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“Oh, whatever.” I sucked my teeth, fighting a smirk. “Some of us have jobs and don’t spend our days living off our parents.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“You know what, bitch? Fuck you.” She shot me the bird.
I busted out laughing. “I love you too.”
She rolled her eyes before a smile finally broke through. “I love you too, bitch.”
My mama shook her head from across the table. “I don’t know why y’all can’t just tell each other y’all love each other like normal sisters.”
“That was normal,” Lha’Kayla said with a straight face.
“For us,” I added.
That only made my mama shake her head harder.
That was how we showed love. But let somebody outside the family try us, and that was a whole different story.
Growing up, our mama and daddy always drilled one thing into us: no matter what happened, we had each other. We could fuss, fight, disagree, and get mad, but when it came down to it, neither one of us was supposed to let anybody come between us. And we never did.
We sat around talking and laughing for a while until the rest of our family started arriving. I hadn’t realized my mom invited anybody outside of us, so every time another auntie, cousin, or uncle walked through the door, I looked at her.
And she kept smiling like she didn’t know what the hell I was looking at her for.
“So much for it just being us,” I said.
My mama shrugged. “It’s your twenty-fifth birthday. You thought I wasn’t inviting the family?”
“I should’ve known.”
“Exactly.”
Once everybody settled in, my father stood and said the blessing. We bowed our heads, and when he finished, plates started getting passed around while conversations picked right back up.
I laughed at something Lha’Kayla said as I reached for my glass, pushing the weird feeling I’d gotten from my Daddy to the back of my mind.
Whatever was bothering him could wait. Tonight, I just wanted to enjoy my family and my birthday.
༺ ♛ ༻
Later That Night…
After saying goodbye to the last few family members who had come out to celebrate with me, I started gathering my gifts. I was trying to figure out how the hell I was going to carry everything to my car in one trip when my Daddy walked over.
“You ready?”
I glanced up at him. “Ready for what?”
“I got one more surprise for you.”
“Ooh.” I immediately stopped what I was doing, a smile spreading across my face. “What did you get me this time, Daddy?”
If there was one thing about my father, that man knew how to give a damn gift. Growing up, he was always surprising my sister and me with something we wanted, even if he made us think we weren't getting it at first.
He'd done the same thing with my first car. I'd begged him for a Benz for my sixteenth birthday, and every time I brought it up, he'd told me I needed to wait. I'd been mad as hell, thinking he was trying to stick me in something I didn't want.
Then my birthday came, and there sat my Benz with a big-ass bow on it. You couldn’t tell me shit after that. I was probably the happiest girl at school that entire week.
