shoulder. “I learned it’s best to just let him go through the motions.” She leads her away from Arnold and me, toward the surrounding palm trees.
“What say you, Watson? Shall we look over yonder whilst the womenfolk scour the far side?”
Grinning at the first sight of my real friend, I stand taller and adjust my imaginary tie. “I say that’s a splendid idea, ol ’ chap.”
We comb through every inch of the patio, coming up empty handed. Arnold starts grumbling to himself, trying to remember where he and Amerie went after dinner and the next moment, he takes off.
“Oop, he’s on the move. Let’s go, people,” Janelle directs.
We follow Arnold to the pool area, and he stalks around it with one hand behind his back and the other grazing his beard.
“Bet money he says ‘according to my calculations’ in the next five minutes,” Janelle whispers to me.
Her braids, hanging loose and framing her face, lightly stroke my arm.
She uses my wrist to steady herself so I use my other hand to pull her closer to me.
The heat pouring off her at my touch threatens to engulf us both in the flames.
“I think I’d be a fool to take that bet.”
“True, you would. So, over or under on the five minutes?”
I look over to Arnold, still pacing the pool, and wait for the tell-tale sign of him checking his watch. When he does, I turn to Janelle with a gleeful grin. “Under. I give it two minutes, max.”
Dani taps her foot and claps her hands, gaining all our attention. “Is this still part of the process? Are we waiting for the ring to call to us or something?”
Arnold motions for us to come closer, so we form a huddle around him.
“After we left the patio, she really wanted to sit and watch the water but insisted the pool in our room didn’t give off the right vibe, so we came here.
She sat in every single chair testing their quote unquote ‘ comfort levels, ’ then she stared into space for a while before she stripped off all her clothes and jumped in.
Things get a little X-rated from there so I ’ ma shut up but yeah. ”
“It’s this raggedy British accent for me. Okay, so she sat in every single chair on both sides of the pool?” Dani asks.
“No, just this side. And this,” he points to a chair right in the center, “is the one she chose so according to my calculations, it should have ended up right here.”
Janelle looks at me, grabbing my arm with an iron-tight grip and we both fall into a fit of laughter. She bends over with a cough, bumping the chair in question with her hip and moving it closer to the edge of the pool. “Shit, I can’t breathe.”
My laughter grows louder as I bring my hand to her back to help her stand back up. “What I tell you? Two minutes on the dot.”
She wipes a few tears away from her eyes and giggles again. “You know, Arnold, I always wanted to ask you. What exactly goes into those calculations of yours? What’s the science behind it?”
“ ’ Bout to start calling you TI-83.”
Janelle slaps my arm as another fit of laughter takes over her. “Yo on his Velma shit, talkin ’ ’ bout some ‘according to my calculations. ’”
“Ol’ Mystery Machine–lookin ’ ass.”
At this point, Dani joins in on the laughter while Arnold does his best to look irritated with us. He presses his lips into a wobbly hard line.
“You wanna tell us the wind projections from last night too?” Janelle asks, licking her finger and holding it up to the nonexistent wind.
Dani lets out a snort, which only makes Janelle and I laugh harder.
“Ayo, fuck y’all. My methods always work.”
“That’s not true. Remember when you lost your coffee mug while we were out shopping and you never found it?” Janelle asks.