I was too keyed up to get back to sleep. The four hours I got will just have to suffice, I thought. I jumped in the shower again to tame that fake Christina Aguilera Afro thing I had going on, only mine was real. I was in such a good mood I sat in the shower rapping some sick lyrics of my own creation and shaved my legs just in case Mr. Brandon wanted to cop a feel of those bad boys.
When I was done, I wrapped a towel around my body and got out my blow-dryer. While experimenting with Frankie we discovered my curls were best tamed right after they were dried. Like, the curls were big enough naturally that while still warm from the dryer, as long as I pinned them up like I’d used a curling iron, and let them cool completely while pinned, they would fall and look like a professional blowout. The effect was marvelous, darling, but took forty-five minutes, which I didn’t usually have.
But that morning I did, so I carefully pinned big curls to my head and while they cooled down, I cleaned up my eyebrows and applied my makeup. I took extra time pulling together a fantastic outfit and threw together a few choice pieces of jewelry, got dressed, and pulled on my trusty boots. I searched through my bag for my bottle of vanilla and found it on the bottom of the case, of course. Since I didn’t hear the house stirring at all, I decided to kill some time and rearranged my bag for optimal fittage. In the bathroom, I dabbed a few generous drops of vanilla on all my pulse points.
I put my hands over my pinned curls and felt they were cool enough so I pulled the duckbill clips and let the curls fall, setting them with a little hair spray and a little hair serum to smooth any strays. I turned my head over and shook them out, letting them tumble down my back. The effect was exactly what I wanted.
I sat on the edge of the bed, reading for a few minutes, when I started hearing voices drift into the kitchen down the hall. Doors opened and boys spilled out when the smell of bacon permeated the whole apartment.
My blood started to race knowing I’d be seeing Ezra soon. I was so eager yet so hesitant, my stomach that strange mixture of anticipation and queasiness. I started to doubt whether what happened last night was really as I remembered it. I knew enough of boys from Frankie to know they often got some twisted sense of buyer’s remorse after a night of pasión. Not that hands really went anywhere but around the facial/shouldery area. I started to lose it, overanalyzing everything that happened, then recalled the words Ezra gave me. He wasn’t a liar. He was a boy, no, man of integrity, and I needed to give him a little credit.
I stood, checked my reflection, touched a jittery hand to a door handle and pulled open the door. I stepped out into the hall and closed the door. There was one thing I didn’t take into consideration when I stepped out, and that was that the open kitchen was settled across the main hall, perpendicular with the hall my room was in, and everyone had the perfect view of me as I took the fifty-foot walk. And they watched. All of them. All four boys. Mike and Rosie glanced at me but returned to their business. I almost turned around and sprinted back toward the room but knew how ridiculous that would look, so I owned the walk.
I was slow at first, but picked it up with as much pep as possible. Confidence! The speakers in the kitchen blared something young, letting me know one of the boys picked the station.
It got all quiet as all of them, save for Rosie and Mike at the stove together, their backs to me, stared my direction. I checked behind me. There was nothing. Hot dog! This is for me! Well, well, well.
All of them were still in their PJs and I hesitated again. I was halfway down the hall. It was too late, so I kept going. I’d thought they’d have gotten control of themselves, but all four boys were frozen where they stood.
I reached the kitchen and waved. “’Allo, govnas!” I greeted, hoping to wake them up a little.
It worked, they all scrambled around, back into their morning routine. All except Ezra. Wonderful, beautiful Ezra. He smiled at me and bit his bottom lip to keep from grinning too widely. He made a little twirl motion with his fingers, asking me to turn around, so I did. I curtsied, ’cause I’m a gosh dang lady, when I met him face to face again.
Nice, he mouthed.
He still had on his track pants, but he’d thrown a T-shirt over his Adonis chest and abs, which was a crying shame, but I had to respect his acknowledgment of a social norm, you know, because it’s a social norm and lest be thrown into the dregs of society. Jeez.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kai. He looked at me, then back at Ezra, then back at me, and put it together at a Joey-from-Friends kind of pace. He pointed at me and Ezra at the same time, smiling like an idiot. We ignored him.
Ezra patted the area next to him on his side of the bench at the table where he was reading the paper like he was a grown-up. I walked over to him and sat with my back to the table so I could swing my legs over modestly because I was wearing a skirt. He looked right through me, it seemed, and I froze in place. He leaned imperceptibly my direction and inhaled.
“You smell good enough to eat,” he whispered, making my stomach drop.
I threw my legs over the bench and swiveled around, maintaining an appropriate distance from him so as not to alarm the parental units of the shenanigans we’d gotten up to during the night.
Acting as apathetic as he could, Ezra said, “Coffee, Jupiter?”
“Thank you, yes,” I said. “I’d love some.”
He leaned over me, his chest brushing against my arm, and flipped a coffee cup in his hands, settling it in front of me on an agate coaster. He grabbed the French press in the center of the table and poured a cup for me.
“How do you like it?” he asked me.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing, shattering all pretense of maturity. Ezra’s cheeks flushed red when he realized the suggestion, and I giggled, resting my forehead against his shoulder trying so, so hard not to laugh out loud. We both choked down our amusement as Milo and Kai joined us at the table.
“What’s so funny?” Kai asked.
“Oh, nothing,” I told him. “Ezra was just getting me coffee.”
Kai looked at my coffee cup then at Ezra. “Heh, heh. Yeah, that Ezra. Such a trip,” he teased.
He shook his head, leaned over, and started to fish through the paper, landing on the sports section, and plucked it out, setting it in front of him.
Ezra cleared his throat. “Cream? Sugar?” he asked.
I didn’t know. I’d never really had it before.
“Both,” I told him to be safe.
He put both in, took a small spoon from a pile next to the coffee pot, stirred my coffee for a few strokes, handed it over to me, and encouraged me to keep stirring. When I didn’t feel any more resistance from the lumps of sugar, I picked up the cup and took a trial sip.
HOLY MOTHER OF MOSES! It was amazing. I kid you not, the nectar of the gods.
Like it? Ezra mouthed.
“You have just created a monster,” I warned.
“Jupiter!” I heard across the kitchen, startling me. I spilled a little coffee on the table. Ezra took his napkin and wiped it up for me.
“Thank you,” I told him. “Good morning, Rosie!”
“Mornin’, child!” She came around the middle island toward the table, a spatula in her hand. “Sakes alive, girl! You look prettier than a glob of butter melting on a stack of pancakes.”
“Thank you!” I think.
“You like bacon, baby?” she asked.
“Does Kai like girls?” I answered.
She laughed. “So what you’re saying is you like bacon now, but once it comes to the table, you’ll change your mind ’bout it and want ham instead,” Rosie chimed in.
The whole kitchen erupted into laughter including Kai, but his smile fell quickly. “Hey, a pig’s a pig,” he bit back.
Rosie slapped Kai on the back of the head and walked away, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. “Come on!” Kai said, laughing. “Can’t stand the heat, get out the kitchen!” he said, mimicking her accent perfectly.
“Hey, respect your mama,” Mike said, flipping something.
“Don’t worry,” Rosie said sweetly to Kai, “one day you’ll learn. One day you’ll meet a pretty girl and you’ll wrap yourself around her finger. I’ll watch with pure glee as she runs you around in circles.”
Kai looked shell shocked and swallowed hard.
“Where are you boys going to take Jupiter today?” Rosie asked, pulling something from the oven.
“What about the aquarium?” Bear suggested.
Ezra laughed. “We live in the Florida Keys, Bear.”
“So?” he asked, confused.
“What about the Chicago Shakes?” Milo asked. He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s near the Pier, but who cares?”
“What’s Chicago Shakes?” I asked Milo.
He smiled a brilliant smile at me. “The Chicago Shakespeare Theater.”
“That’s cool!” I said.
“He only wants to go because he’s got a paper due the first week of school next week on Othello. Our prep school makes all the new seniors read the play over the summer, and he didn’t have time,” Kai dug in.
Milo’s eyes blew wide.
“Milo!” Rosie said, whipping around. “Is that true? Did you not read Othello?”
Milo bent across the table, making like he was going to get up. “Your ass is grass,” he told Kai under his breath then fully stood. “Ma, don’t worry, I’ll read it this week. I swear,” he tried to appease.
I watched as Milo buttered up his mom, and she fell for it hook, line, and sinker. She was putty in these boys’ hands, I could tell.
“Listen,” she told everyone, “make sure whatever you do, you guys get back by five.”
“What for?” Kai asked, scanning the paper.
She placed a large platter of French toast on the table. She looked exasperated. Note to self, being a mom to boys is aggravating but a blast.
“Kai, I have the library fundraiser here tonight. You know this, boy! The caterers will be here by three. I want you all out of the house until five, but home in time to shower and dress. Your tuxes are in your closets, pressed. Do not, under any circumstances, walk into this house five minutes until seven. Guests arrive then, and I expect you all to be dressed and ready to go, with smiles on your pretty faces.” She looked at Ezra. “I had one of Kai’s tuxes pressed for you as well, Ezra.”
I swallowed. Was I expected to be here? Surely not.
I smiled up at Rosie. “Uh, Mrs. Brandon?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s Rosie, baby. Or Mama. Whatever,” she said, then offered a gorgeous smile.
“Um, what time does this party end?” I asked, trying to figure out what I would do while they threw this fundraiser thing. I wanted to see Chicago but didn’t want to walk the city on my own at night.
“Not sure, honey. They go pretty late. Does that make you uncomfortable, babe?”
“Oh no,” I said to reassure her. “I just didn’t know what time I should come back to the house.”
Her confused face matched Bear’s. “Whatcha talkin’ ’bout, honey?”
“Uh,” Kai chimed in, his voice a bundle of nerves, “Jupiter, my mom would like to cordially invite you to a fundraiser we’re throwing at our house. We throw one every year. It’s a formal affair.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Kai.
“Kai!” Rosie yelled. “My God, boy! You get sorrier and sorrier every day.”
He laughed. “I’m sorry, Mama. I just forgot to tell them.”
Ezra leaned into me and whispered, “More like smoked it away.”
I would have found that hilarious if I wasn’t a little panicked that I didn’t have anything decent to wear.
Rosie noticed my face. “Now, don’t worry. It’s no big thing. Did you bring anything?”
“I really didn’t,” I told her. I felt all the color drain from my face.
“Okay, don’t get hysterical now. We’ve got hours yet.”
She got up to get a big plate of bacon and set it next to the French toast. Kai reached over for a piece, but she slapped his hand away.
“Ow!” he said, rubbing his hand.
She sat down as Mike brought over a big platter of scrambled eggs and settled in next to her.
She snapped her fingers. “I got it! Melissa!”
The boys nodded their heads as they filled up their plates. Ezra offered eggs and I nodded, still a little stunned by the morning’s progress. He filled my plate for me.
“If I don’t do this,” he said in my ear, “the rest of them will wipe the platters clean and you’ll miss out.”
I turned and smiled at him. “Thank you,” I told him.
I picked up my fork and took a bite of eggs after we prayed. “Um, Rosie?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Who is Melissa?”
“Oh, she’s the corporate lawyer who lives across the hall. She’s ’bout your size. She’s sweet as cherry pie and a good friend. She’ll be more than happy to help out, I just know it. I’ll call after breakfast and we’ll head on over there.”
“She’s also hot as a tamale,” Kai mocked his mom’s accent.
Mike looked over at Kai and Kai shrank into his side of the bench. Mike was the silent, calm type, but it worked for him.
“Kai Brandon,” Rosie said sternly.
“Sorry,” he said, looking remorseful.
“Should I look up matinee times of Othello?” Ezra asked the table.
I looked at Ezra and he smiled. “Definitely,” I told him.