Page 31 of Pride and Protest

“Don’t knock on my door like the law, little girl! I told you about that.” The liquor and marijuana smells wafted outside into the hallway.

Liza threw on an old smile like a worn housecoat. Janae tilted her head up in a smile as well. “Mr. O., is Lucia here? I need her. It’s an emergency.”

“Chicho! Las Gatas!” he yelled behind him.

“Oh, and Granny is trying to rest and would love it if you kept it down over here?” Liza added.

“Yeah, how is your grandma?”

“Doing well.” Janae nodded.

“Ask if she can get me some of those peppers from that garden.”

Liza doubted he would remember. “I will.” Liza grabbed Chicho by the sleeve and pulled her out. “See you!” Liza andJanae shuffled their friend down the hall and through their front door.

“Oh girl, I am so over that house,” Chicho said. Liza saw her hand tremble.

“How did your second interview go?” Liza asked.

“They went with someone else again. I don’t have the look for fancy retail.” She waved at Janae and Bev as they made their way to Liza’s room.

“Chicho—” Liza started.

“Girl, please, I’m a realist. I’m not the girl they want in front. That’s reserved for you and your sisters.”

“I wish everyone would stop lumping me in with my sisters all the time.”

“Liza, you can never take the simple way. That’s always been your problem.”

Liza rolled her eyes. This was an old fight. “Not everything is about a cheat code, Chicho.”

“Why can’t it be? If I had your face and body, I’d leverage it to get the hell out of my mom’s house, but you want to fight a revolution that’s only gonna get you more broke.”

“Came swinging today, Chicho, geez.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not mad. I’m just tired of working so hard when so many people don’t have to,” she said, her voice tightening.

“I have some gossip, anyway,” Liza sang.

Liza filled Chicho in on the events of the previous week, delicately skipping any mention of her and Dorsey sharing a nap pod and avoiding talk of them pressed against each other in the stairwell. And certainly omitting that ghost of a moment when he had burned her alive with a searing look down her open flannel blouse. No, Liza would take that look—and whatever itconjured in the pit of her belly—to the grave. Chicho clapped with appreciation after Liza vividly told the tale.

Janae, who had been listening, popped in. “Liza, you are skipping your new love!”

Liza panicked.What could she mean?Had Janae seen them during the snowstorm?No way.She had been passed out. “No, there’s no new love, Janae!” Liza crossed her arms in front of her.

“Oh, there definitely is,’’ Chicho said. “I can tell by the way she’s denying it.”

“The guy you met, Liza! He’s with the Black Israelites or something? He’s fundraising to outbid Pemberley on the Netherfield Court development?”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Liza exhaled with something uncomfortably close to relief. Of course she didn’t mean Dorsey. “He’s from Philly. His name is WIC, and he. Is. Fine.”

Liza met her sister’s eyes. There was a touch of disbelief there. Janae’s squinty-eyed scrutiny made Liza shift her eyes away.

“Yeah, right. A guy thatLizalikes!” LeDeya popped back into the room, waiting for gossip. “Give this one a week. He’s gonna pronounce ‘coup d’état’ the wrong way, and she’ll be done with him.” Janae and Chicho laughed behind their hands.

“Deya, I have a particular taste.”

“Look at your outfit and say that again,” LeDeya said. Liza wore slim jeans and a hoodie with a paint-splatter design. Liza wanted a man to meet her at her mind—a man who could be wise and learn new things. She wanted to be a student with someone for the rest of her life. Everyone she met was so in love with their own thinking. It wasn’t too much to ask for a thoughtful, measured, kind man who could also lay pipe.