Mari’s mouth fell open. “Your mom is one ofthosemoms?”
“What moms?” Lex pretended to be confused. He was bullshitting. He knew how his mother was. She liked to act like the sun rose and set on Lex and his older brother. Nobody was ever good enough for either of them in her eyes.
Mari stopped walking and placed her hands on her hips. “One of those moms who acts like her son is the prize, and any woman ought to be happy to have him.”
“You’re not happy to have me, Mari, baby?”
She rolled her eyes. “Right about now, I’m really hoping that I don’t have to cuss your mama out. You should’ve told me so I could prepare.” Mari looked down at her outfit. “And you let me wear this top with my titties out? Ooh, I could punch you right now.”
While I hated to see Lex go out like that, it did loosen some of Church’s tension. I brought the hand I was holding to my mouth and kissed her fingers. She gave me a small smile. “I promise, my moms is mad cool. If I had to describe her, I would say she’s like Claire Huxtable. She’s cool.”
“How would you describe Lex’s mom? Is she more like Patti LaBelle playing Dewayne Wayne’s mother, or more like Whitley Gilbert’s mother?”
“Right,” Mari agreed. “Am I getting Marian Gilbert or Mrs. Wayne?”
Lex sighed heavily. “It would’ve been a little bit of both. But Memphis told me that Yahida ran up on Moms, and she’s been different ever since.”
Memphis was Lex’s older brother, and Yahida was his wife. “Yahida ran up on Aunt Renee?”
He eyed me. “Verbally, dude. You know Yahida ain’t finna run up on Renee’s crazy ass physically.”
I had to laugh.
“According to Memphis, once Yahida had the baby, she wouldn’t really let Moms keep him or nothing. When Moms asked about it, Yahida told Moms that since she never liked her, never made her feel welcome, and never treated her kindly, she didn’t want moms around the baby. Said Yahida told Moms that she, herself, doesn’t fuck with people who don’t fuck with her mom, and she was raising her son the same.”
“Damn,” I dragged out.
“No offense to your mom,” Mari said, “but that sounds reasonable to me.”
“Me too.” Church chimed in.
“Yeah, so my moms been tryin’ to do damage control ever since. You’re probably about to meet the nicest version of Renee Sumners that anybody’s ever met.”
We all laughed as we stepped into the restaurant. Lex walked up to the hostess stand and said a few words. Moments later, we were led to a private room.
All four parents were still standing as if they’d just arrived when we walked in. Church gasped when she saw our dads. She turned to me with narrow eyes and whispered through gritted teeth, “You never said that your dads were identical twins.”
“What’s up, Mom? What’s up, Dad?” I asked, pulling Church closer to me by the hand. “This is my girl, Church. Church, these are my parents, Shaunda and Joseph Sumners.”
“Hey.” Church gave them a smile and a small wave. “It’s nice to meet you.”
My mother returned the smile. “It’s nice to meet you, too. And aren’t you gorgeous?”
Church blushed, pushing a few strands of hair behind her ear, looking down at the floor. “Thank you.”
I winked at my mom. She’d always had the ability to make people feel comfortable with her.
“Let’s sit down. Everybody, sit down,” she instructed.
We all took seats. I introduced Church to my aunt Renee and uncle James, then Lex did the same for Mari and my parents.
“Ma, this is for you.” I handed her the gift bag that Church prepared.
“And this one’s for you,” Mari said to Aunt Renee.
My mom peeked into the bag then pulled out one of the bottles. “What is this?” Her voice held both surprise and excitement. “You didn’t have to get me anything, baby. Just putting up with my son is more than enough.”
We all laughed.