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I shook my head at the both of them. “I already told you I can’t be with him. My job—”
“Your job?” Mom said. “Why are you so devoted to a job when you know you have the skills and experience to do that anywhere else?”
“I just got that promotion, and I’m saving for a house so I can get out of your hair, Mom. I can’t be frivolous with my money.”
“Stop,” Dad said, his tone disappointed. He scrubbed his hand along his chin, not yet meeting me in the eyes. “Henrietta, we need to talk.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“Sit,” he ordered.
Feeling like I was sixteen years old and missing curfew, I crossed from the entryway to the living room, sitting on the chair as the three people I loved and respected most stared at me. And I didn’t know how, but I could tell I’d let them down.
Dad said, “Henrietta, I’m no math genius, but your stories aren’t adding up. You pay us two hundred a month for utilities, ninety dollars for your car insurance, and your phone is free through our family plan. Your car is paid off, and you fix everything for free at home. You buy all your clothes from the thrift store. Accounting for taxes, gas, and going out with your friends once a week, you have to be putting away, what, two thousand dollars a month? At least fifteen hundred for the last six years since paying down your student loans... Either I’m very confused about the kind of house you’re saving for, or you’re hiding something.”
Busted.
“What if I do want a showstopper house?” I asked, lifting my chin.
They all saw right through it.
Mom asked, “Honey, are you in trouble of some sort?”
The worry in her voice almost undid me. I wanted to tell them the truth of why I’d saved so diligently. Why I was determined to put as much away as quickly as possible. But I couldn’t without ruining the whole plan.
Grandma said, “Just because Johmarcus got upside-down in a business venture doesn’t mean you have to be afraid of money.”
“Mom and Dad had to take out another mortgage on the house to help him, Grandma,” I said. “If that’s not reason enough to be cautious, I don’t know what is.”
Dad cut his hand through the air. “That was our decision, what your mother and I were willing to do for our child. It was our choice to make, and we made it. That should have nothing to do with your saving habits.”
Frowning, Mom said, “Are you waiting to buy a house until you find a boyfriend to move in with? Because times are different now. A real man won’t be intimidated by a woman owning her own property and making her own mark in the world.”
Seeing my opening, I hung my head. “I am waiting for a man,” I admitted, but not in the way they thought I was. I raised my eyes to meet theirs, and my dad shook his head, a heavy expression on his face.
“You just let a good one walk right out that door,” he said.
I replied, “I know, but that was my decision to make, and I made it.” Then I stood up and walked to my room.
* * *
I triedto avoid my parents and Grandma for the rest of the weekend, because if they got too close, they’d see that my heart was breaking.
Tyler was the first man in my life who had asked me out, asked my father’s permission no less. He’d proven his character when he respected my no without a single argument. He was one in a million, and I was losing him. Had lost him.
I tried to remind myself that I would have lost him when his job was over, but the truth? I’d imagined happily ever after. I’d imagined moving to Texas and celebrating Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine. I’d imagined little children with my skin tone and his hazel eyes pattering through our house.
No amount of logic could take away the ache of that dream gone unrealized.
I kept things strictly business with Tyler at the beginning of the week, hoping he wouldn’t see how turning him down had been the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.
But no matter how cheery I tried to be Wednesday morning, my friends knew it instantly.
Birdie took me in, concern in her eyes. “You look... awful. What went wrong?”
Mara nodded. “Did something happen this weekend with Tyler? You haven’t replied to any of our messages.”
I stared at my coffee and let out a sigh. I couldn’t hide this from them just because I was embarrassed. So I told them the story, including my parents’ interrogation after I turned Tyler down.