AMIL's ANECDOTE

AA25

Today's weather was colder than usual for Texas during this time. In spite of it being December, Amil wasn't prepared to zip her jacket up, in lieu of having it open to show off her outfit, like she usually did. The cool gust of wind tapped against her face as she dug into her purse for the key to her grandmother's house. While in the process, the sound of the wooden door slowly creaking open caught her attention. Amil let out a sigh of relief as she looked up. To her surprise, her father was standing there with a bowl and spoon in his hands.

"Who car is that?" Lloyd questioned, motioning his head in the direction of the all white corvette that sat in front of the residence's mailbox. "Hey daddy, it's nice to see you too." Amil sarcastically passed by her father's question, while passing by his slim body to let herself into the home. She didn't make it too far away from the door, as she stopped to pull off her boots.

"Hello daughter, who's car as that?" Lloyd questioned before taking a spoonful of the bowl's contents into his mouth. "Cause it sholl don't look like the little Sonata that I bought for you." He added, making Amil lightly chuckle. Judging by the crab leg sticking out of the dish, Amil could see that her grandmother made gumbo, which was the sole reason that she came over.

"It's my boyfriend's, he lets me drive it." Amil answered. Instinctively, her eyes traveled to her father's hand. Lo and behold, his engagement ring was still there, accompanied by a tattoo that looked like a date in roman numerals. Amil felt a deft pain in her stomach. Oddly, the tattoo confirmed that things were serious between them and had zero intentions of waning any time soon. "Boyfriend?" Lloyd echoed while bunching his eyebrows together. Amil shook her head yes.

"You don't think that's a double standard?" He quizzed. "You was walking around with your face all made up when you finally met my significant other—I haven't met yours—I didn't even know you had a boyfriend." He added. Amil mentally rolled her eyes as she shifted her weight to one leg.

"For one, Zion and I aren't engaged or married, and second of all—you're never in Houston. You can't say I could've used the phone, cause you didn't either." She answered, migrating their conversation into the kitchen. She didn't expect to be having a disagreement with her father, so she figured she'd indulged in what she came for while doing so.

"Zion." Lloyd spoke, Amil shook her head. "You can meet him if you want—we're only a few months in." She replied, opening the cedar wood cabinets and grabbing a ceramic bowl. Amil moved over to the stove and removed the top off the aluminum stock pot, freeing the scent of the dish into the air. She grabbed the large ladle from the side and helped herself to three big dip fulls.

"What does Zion do for a living—he has a corvette, and I'm assuming he has another car." Lloyd questioned, adding more white rice on the top of his gumbo. "He's in the military...army to be exact." Amil answered, Lloyd nodded his head.

"How you meet him?" Lloyd asked while taking a seat at the table, across from his daughter. "Through Omari—he used to go to Southern with us...I've been knowing him for a few years, we didn't get properly acquainted until this year." Amil answered.

"Used to?" Lloyd raised his eyebrow. "Yes...used to. He graduated and now he's working toward getting his doctorate in education." Amil explained, slowly growing tired of all of the questions. She wasn't sure if her father was genuinely interested, or if he was trying to prove a point by being petty.

"I wanna meet him." Lloyd announced, grabbing a paper towel and wiping his mouth before crossing one of his legs over the other. "Whenever your schedule permits...I'm surprised you're even here today." Amil replied.