Dime

6.

After being poked and prodded due to my desire for high-end self-care methods, my friends and I finally parted ways for the night. Aria practically jumped out of her skin from excitement when Rod and Virgil arrived at Stacey's after our long day of facials, mani-pedis, and Stacey swiping Virgil's card every chance she got. She also reminded us that she had her husband's card every chance she got. Unlike my friends who had their own homes to retire to, I decided to save some coins and stay with my parents for the weekend. I figured since we would all be going to the same place, why not save some money and stay in the guesthouse? I unlocked my parents' back door to greet them before I went to the guesthouse for the night. When I walked into our home, my dad was watching a movie in his favorite chair. My dad looked up at me from his glasses, turning in his recliner to make sure I was the person coming in and not an intruder. He smiled brightly, "Hey, baby! Welcome home!" He struggled to get up from his seat, letting out an aging groan as he finally stood to his feet. He shuffled over to me and gave me a big hug. My dad was a 6'3" dark skin man who grew up in the 70s. He had a full, fluffy mustache that was speckled with gray hairs that seemed more plentiful than the last time I saw him. He had a round belly that poked in his shirt. Honestly, he looked like one of the members from the group The Whispers. He kissed the top of my head and made his way back to his seat, "Your momma is upstairs talking to your aunts if you want to get in and get out quick," he said over his shoulder. I groaned, "Do you know what they're talking about?" He flopped down in his chair, "No clue."

"Have they been on the phone for long?" He shook his head and shrugged, using one finger to scroll on his phone, "They've been talking all day, Mel. You know how things get when there's an event." I blew a raspberry and headed up the stairs.
"Honestly, Tanita, I think that the other design looked better! No one uses those borders anymore," my mom gabbed to my aunt on the phone. My mom was busy sorting through her clothes in her closet when I found her. She turned to me and smiled, "Tanita, I'll see you tomorrow. Mel just got home." She nodded to my aunt on the other line, rolling her eyes before hanging up in the middle of her sentence. "Your aunt never knows when to stop talking. Hi, lovely!" My mom embraced me tightly, the scent of her new Jimmy Choo perfume wafting in my nose. My mom was a short, bronze-toned woman with long, curly hair that she always kept in a silk press. She had on grey satin pajamas that hung loosely on her aged shape and a matching hair wrap. She let me go and motioned for me to take a seat on the ottoman inside of her closet. Her closet used to be my brother's room, but when he and I moved out, our parents redid our whole home. My mom was one of the most sought-after interior designers in the DMV and she was even featured on a few episodes of some home renovation show on HGTV. When my parents decided to redo our house, my mom was the interior designer, even though they had hired one. Both my brother, Cypress, and I never moved back home after we graduated from undergrad, so naturally it made sense that our rooms were repurposed. Our parents built a two-bedroom, two-bath guest house in the backyard so that Cypress and I had somewhere to stay if we needed to whenever we visited. I was the only one who ever used it though, since my brother had his own home in Alexandria, VA. "How was your flight, sweetie?" My mom asked me while she kept looking through her clothes. "It was fine. It was a flight."

"How was your day with your friends? Is Aria excited for tomorrow?"

"Excited and nervous. She's still making sure everything is good for tomorrow. Virgil and Rod went to the museum so that Aria could see the space for the fiftieth time and she almost cried because she thought it might not fit everyone."

"She does know that the engagement party isn't supposed to be the whole wedding guest list, right?" I shrugged, "That's Aunt Tanita's job to tell her." My mom shook her head, "Aria should've let me go with her when she and her mom first met with Tanita. Tanita doesn't understand what a 'budget' is." I giggled, "You don't either."