Read Online Can't Stop the Shine by Joyce E. Davis - Free Book Online Page B

Mari stuck out her tongue at Asha.
    â€œIt’s not nice to brag,” said Roxie, nonetheless smiling proudly at her daughter. After a day of wrestling with Randy and her father forgetting to pick her up, the last thing Mari wanted to deal with was Asha’s teasing. She began to rethink her decision to let Roxie take her home.
    â€œMari, I’ve got to stop by home for a minute, then I’ll take you home. You wanna call your parents? You can use my cell,” said Roxie. “As a matter of fact, why don’t you tell your folks that you’re going to have dinner with us tonight? I’m making my famous turkey burgers.”
    Hmm, a night with the Wrights, thought Mari. “Well…I don’t know, Mrs. Wri—I mean, Roxie. I have homework and—”
    â€œYeah, Mama, you know midterms are coming up, and she’s probably got a lot of studying to do,” Asha broke in, narrowing her eyes at Mari in the visor mirror.
    â€œWell, she’s gotta eat, doesn’t she? She might as well do it at our house,” said Roxie. “Plus, you never bring anybody home. I don’t even know who your friends are. Do you even have any?”
    Asha glared at Roxie. “Yes, I have friends. Fine. Mari, do you want to come over for dinner?”
    â€œUh, well,” stammered Mari, feeling caught in the middle of a mother-daughter battle, the kind she knew all too well.
    â€œGreat, it’s settled,” piped Roxie. “We’re gonna have beauty night at the Wrights—I love it when I rhyme—and you are going to love my turkey burgers, Mari. They are off the chain.”
    After Mari left a message for her father on his cell phone that she’d been invited to have dinner at Asha’s house, she began to pay attention to the neighborhood through which they were driving to get to Asha’s house. She realized they were in the Cascades area of Southwest Atlanta where prominent black families had lived for decades. The houses were humongous, Mari thought. Her place could be the guesthouse behind the two- and three-story all-brick homes she was seeing with their balconies, bay windows, wraparound decks, manicured grounds, oversized pools and winding driveways.
    The ride to the Wrights was filled with get-to-know-you conversation, spearheaded by Roxie, which Mari thoroughly enjoyed. She liked Roxanne Wright and her Farrah Fawcett hair. The cut was so precise that when she bent her head, the wings stayed in place. Roxie wore her feathered do like she’d invented it. Her makeup was flawless, almost like she’d had her face done by a professional makeup artist. Mari wondered how many shades of eye shadow it took to blend that smoky sunset look Roxie had going on on her lids, and the lipstick was a perfectly matching high-gloss color. She wore a cream designer suit—the kind that didn’t come from a department store. Her meringue bag and shoes matched, and her three main pieces of jewelry consisted of a pair of dainty but substantial diamond studs, a thin platinum necklace with a heart-shaped diamond pendant and a diamond ring on her right ring finger that had more baguettes than Paris.
    She was crisp in style, but her personality was entertaining. Somehow, she knew all about the hottest singers, and Mari was really impressed when she recognized the voice of rapper JD who was being interviewed on the radio about his recent signing to Fire Records.
    â€œYou sure know a lot about hip-hop, Mrs. Wri—Roxie,” said Mari, shaking her head, correcting herself.
    â€œWell, you know, I gotta keep up with you young bucks,” said Roxie. “It’s part of my business, staying up on the trends. I’m trying to get with Alicia Keys and Fantasia. I’m looking into getting them to promote my products.”
    â€œOh, what type of product do you…” Mari tried to ask.
    â€œYou’ve got the Wright Touch, baby,” Asha sang, and very