CHAPTER 17
TREY
November brought Trey’s mother.
Not literally.
She summoned them.
Sunday dinner.
Maryland.
Non-negotiable.
Work followed both of them into places it had not been invited.
A vibration against the table. A calendar alert.
A name on a screen that changed the temperature of the room.
Trey understood the reflex because he shared it.
The harder lesson was deciding when professional responsibility was real and when ambition was simply wearing responsibility's clothes.
Paula was better at asking him that question than he was at asking himself.
Paula stood in Trey’s bedroom holding two dresses.
“Which one?”
“The blue.”
“You didn’t look.”
“I looked.”
“You were tying your locs.”
“I can multitask.”
She held up the red.
“What about this?”
“My mother will love you in either.”
Paula paused.
“Love?”
Trey looked at her through the mirror.
“She already likes you.”
“That is not the same word.”
“No.”
Paula put down the dresses.
“Nervous?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Shut up.”
He smiled.
At his mother’s house, Julian opened the door.
“PK!”
Paula looked at Trey.
“You told him?”
“I did not.”
Julian grinned. “Group chat.”
“Anthony,” Trey said.
“Obviously.”
His mother appeared from the kitchen and hugged Paula before she could prepare.
“Come in, baby.”
Trey watched Paula melt.
Dinner smelled like roasted chicken, collards, garlic and cornbread, just as it always had.
His nieces pulled Paula into a card game.
Julian showed her childhood photographs despite Trey’s objections.
His mother watched everything.
After dinner, Trey found her alone in the kitchen.
“You’re serious,” she said.
He leaned against the counter.
“Yes.”
“She’s serious too.”
“I know.”
His mother wiped her hands.
“Do you?”
Trey frowned.
“She looks at you like she trusts you.”
He became still.
“That’s a responsibility.”
His mother smiled.
The same lesson again.
Responsibility.
Trust.
Care.
Later, driving home, Paula said, “Your mother threatened me.”
“What?”
“She said if I hurt you, she knows people.”
Trey laughed.
“She does.”
“She also gave me leftovers.”
“That means you’re family.”
The word came out before he could stop it.
Paula looked at him.
Trey kept his eyes on the road.
Neither corrected it.