5. Lee #2
She smiled. “You can shout me out when you post your nails.”
“I’m doing that anyway.”
“Good. Then we even.”
“We absolutely not even, but whatever.”
I hugged her before we left.
Once we got back in the car, I held my hands up again and turned them from side to side, still admiring my nails.
Anika glanced over at me. “Mmmhmm. You feeling yourself now.”
“Girl, these nails hard.” I looked down at my toes too. “All I need now is my hair done.”
“We can hit the African braid shop,” Anika said. “They take walk-ins, and it’s Thursday, so they shouldn’t be too busy.”
I looked at her. “What about furniture shopping?”
“That can wait until tomorrow. Your house ain’t going nowhere.”
“Anika, my living room empty as hell.”
“And it’ll still be empty tomorrow.” She started the car. “Come on. We already outside.”
I laughed and shook my head. “If they braid my shit too tight, I’m blaming you.”
“That’s fine. You still gon’ be cute.”
A few hours later, I was starting to question whether being cute was worth all this damn pain.
Kumba had my head hurting so bad I was convinced she was braiding thoughts I hadn’t even had yet. Every time she pulled another section tight, I had to fight the urge to reach up and move her hands myself.
“You okay, baby?” she asked.
“Mhm.”
Anika looked over from where she was sitting and started smiling.
I cut my eyes at her. “Don’t.”
“I ain’t say nothing.”
“You don’t have to. Your face getting on my nerves.”
That made her laugh.
Since I was stuck in the chair anyway, I spent most of the time on my new phone shopping.
Anika had sent me a bunch of websites, and once I got started, I couldn’t stop.
Dresses, jeans, matching sets, bras, panties, loungewear, heels I probably didn’t need.
Every time I thought I was done, I found something else.
At one point, I looked at how much I had spent and almost closed everything out, but then I thought about how long it had been since I could buy something just because I liked it and hit checkout anyway.
When Kumba finally finished, my head was throbbing and I was tired of sitting in that chair.
“You like, baby?”
I looked up at the mirror and had to give Kumba her credit. She had done stitch braids that curved across my scalp before feeding into long individual braids down my back. My parts were clean, my baby hairs were laid, and the whole thing looked good enough that I stopped being mad for a second.
“Okay, Kumba. You did that.”
Anika got up and came closer. “Mmmhmm. Look at you.”
I turned my head from side to side, checking myself out from every angle.
“They calling these Alicia Keys braids now,” she said.
“I see why.”
Fresh nails, fresh toes, hair done. I was still getting used to the face looking back at me, but I couldn’t lie, I looked good.
It was almost nine by the time we finally left, and I was starving all over again. I had leftovers from yesterday’s party at home, though, and after being gone damn near all day, all I wanted was some ibuprofen, a shower, something to eat, and my bed.
The ride home was mostly quiet except for Anika talking to Trevon on speakerphone. She was telling him about our whole day, and he was actually listening, asking questions and talking back like he gave a damn about every little detail.
I glanced over at her a couple times while she talked. My sister had really found somebody who liked hearing her talk, even when she wasn’t saying nothing important.
I couldn’t remember the last time me and JB talked about some regular-ass shit like that.
Listening to Anika and Trevon had me thinking about him again. I knew JB loved me. I didn’t question that. He’d made that pretty damn clear when he picked me up yesterday.
Still, something wasn’t sitting right with me. How the hell you wait five years for your girl to come home and don’t even spend her first night with her? I was already irritated by the time Anika turned into my driveway, and seeing JB’s truck parked out front didn’t help.
Anika looked toward it and smiled. “Tell JB don’t mess your new hair up.”
“Girl, bye.”
I wanted to tell her she didn’t have to worry about that because he hadn’t even really touched me like that yet, but I kept my mouth shut. Some shit I wasn’t ready to talk about, even with my sister.
Anika pulled into the garage, and I gathered my bags before looking over at her.
“You want to come in?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“You sure?”
Anika laughed. “Girl, go in there with your man.”
I rolled my eyes and hugged her before she headed back out to her Corolla. I watched her pull off, then hit the garage-door button on the wall and waited for it to close before going inside.
JB was halfway across the living room when he saw me. He stopped and looked me over from my new braids down to my shoes.
“Damn, ma.” He came closer. “Look at you. You look good as hell.”
Any other time, I probably would’ve eaten that shit up. Tonight, I wasn’t in the mood.
“Mhm. Thanks.”
He slowed down. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. My head hurt from these tight-ass braids.” I walked past him toward the bedroom. “I’m finna take some ibuprofen and get in the shower.”
“You want me to rub your head or something?”
“No, I’m good.” I kept walking and made it to my bedroom door before looking back at him. “Oh, and make sure you lock the front door when you leave tonight.”
He just stood there looking at me like he wasn’t sure he’d heard me right. I went into my room and locked the door behind me.