“Oh, good. Use them muscles and bring it into ‘da dining room.” She waves me on and I follow her into the dining room where she has me lay the bird in the center of the table.
I see they set the table with five settings, reminding me of Pam’s arrival to the West Coast. The table isn’t mounted with Mikasa and crystal glasses like Patricia’s, but is built with great expectation of enjoying the holiday. I watch Samantha quickly remove the lid and foil from the turkey. It looks great. I often forget that my lady can cook. She only does it on the weekends when we’re not traveling, which isn’t often because I’m always whisking her off for a short stay somewhere. So, when I get her cooking, I’m amazed.
Samantha turns to me with a wide smile that resembles mine. “She did good.” Her cheeks are high with pride.
“Yes, she did,” I nod. Speaking of which, “I’m going to put my jacket away and find Rayna,” I murmur before heading out.
“Okay. We should be ready ta’ eat in like ten minutes,” Samantha calls out behind me.
I find Rayna in the living room with Pam. Yazmine is hanging her coat and yells out for me to bring her mine. As I stroll over to drop my jacket, I see Pam is holding up two bottles of cheap wines to Rayna, I guess offering them to her. Yazmine and Samantha don’t drink, so Pam must be holding her favorite two.
I sidle up behind Rayna and pull her into me. “Pam, how are you…and what do we have here?” I feel my nose wrinkling.
“Divine!” Pam greets excitedly and I see the twinkle in her eyes.
She knows me as Divine because when my mom disappeared back in Chicago, though I tried walking the straight and narrow, I still had my hand in the streets. Pam was a closeted coke lover. I wouldn’t call her an addict, but she definitely had her get-high preference. She liked to lace her weed with it on occasion. I used to fuck with her niece, Tonda, when I had initially moved to L.A.
“How are you?” I ask again.
“I’m good. I have my old buddy back. I’m just so happy that y’all back together.” Pam holds the bottles of wine under her wing as she speaks animatedly. “This is a real nice spot you put them up in.”
“Thanks, but I can’t take credit for that.” I gaze down at Rayna who’s beneath me as my hands are splayed on her shoulders. Rayna glances up at me and shooes my graciousness. “I take it that you’ve met my beautiful fiancée, Rayna.”
“Oh, yeah! She pretty as hell, Divine. Real pretty. Wait ‘til I tell Tonda. She missed out on a good thing. I hear you the man out here!”
Rayna’s cranes her neck up to look at me at the mention of Tonda’s name. I’m sure Pam isn’t attempting to be rude. She just lacks etiquette and doesn’t know that you’re not supposed to reference a former lover in the presence of a current lover—or in my case, a fiancée.
“That won’t be necessary. Tonda is a grown woman now, who I’m sure has gone on to better options.”
Before Pam can put her other foot in her mouth again, Yazmine yells out, “Dinner is ready, y’all.”
We all turn in the direction of the small dining room where Yazmine has summons us to. When I turn back, I comment, “I’m a whiskey man.” I nod towards the bottles Pam is cradling. “And Rayna was just complaining of a headache on the way in.” I pull Rayna farther into me, garnering her attention as I continue, “I don’t think a drink right now would help with it.”
Rayna’s big eyes slowly shrink as she processes my request of her not drinking that cheap ass wine Pam’s offering.
She looks over to Pam, “Maybe later, huhn?”
Before Pam can reply, I order, “C’mon, let’s go wash up for dinner.” And we take off to the powder room.
In there, Rayna hisses, “What’s the deal, Jacobs?” while washing her hands.
I furrow my eyebrows, initially confused. “What…that cheap ass wine she was trying to give you?” I scoff, “That shit’ll have you sick after one glass.”
Rayna shakes her head as she dries her hands. “Well, to help me get through this, I may need three glasses and if the only thing available is Alizé, then I look forward to recovering into tomorrow.”
She leaves out of the powder room with a playful scowl on her face. This isn’t looking good already. I follow seconds later after drying my hands.
At the table, we all feast well on the spread the ladies prepared. Rayna’s turkey is off the fucking chain and is centered by mashed potatoes, Yazmine’s famous candied yams, collard greens that Samantha made sure to cook with smoked turkey, mac-n-cheese, Yazmine’s cabbage, stuffing, ziti, roast beef, and rolls. Rayna was quiet, yet polite. Samantha isn’t much talkative either, but courteous.
“So, Divine getting married. Ain’t that something. I remember when you was damn near a baby,” Pam giggles, clearly set nice by her candy wine.