Sonia headed downstairs in search of Celsie after confirming that she wasn’t in Benne’s bedroom. Her steps faltered when she saw Celsie entering the house with Desmond, who was holding his pair of sneakers in his hands, and they were both laughing at something.
From the sound of Celsie’s laughter, Sonia could tell that it wasn’t forced. She was actually enjoying the man’s company, and this made Sonia smile involuntarily.
“There you are. I was looking everywhere for you,” Sonia called out as she joined them.
“Forgive her. She would have joined you a long time ago. I held her back to keep me company,” Desmond said before raising a foot for Sonia’s inspection, “She got me this for my birthday,” Desmond said with a proud smile, and Sonia gasped.
“You cheat! Why didn’t you tell me you were getting him a gift? I would have gotten him one too. You wanted to win the girlfriend of the year award, didn’t you?” Sonia said in an accusatory tone, and Desmond laughed.
“Don’t worry. There is enough room in my heart for both of you. But right now, Celsie is occupying a bigger spot. You will need to get me a gift too in order to balance it out. I’m a very materialistic old man,” Desmond said with a wide smile, while Celsie just kept grinning.
“I will see what I can do to correct this,” Sonia promised, and Desmond nodded.
“Alright, I’ll be waiting. I will leave you girls now. I need to join Eve in the bedroom. She won’t fall asleep unless I’m there to cuddle her,” Desmond said with a wink, leaving both girls staring after him speechlessly.
“I don’t know about you, but I think I’m in love with this family,” Sonia said as they watched him disappear.
Celsie smiled without saying a word. She couldn’t believe that she actually felt better after listening to Desmond and talking with him. It must be because he was Benne’s father, she mused.
“What did you both talk about for so long?” Sonia asked curiously as she and Celsie climbed up the stairs with no destination in mind.
“Different things. He told me about his wife, he talked about parenting, and about what happened between my mom and me. I cried, he consoled me, and after that, he just kept talking about funny stuff to cheer me,” Celsie said, and Sonia smiled.
“I think he succeeded.”
“Yes, he did,” Celsie said with a nod, “So you are leaving with Bryan tomorrow?”
“Yeah. But if you want me to stay with you, I will,” Sonia promised.
“Nah. That’s not necessary. Besides, I’m sure you will be back soon. What about your apartment? Are you going to move or what?” Celsie asked curiously.
“Not immediately. But I might do that eventually,” Sonia said as they stopped at the top of the stairs.
“Cool. So what about Jade? I thought you were going to be in her bedroom?”
“I was until mother Delgado came in. You won’t believe what I said to her when she knocked on Jade’s door,” Sonia said, and Celsie laughed when Sonia told her about it.
“That sassy mouth of yours is going to be your undoing. Do you remember that time in high school when we…” They both burst into a peal of laughter at the memory before she could finish.
That had been the good old days before they found out about Jamie’s craziness. They had returned from school one hot summer afternoon, and all Sonia had wanted to do was lounge around the house in just her undies or, best-case scenario, in her birthday suit.
She had been disappointed when they got to Celsie’s house and found her father’s car parked outside. They got inside the house, and because it was awfully quiet, they assumed that he was probably resting in his bedroom, so they just headed straight to Celsie’s bedroom.
Once they shut the door behind them, Sonia started speaking, “For fuck’s sake, Celsie! Why did your dad have to come back from work so early today when I was actually looking forward to lounging on his favorite couch naked while we watch an episode of Good luck Charlie or Wizards of Waverly place?” Sonia complained as she threw her school bag on the bed.
“Language, Sony! Watch it!” Celsie chided in her proper good girl fashion.
“What part of the speech am I watching? The for fuck’s sake or the naked?” Sonia asked with a roll of her eyes.
“You’re incorrigible,” Celsie said with a shake of her head as she started to take off her clothes.
“That, I am!”
“So you were going to tell me about the party last night….” Celsie reminded her.
“Yeah, about that. I still don’t get why you are so scared to sneak out. You could tell your parents that you’re at my place or we are going to a friend’s house for a groupie…”
“A groupie? You do know what a groupie means, don’t you?” Celsie asked with a giggle.
“Well, a word could mean more than one thing. And in my lexicon for cool kids, groupies here mean group reading, smartie. I’m sure your parents won’t mind if you just tell them we are going for a sleepover group reading. And then we can go to a party. It’s not a big deal. These parties are always fun, trust me,” Sonia said, her green eyes glittering.
“I’m sure they are fun, but I’m satisfied with the photos I get to see, and you always tell the stories so well without leaving out details that I begin to feel like I was present at the party. I’d rather be indoors than go to those unauthorized parties. Now enough with the diversion. How did it go last night? Everywhere I turned today, everyone was talking about the party at school. I even overheard someone say you were seen necking with Davies,” Celsie said as she adjusted her glasses and sat in the center of her bed wearing just her undies as she watched Sonia, eager to get the gist.
“Well, yeah. We were caught making out,” Sonia said with a coy smile.
“Really? Was it fun? How far did you go?” Celsie asked, looking at her owlishly.
“God, yes! It was so much more fun than I expected. He actually used his…”
“Sonia dear, I think I’ve heard more than enough now,” Andrew called from behind the closed door of the mini-library, which was directly opposite Celsie’s bedroom, announcing his presence to them.
As Sonia and Celsie laughed at the memory, Sonia shook her head, “I swear to you, that remains the most embarrassing moment of my life. I wished the ground would open up and swallow me at the moment. Especially when I was leaving, and I had to walk past your dad,” Sonia said, and Celsie laughed harder.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
Leave a Reply