Page 37 of How (Not) to Conjure a Boyfriend
She takes the dish from me and disappears inside. “Okay. Thanks,” I say because I don’t know what else to say. I take the seat Catina was previously occupying.
“I know how it is. To be on the outside.” Eliza smiles calmingly at me.
Uh…say what? What is that supposed to mean?
I grin, but my nerves are suddenly on edge.
“It took a while for the family to accept me when I met Jeffrey down in New Orleans,” she says. Am I about to get a whole family history lesson? “I wasn’t just the first Black woman in the family, I was the first witch. It took them a bit to be alright with the witch part. They’re good people though. So loving, and they have a way with understanding. I love them dearly.”
Now my entire body is radiating nervous energy. Where is this going?
“That’s really good.” I grin. What are you getting at? Is this like the talk dads usually give their daughter’s potential suitors? Is a shotgun about to come out? A Smith & Wesson story? Some Rodney Atkins song?
“It really is.” Eliza nods and shifts to look at me directly. “I’d do anything for them. They’re my family. So I’ll get right to the point, Kenzie.”
Okay…
Eliza leans forward, her smile somehow holding both a lightness and weight that’s usually reserved for my least favorite conversations. Our eyes meet, and no matter how much I want to look away, I can’t. Her dark browns bore into me, searching me. Yeah, I already don’t like this.
“I know you and Hayden aren’t dating,” she says.
“What?!” I jump, taken aback by the accusation, the truth. How does she know? “How…I mean what?”
“I was in the hall the other day…at the hospital,” she starts to explain. My stomach jumps into my throat and I fall back, lettingmy back smack against the black wooden slats. I thought she said she’d just arrived though! “When you were there talking to Hayden. I overheard.”
Shit! Immediately I go into damage control mode.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for this to happen. I really—”
“No, no. Calm down, Kenzie.” Eliza pats my shoulder, her smile motherly. “I know. I heard. I could feel your conflict, how much you wanted to be truthful.”
“I do, I really do!”I tell her. “I’m just…I don’t know…I’m afraid of how they’ll see me. How you’ll see me. I don’t even know if Hayden would date a guy.”
She grunts at that last bit but doesn’t seem too worried about it. “How much of what you saidistrue though?”
“Uh…” I pause.Just breathe, Kenzie. You can’t go back to five minutes ago. Just be honest.“The rest, really. Wedidmeet at the café. It’s where I work, and he comes all the time. I just neverreallytalked to him. I just took his order, but nothing else. I was too scared. Too much of a coward.”
“Don’t say that.” Eliza purses her lips.
“It’s true though,” I tell her. “It was all a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Eliza asks.
I huff again. This is too hard.
“Yes.” I nod. “At the hospital they wouldn’t let me go back and see him because I’m not family. I might have gotten ahead of myself and said he was my boyfriend. The nurses know me—I interned at the hospital this summer—so I thought it would help my chances of seeing him. I didn’t think anything of it.”
I stop and examine the palms of my hands. My fingers grip my amethyst.
“But when y’all came in the room and asked who I was. The way y’all reacted…when the nurse said I was…uh…Hayden’s enbyfriend. I couldn’t say it wasn’t true. I wanted it.”
Gods. I wanted it so bad. To behis. And IthinkI still do, but is it worth lying to his family?
Eliza’s face softens and she blinks slowly, never once letting go of my eyes. I was expecting something much different when this happened, but it’s not there. The rage isn’t there. The disbelief and disgust. None of it. Is this how the entire family would be?
“I see.” Eliza looks away into the trees.
It’s already so dark you can only see the first few before it fades into nothing. The rain is coming harder now, splatting along the walkway and at the edge of the porch.
