An Imperfect Love Story - Book 8

Her Nana Dukes

"Petey sounds like a nice young man, baby cakes." Sharon says as the young 18 year old was hanging out with her Nana Dukes like she always did after spending a few hours at the bakery. The older woman smiles at her and hands her a bottle of cola and crackers with peanut butter as the teen smiles.

"He is nice. And I want Godmom to meet him but, well, I don't know. You know how she is," she laughs as she takes a sip of her drink.

"What don't you know?" The older woman asks, lighting her smoke as she smiles at the girl and takes a seat at the little table with her. "Talk to me, pretty girl. What don't you know?"

"Well, I'm kinda not working at the ice cream place anymore. I turned in my notice a couple of weeks ago and finished last week," she practically whispers as Sharon looks back at her, calm as can be.

"Well, what do you have planned, pretty girl? I'm sure you have a plan of some kind," she smiles as Stefanie feels relieved to have told someone she trusted, for she had wanted to get this off her chest before Jude came back into the RV from watering the plants.

"I've been learning how to tattoo with Petey as a sort of apprentice, and I've been studying to be a rose priestess," Stefanie says as Sharon takes it all in, being the calm person that she was which made it easy for Stefanie to spill all of her secrets.

"A rose priestess, huh? Can I ask what that is? Is it a cult because if so, I'm really worried, honey."

"Oh, no! Not like that Nana. A rose priestess learns the ins and outs of your past lives and heals others from all of their emotional trauma."

"Mmm, pretty interesting, if you ask me. But what made you want to follow this path, baby?"

"Well, you read cards and work with crystals, Nana Dukes, and it got me to thinking. I could help you get more gigs and everything, and as I began to research, I came across this new path. I really think I can help people like you do, Nana. Plus, offering tattoos with meaning along the way? It's perfect!" She says as Sharon puts out her smoke and folds her hands on her little table.

"Well, now Stefanie, baby, this sounds like something that you might need to really dig deep in order to really do. How have you been feeling lately baby girl? I know the last time we spoke, you were feeling really down on yourself."

"Oh, that. Well, yesterday, I meditated a little bit before Aunt Lena and Godmom took us to the beach. It helped a little bit through all of this...ordeal we're going through with Corey. Do you think he'll go to jail, Nana?"

Sharon pats the girl's hand now as she sits back and grabs a small blue box and hands it to Stefanie. "Well, I really don't know, baby. But here, you should take this. There are crystals in this box that are supposed to help you find your way, babygirl. I know that being your age can be confusing and it's hard to see clearly sometimes. I know it's hard not having your mama and daddy around."

Stefanie takes the box now and unties the satin white ribbon on top as she pulls out each crystal, admiring their shape and sizes and how they glistened in the light. "I have my crystal book I just bought last week, too, Nana! So, thank you so much!" She grins as the door to the RV swings open and in bursts Julius, looking around frantically.

"Where's Steffy? I thought her meeting would be over by now!!!!!" He yells as both Sharon and Stefanie look over at the man, wondering what was going on.

"Well, now, honey, is that a way to enter my RV? I thought we talked about how this is a safe space," Sharon says as Jude walks in past the man, holding his elephant and makes a beeline to Sharon's small fridge before pulling out an orange soda.

Popping the can open, he slurps it as Julius frantically looks around, and Sharon catches on that something is very wrong as she looks over at Stefanie who is admiring her new crystals and back at Jude who is loudly slurping his soda as if there's no tomorrow.