CHAPTER 57

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Yolanda. Let me in.”

Natalie unlocked the front door and looked at her friend—a crying mess on her doorstep.

“Oh, no. What happened?”

Yolanda flopped down on the couch and bawled, burrowing into the soft cushions.

Natalie sat beside her and rubbed her back. After several minutes, she heard her mumble something.

“What?”

“He’s ashamed of me!” Yolanda cried, sitting up and wiping her eyes.

Natalie handed her a tissue and listened to her vent her frustrations.

“The whole thing was a disaster. He left me alone with all his rude family, who let me know every chance they got how I wasn’t pretty enough for Maxwell. Then, to make matters worse, his own father told me I wasn’t good enough for his son and to take a hike.”

“His daddy?”

“Yep. Told me I wasn’t pretty like Theresa and that I should stop seeing him.”

“Aww, man, what did Maxwell do?”

“Get this, I ask him if he’s ashamed of me and he says yes!” Yolanda said. “How could he say something like that? I feel so stupid for not seeing this sooner.”

“How would you have guessed something like this? You’ve met his friends, you guys talk on the phone all the time, he takes you out…I mean, a guy doesn’t take you to meet his family if he is ashamed of you. Guys just don’t do that.”

“Well, he did! Now that I think about it, of course he is ashamed of me. As soon as we got there he palmed me off on one of his aunts and disappeared. I didn’t see him the whole time. He should’ve walked me around and introduced me to everybody, not left me there standing like an idiot,” Yolanda said, blowing her nose hard.

Yolanda’s cellphone went off and she grimaced when she saw the caller ID. She let it ring. “That’s Maxwell. Probably trying to tell me how he’s only ashamed of me in public and loves me as long as he can hide me from the rest of the world. What was I thinking, anyway? Things would never have worked out between us. We never kissed and went on maybe four or five dates? That clearly doesn’t mean we’re official. I mean, I’m better off knowing now, right? Right?”

“I don’t know, Yolanda. I love you and I was worried that something like this was going to happen. Not like how you think, though; I never thought Maxwell was out of your league. I thought that you were way out of his league.”

“What? Come on, Natalie, I really don’t want to hear a bunch of mess right now—”

“No, seriously, Yolanda. Think. You are a beautiful woman.”

“Natalie, stop—”

“No, Yolanda.” Natalie took her hands and held them. “Look at me. You need to stop making excuses and apologizing to everybody for the way you look. You are thin. Like Tyra Banks says, So what? Who really cares about all that? You project to the world that you are unhappy with how you look, and people see it and dog you out. You don’t think that I have moments when I look in the mirror and see this fat pig staring back? But I push those thoughts down, toss my weave, and tell myself I’m beautiful. Because I am beautiful. And so are you. And because I believe, so does everybody else. People are gonna think how they wanna think, Yolanda, you can’t control that. All you can control is this,” Natalie said, tapping Yolanda’s forehead. “How you think has to change, Yolanda.”

Yolanda cried heavy tears on Natalie’s shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Natalie said, not caring that Yolanda’s tears were staining her shirt. “Now stop all this crying and do what I do in situations like this.”

“What’s that?” Yolanda asked, wiping her face.

“Eat!”