The Badboy, the Catfish & Me

Twenty-Five

I was lying on my forearms against the couch, absently looking at the art on the living room wall. Aunt Naomi sat cross-legged on the floor with a stack of papers on her lap and her laptop open to a grading system. Baba's words were replaying over and over in my head. Mama really was the strongest person in the world.

A fresh set of tears made me wipe my eyes.

Aunt Naomi looked up after seeing the time on her screen.

"Wow, I didn't know it was eight already!" she exclaimed, turning around to face me. "You want to go out for dinner?" I shook her head. Her eyes softened as they held my gaze. "Not in the mood, huh?"

"Yeah," I smiled a little. "Besides, I don't want to trouble you. Ordering in sounds easier."

"You'd have to do much more than just talk to a boy online and spend the night to trouble me," she said, shaking her head.

"Wait! Isn't today Saturday?" I shifted on the sofa. "Shouldn't you have any plans with your fiancé?"

"He happens to be out of town tonight. So, no plans. We can order Chinese. How's that sound?"

I froze, now realizing what the recurring phrase from my aunt meant. Out of town. He wasn't in New York at all if Aunt Naomi had dropped everything behind to help Mama.

"He's in Texas, you mean."

Aunt Naomi kept her gaze steady, reading my thoughts. "Don't feel bad for me, Inaya. I don't regret what I did."

"But why didn't he move with you?"

"Well," my aunt turned away partially, leaning back into the base of the sofa. "He supported my decision to move with your mom, but he had his whole life set up there. It's hard to quit ten acres of farmland."

"Oh."

"We were supposed to get married the week after it all happened, too," Aunt Naomi added. There wasn't any sadness in her voice, but the nostalgia was there. "So, we ended up going to court to have our marriage vows the morning before I left. We didn't have a wedding...I guess the word husband never stuck with me."

Before Aunt Naomi could go on, the doorbell rang. She frowned.

I threw a headscarf over my head as she stood and went to the door. I looked over the sofa and saw Mama in a navy blue abaya and a tan-colored hijab. The redness in her eyes told me all I needed to know about how my mama was doing with the news of Nanu's death.

"Hey," Mama softly greeted as she walked inside.

I steeled myself.

"I'm going to get us some food," Aunt Naomi called in the background, grabbing her wallet to make herself scarce.

"Inaya," Mama started. "I'm sorry we fought—"

"No," I cut her off and rushed forward to hug her. I couldn't imagine being in Mama's position and didn't want to turn CrusadEon Online and Valentino into another headache. "I'm the one who's sorry. You've been through a lot. I didn't know."

"That's why I'm sorry, kiddo," Mama sniffled. "I shouldn't have kept those things from you for so long. It's...like lying."

"Mama," I squeezed her.

We held each other for a few moments, eyes shut. When she finally pulled away from our embrace, Mama took a shaky breath.

"I talked with your baba." She sighed. "And you're right. We've decided that we're going to give your nanu our last respect after all, even if my siblings don't expect me there." There was a flash of determination in her eyes. "Well, even if they don't want me there, I'm still going to be there. She's still my ammu, after all." Tears rolled down her face. "And I'm sure...that's what my abbu would want, too. Oh, Inaya, he loved you so much." Mama started to sob at the end of her sentence.