Bumped - Completed Novel

Bumped - Chapter Twenty

I came home with the sun. My dad was sitting in the kitchen watching the morning news when I opened the door, the newspaper was splayed across the table in front of him. A few new worry lines seemed to snake their way across his forehead.

"Where have you been? Not right for you in your condition to be out all night," he saw my face and stopped. "What happened?"

My back was hurting, my feet were swollen, and it felt like a long walk from the front door to the couch. I immediately sunk down and closed my eyes for the first time.

"Déjà was arrested for vandalism and some other stuff. She trashed Steve's car." That was an understatement but I couldn't even begin to get into the details. It was the fourth of July so she was going to have to spend the night in jail.

I only had time for a quick catnap, I had promised Justine I would come by for her cook-out.

* * * *

Justine and Theo had purchased a home in nearby Glenwood, an upscale suburb with a gated community. I could hear the music as I approached the backyard. Slow jazz. Typical. The men, mostly husbands had self-segregated to one side where they talked about cars? Sports? The women dominated the large table. A few new boyfriends were at the table, probably hoping to make a good impression. They looked longingly at their more experienced comrades.

I didn't recognize many of the faces, which was just as good. I was tired of strolling down memory lane. I wanted to be incognito and just sit in a corner with a plate of barbecue ribs and some mac and cheese and just eat like a feral child. The tofu buffet at our house was getting old quickly. Unfortunately Justine intercepted me and steered me to the table and introduced me to everyone. Most of the guests were co-workers. Theo, short and bespectacled, came over and hugged me before he went back to handle the grill.

Her daughters, Lena, 15, and Amara made a brief appearance before disappearing inside. Everything seemed so ... normal. The bourgeois dream. Justine snaked her arm around Theo's waist as she whispered in his ear. They shared a private a joke. They seemed perfect together. He was laid back and countered her take-charge personality.

In the kitchen, I told her about Déjà's escapades. She just shook her head. "Déjà just can't let Steve go. I don't know what to do with her."

"You sound just like my mom. There's nothing for you to do. Sometimes you just have to let things run their course."

I drifted back outside and found myself sitting next to two co-workers in a heated conversation.

"Girl when I saw on the news that he was a brother, I was like WHY?"

"I know, I do financial planning and it's hard enough to get clients to trust me and then he does something like this ... "

I glanced up from my plate of potato salad and grilled chicken. The two were well dressed, conservatively so. Long flowery skirts, prim button down blouses, flat sandals. One bucked the trend by wearing large hoop earrings.

"He gets to that type of position of power and then screws it up for the rest of us." She punctuated the end of the sentence by waving her short, manicured nails to encompass the whole backyard as if Diego - who else could they be talking about - had some type of personal responsibility to every person there.

"And what about that girlfriend that claims she didn't know anything about what he was doing?"

A lump of potato salad caught in my throat, I had to cough to get it out. They both glanced my way.

"I know, how dumb do you have to be? I'm so tired of these women covering for their men. I mean, who's that desperate?"

It only took a second for the shock to wear off before I responded. "Wait a minute, who are you to call someone "˜dumb'? You don't know their situation. She's not a financial anything, what is she supposed to do, audit his books every night?"