was referring to.
“All I’m saying is that I should be the one apologizing to you,
since it was my sister who tore your marriage apart by sleeping with Ricky behind
your back.”
Once again shocked by her comment, I stood there motionless.
I didn’t know whether to start cursing or break down in tears. Here I was again
reminded about something that happened in my past. I didn’t need that in my life,
especially since I was trying to move on. Ricky and Sunshine were both distant memories,
and I believed they’d gotten what they deserved. So if their souls were in hell,
that was where they were meant to be.
I had to take a deep breath and exhale before I could make a
rebuttal. After I got myself together, I asked Fionna how long she’d known about
their relationship.
“I’m not sure. But I do remember when he stopped over her
apartment to drop off some money. It was a Sunday night, because I was in the living
room watching
The Wire
on HBO. She took him into her bedroom hoping I couldn’t hear
their conversation, but I heard every word they said anyway, especially the part
about the baby.”
“What baby?”
“I don’t know if she was pregnant for real, but I did hear her
telling him that she needed some abortion money because she wasn’t ready to have
a baby.”
“Wow! You have got to be kidding me,” I said, heartbroken. “Nah,
I’m dead serious!”
Now I knew Ricky slept around on me, and I knew he had an affair
with Sunshine, but to later find out that she could have possibly carried his baby
was a huge slap in the face. Ricky really didn’t give a fuck about me! He fucked
all his side chicks without a stitch of protection, so I wouldn’t be surprised if
that nigga had at least a dozen kids running around between Virginia and D.C. The
thought of all the times he betrayed me gave me an instant headache, so I tried
to block him out of my mind.
“Fionna, how old are you?” I asked her, changing the subject.
“I’m twenty-one. Why?”
“What do you do besides work here?”
“I take classes at TCC in the evening.”
“Good. Stay in school and keep working, honey, because men will
come and go. And tomorrow is never promised. As long as you live by those two rules,
you will be all right.”
“You know what’s so funny?”
“No. What is it?”
“I grew up wanting to be just like Sunshine because she had everything
a woman could ever want. Her car was nice, and her apartment was laced with the
most expensive leather furniture. She even had all the top designers’ clothing in
her closet. When Chanel came out with a new handbag and the shoes to match, Sunshine
made sure she got it before anyone else got it. And what made her stick out in a
crowd was, she had a body to die for. She could’ve had any man she wanted, and she
knew it.
“But when the police came to my mama’s house that night and told
us they found her naked body shot up underneath the sheets of a bed that belonged
to some guy named Quincy, I was devastated. And from that very day, I looked at
her differently. She was no longer my idol. She reminded me of a prostitute, and
that wasn’t how I wanted to live my life. It was bad enough that she caught that
fed charge for stashing all Ricky’s drugs inside her new salon, but then to come
home from jail and get caught up in some more mess behind a guy my family had never
met blew our minds. We weren’t ready for that.”
“I’m sure y’all weren’t. But you’ve got to remember that our
lives are already planned. And all we’re supposed to do is walk down the path marked
for us.”
“Yeah, I heard my mama saying something like that before, but
I still think we can stop things from happening.”
“I believe that too.”
She smiled at me. “I don’t know why Sunshine said she didn’t
like you, because you seem cool to me.”
Just then a bell went off inside the merchant machine. She and
I both looked down and realized the
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