Page 1 of The Dating Prohibition

Snort! Kendra jolted awake, her face pressed against the cool window shade. She forced a cough to clear her throat, her cheeks coloring

as she realized she’d been snoring. Her eyes darted around to see if anyone in the neighboring seats had heard, and she rushed

to wipe the side of her mouth, checking for drool. No one in the row in front of her seemed to have noticed anything, and

she was thankful that most of the first-class passengers were wearing noise-canceling headphones and watching in-flight movies.

Pull yourself together, girl. Taking a deep breath, she covered her face with the palms of her hands, willing herself awake.

The sweet woman next to her patted her arm with a chuckle. “You must have been tired, dear. You missed the meal and everything!”

Thank god I didn’t have to pay for this upgrade. Kendra yawned and nodded in agreement. “I’ve traveled quite a bit in the past two weeks. I’m looking forward to a good night’s

sleep.” I could honestly go back to sleep right now.

“Are you heading home?”

Home.

She smiled tightly. “Yeah, something like that.” Truth was, she’d been a tumbleweed for the past two years. Home was wherever

she decided to rest her head, though she’d been craving a place to plant her roots—something she hadn’t been sure she’d ever

do when she left. And she never fathomed that she’d have a desire to return to the US to do so.

A chime sounded before a flight attendant spoke over the loudspeaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have begun our descent into

Reagan Washington National Airport. As we prepare for landing, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their

full upright and locked position. Your laptops should be put away and...”

Kendra offered a small smile to her neighbor. “Are you returning home?”

The woman shook her head, the scent of her gourmand perfume wafting over Kendra in waves of vanilla and toffee. “My daughter’s.

She’s going to be induced next week. My fourth grandbaby!” She grinned with pride and rummaged through her purse, which she

cradled in her lap protectively.

“Aw, congratulations! That’s so exciting.” A cell phone was shoved in her face, showing three smiling kids, two missing their

front teeth. “They’re very cute.”

Once they landed and arrived at the gate, Kendra helped her row mate with her bag and headed toward baggage claim as her phone

pinged with a text message.

Lani: Is you here yet?? Inquiring minds (aka your nosy brother and your parents) want to know...

Kendra: The eagle has landed.

Lani: Tuh! I know you haven’t returned from Gulliver’s travels with a big ass head SMH. Make sure you look like somethin before you waltz your ass up in here . . .

She rolled her eyes and sent her cousin a middle finger emoji before tucking her phone into her pocket. Returning home hit

different now that Kendra was deemed a failure—it felt like tucking tail and admitting defeat after desperately trying to

carve an uncharted path with nothing but hope and a blunt instrument. Whether anyone would admit it, the hushed tones of the

family whisper network turned up the volume on every inadequacy and failed attempt, and once again the grumblings shone a

spotlight directly onto Kendra. Always the fucking black sheep .

Kendra sighed, muttering to herself as she approached her fifth red light in a row. “Now they’ll get to harp on the fact that

I’m late.” She glanced at the clock on her dashboard and shook her head with annoyance.

Having run home just long enough to drop off her suitcase and pick up her car, she’d rushed back out before her family started

blowing up her phone. DC traffic was only predictable in that it was inevitable, and finding parking was next to impossible.

Sometimes, the search for parking took as long as the commute. That never stopped Kendra from wanting to drive—yes, one could

take the Metro or rideshare to a destination, but that meant having to depend on too many outside variables when she was ready

to leave—she was too much of a control freak to depend on the timeliness of others, and when she wanted to go, she wanted

to go . Waiting on others to do what she was more than capable of doing herself drove her up the wall. Being the baby in the family

didn’t mean that she was any less capable than Big Bro.

Being away from home for two years left her second-guessing directions and she cursed under her breath as she missed her exit from the same traffic circle twice.

At some point, people enjoying the park would begin to think she was casing the neighborhood.

Kendra bit her lip, her eyes widening as a car sped into the lane to her right as she attempted to maneuver over to catch the exit on her third try.

She slid into the lane behind the Prius that had come out of nowhere and finally made the right turn out of the roundabout from hell.

Kendra zipped through the congestion on Rhode Island Avenue, having dropped all of her belongings off at the English basement

apartment below her brother’s row house. The family golden boy. Logan had stopped offering the basement as a vacation rental when Kendra announced her return to town, and she’d eagerly agreed

to help launch his new business for a month or two of free rent. Her best friend and cousin’s name appeared on the center

console screen of Kendra’s Audi Q3, and she pressed a button on her steering wheel to answer her phone via the car’s Bluetooth

system as she stopped at a traffic light. “Hey, girl, hey!”

“You’re late, you know,” Lani quipped in a hushed tone, evoking an immediate eye roll out of Kendra. “Everyone’s waiting for

you to make an appearance! Logan said he hasn’t even seen you yet.”

“Yeah, that’s the beauty of smart locks—there’s no longer a need for me to knock on Logan’s front door and ask for a key to his basement.

It’s bad enough that the prodigal child has to return and immediately ask her big brother for help for the umpteenth time.

” Kendra chewed on her bottom lip, willing her face to express less of her reluctance to come back to the DMV area.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love DC—she did—it was just that she was always hidden by Logan’s shadow.

It wasn’t his fault, and Kendra looked up to Big Bro for everything he was able to accomplish, but sometimes his success sucked up all of the oxygen in the room.

“Now, don’t be dramatic, Keke,” Lani chided in her singsongy voice.

Kendra bristled at her childhood nickname. “And remind me again why you couldn’t just let me come and stay at your place?

You know that I’m not above bumming it on a couch.”

Lani tsked nonchalantly. “Come on, girl, no one should be subjected to that much sex. Can’t have you telling my aunt and uncle

about my sexcapades. Your mom already thinks I’m too fast anyway.”

Kendra smirked. You are. “She already knows you’re fast, heffa.”

“You told her?!” Lani’s hushed growl made Kendra cackle.

“You really don’t remember trying to sneak a boy into our house when you were staying with us for spring break?” She’d been

grounded for the rest of high school and subjected to regular lectures about the birds and the bees. Auntie Mack refused to

be a grandmother early, so she made herself an impactful prophylactic. Logan and all the boy cousins were tasked with looking

out for Lani and Kendra, as if the lot weren’t all pussy-whipped themselves.

“Uh, that was a teenage mistake. Does Auntie Al think I’m fast too? You haven’t told her anything recent, right?” Lani’s whispering

was more of an exasperated shout with the volume turned down. “If she thinks I’m up to anything, she’ll tell my mom, and then

I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Girl, your mom has known since you started wearing all that eyeliner in middle school,” Kendra chuckled. “And that mulberry

lipstick? You thought you were serving. You’d hit ’em with the duck lips and hands on your hips anytime someone tried to take

a picture.”

Lani groaned. “Shut up, there’s a difference between duck lips and a smize. And thought? Bitch, I was stuntin’ on them hos.”

Kendra could practically hear the hair flip on the other side of the line. “Mmmkay, well, back to what I was saying. I could

be at your place hearing sex-foolery, but instead I’m up under Logan... again. ” Thankfully there was a main floor between Kendra’s unit and her brother’s bedroom, so she was absolved from having to hear his sexcapades, but still.

“Well, but it’s only temporary, and besides, the savings is good for you while you’re still in the planning stages of opening

up your own spot.”

“Why must you be reasonable?” Kendra whined. Everything Lani said was true, but the closer she got to the bistro location

that Logan and his wife, Shonda, were opening together, the more Kendra’s stomach performed a Simone Biles–level floor exercise—one

of those extra good ones that would eventually be named after her because no one else could perfect it the way she could.

“One of us has to be reasonable, so suck it up, buttercup. Now, what’s your ETA?” Lani was resistant to Kendra’s shit—she

had a no-nonsense approach to pretty much everything and didn’t believe in coddling unless she needed it herself. It didn’t

help that, as cousins born two weeks apart, they’d been best friends since they shared a playpen. Lani knew all of Kendra’s

tactics.

“I’m about to park. Give me a minute or two to gather myself, and then I’ll be in.” Well, maybe five minutes.

“Bet. Oh, and be careful when you walk in here, Keke—Stanley just waxed the floors.”

“Noted.” Kendra steered her car into the first open parking spot. “I’ll be in there in a few.”

“’Kay, bye.”

The phone disconnected, and Kendra took a deep breath. What is awaiting me inside? She cursed herself for not asking who all would be present to help put the finishing touches on the restaurant before its

opening in a few days. As she closed her eyes to meditate, her phone rang again. She jabbed at the button on her steering