The Realest Ever (10 page)

Q stepped forward out of obedience, but Kat was still unsure about
this hulk of a man who somehow squeezed through their front door.

“Girl,
get over here,” Kyra said with a chuckle. 

She went to retrieve her daughter
.  Donovan struggled to keep his eyes off Kyra’s derriere when she turned away.  She filled out that skirt like nobody’s business.  Donovan had been with Brianna for so long, he nearly forgot what a real, southern woman looked like – one who didn’t eat rice cakes or pull out a calorie counter before she ordered at a restaurant.

Donovan knew he’d never
place his hands on Kyra’s lusciousness, but he had a sudden craving for a woman her size. 
Definitely not Kyra
, he told himself, but if he was lucky enough to meet a totally different woman built exactly like her, Donovan might have to trade-in his Skinny Minnie.

“Hi.”

Donovan looked down and saw a young boy standing there.  Donovan squatted so he could look the child in the eyes. 

“Hello.  My name is Donovan.”

His voice was deep and rich, creating a roll of bass that seemed to bounce off every wall before dissipating.  He stuck out a hand to shake, and Quinell obliged.  Kyra watched her son’s mitt get totally swallowed up in Donovan’s paw.  She smiled.  She walked over to them with Katavia in her arms.

“And this is my daughter, Kat,” she said.

Donovan stood and grinned at the baby.  “Hello there.”

Kat stared at him for a moment
, and then she smiled and buried her face against her mother’s shoulder.

“Oh, stop being shy,” Kyra said.  She tried to get the baby facing the right
direction, but it was no use.  No matter which arm Kyra switched her to, Kat wouldn’t meet Donovan’s eyes.  “I’m sorry,” Kyra said.  “She’s usually not like this.  I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”

“
She’s fine,” Donovan said.  “I think she’ll like me once she gets to know me.”

Kat looked up at him, and Donovan winked at her, and
the baby turned away again giggling.  Kyra laughed.  Donovan looked up and then crossed the floor to greet the last person in the room.  Aunt Ruth eyed him suspiciously, even when Donovan reached to shake her hand.

“Hi, I’m Donovan Mitchell.”

She shook it, but Ruth was clearly guarded.  

“You Kyra’s old friend, from when she used to live down here?”

“Yes,” Donovan said. 
“And she lived with my family once, for a little while, a long time ago.”

“
Hmph,” the older woman said.  “Y’all have a good time.”

She didn’t look like she meant it
.  Kyra didn’t know what was going on with her grumpy aunt, and she didn’t care.  She deposited her baby on the sofa and went to wait for Donovan at the door. 

“We’ll be back in
a couple of hours,” he said as he backed away from Aunt Ruth.  When he turned to face Kyra, Donovan smiled big and dopey.  Kyra did, too.  She hadn’t been this excited since the day Donovan’s mom let her move in with them.

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

When they got in his truck, Kyra quickly fell in love with the cozy seats and cool air-conditioning.  It’s strange, the things people take for granted.  Kyra never thought a new truck would be so impressive, but after riding the bus and in her aunt’s ’96 Camry, Donovan’s pickup felt like the lap of luxury.

The
childhood friends couldn’t take their eyes off each other as Donovan backed out of the driveway and headed for a restaurant downtown. 

“What?” Kyra said after catching a few of his
glances.

“I don’t know,” Donovan s
aid.  He shook his head and tried to keep his eyes on the road.  “You look so different.  I’m glad to finally see you again.”

“Different how?” Kyra asked.
  She couldn’t wipe the smile off her face, either.

“You’re all grown up,” Donovan stated.  “You’ve become a beautiful woman, Kyra.”

She blushed and coyly looked away.  When did Donovan’s eyes become so damned piercing?  When did his lips get so freaking suckable?  Donovan moistened his puckers while she watched, as if he could read her mind.

“You did a lot of growing yourself,” she said.  “You
had some little muscles back in the day, but they’re all full-sized now.  I see you.”

Donovan grinned.  “Thanks, but my most important muscle will always be the one between my ears.
  The rest are superficial.” 

Kyra heard him perfect
ly, but she still thought he said
the one between my legs
.  Her eyes even swam in that directly.  She caught herself.

Dammit woman, get a grip!

“I worked out to get bigger for football,” Donovan explained.  “Especially when I got to college.  Those guys are NFL-size.  You gotta be strong to compete.  But I’m a lot slimmer now.”

“I
saw your college pictures,” Kyra said.  “Your body does look better now.  I mean
you
look better.  Not your body.  You know what?  Let me shut up.”

Donovan
chuckled.  “Well, as a friend, I can say that your body looks better now, too. 
As a friend
, I noticed that you got it going on.”

“Thanks,” Kyra said, blushing again.  The
AC was blowing perfectly, but it still felt warm in the truck.  She fanned herself.  “I don’t know why I’m so nervous around you.”

“Please don’t be,” Donovan said.  “You used to be able to talk to me about anything.  I
hope we can still be like that, even though it’s been a long time since we talked.”

“Me too,” Kyra said.  “I miss that.  I miss you.  Thanks for picking me up.”

“I said I’d fly to Arkansas to see you,” Donovan stated.  “I meant that.”

“Thank you,” Kyra said.  Her heart was filled with
happiness.

“So tell me about your kids,” Donovan said.

“Okay.  My son is eight years old.  His name is Quinell.  My daughter Katavia is two.  Everyone calls her Kat.”

“They’re beautiful,” Donovan said.  “You said you’ve never been married?”

“No.”  Kyra thought she’d feel self-conscious about that, but she didn’t, not with Donovan.

“Are you still with their father?”

Kyra shook her head.  “Quinell’s dad died before he was born.  He got stabbed.”  Her eyes glazed over as the bloody memory filled her mind.

“That’s terrible,” Donovan said.  “I’m, I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“A lot of bad stuff happened,” Kyra said with a shrug.

Donovan thought that was a
dreadful and cryptic comment, but he let it go for now.

“What about Kat’s father?” he asked instead.

Kyra sighed.  “His name is Leonard.  He’s still alive.  He’s a hustler, and he does drugs, too.  I didn’t know how bad he was at first.  He’s in jail now.  We’re not together anymore.”

Donovan didn’t know what to
make of what he was hearing.  He thought Kyra’s life was bad before she left Overbrook Meadows.  He always assumed things got better for her in Arkansas.

“What about you, Mr. Mitchell
?” Kyra asked.  “I know you’re not married, but there’s got to be some woman trying to get her hooks in you.”

Donovan chuckled.  “Yeah, there is someone.  I’ve been with my girlfriend for almost eight months.”

Kyra couldn’t explain why her heart grew heavy at that moment.  She already knew Donovan had a girlfriend.  Even if he didn’t, it wasn’t like she and he could ever be more than friends.  The one time they tried, all hell broke loose.  That ill-advised shot at love literally ruined Kyra’s life.

“Is she pretty?”  Kyra felt foolish for asking, but Donovan didn’t notice her inner turmoil. 

“She is.  Her name’s Brianna.”

“Is she
in any of your Facebook pictures?”  Kyra tried to sound like she was barely interested.  “I think I might’ve seen her.” 

“She has long, curly hair,” Donovan said.  “She looks like a model.  She actually could be a model.  If you saw her pictures, you’
d know because she kinda takes center stage, no matter who she’s posing with.”

“Yeah, I think I saw her,” Kyra said. 
Ha!
  Who was she kidding?  She had practically memorized Brianna’s facial features.  Kyra was pretty sure she could give a perfect description if someone wanted to do a composite drawing.  “Eight months is pretty serious,” she said.

“It can be,” Donovan
agreed.

Kyra didn’t know how to respond to that, so she changed the subject.  “I see you took Regina Bryant to the prom.”

Donovan laughed.  “You saw my prom pictures?”

Kyra giggled, too.  “Is that stalking?  I promise I wasn’t stalking you!”

“No, it’s all good,” Donovan said.  “I forgot I had those pictures up.”

“I didn’t know you liked Regina.”

“I didn’t,” Donovan said.  “Not like that.  I know
you
didn’t like her.”

“I never said I didn’t like her.”

“Whatever.  I know you didn’t like her,” Donovan insisted.  “You didn’t have to tell me.”

Kyra
wondered where he got that bit of insight from.  But Donovan was dead-on, as usual.  The strange thing was Kyra never had a good reason to
not
like Regina when they were in high school.  It might have been because Regina revealed her fondness for Donovan one day when Kyra was a freshman.  Kyra hadn’t expressed any attraction to Donovan at that point, and she convinced herself that she was just being protective of her big brother. 

“I didn’t think she was good enough for you,” Kyra admitted.

“You were probably right,” Donovan said.  “I only went to the prom with her because she asked me.  And don’t worry, we didn’t do anything afterwards.”

Kyra was happy to hear that, but she said, “I wasn’t worried.  That’s your business.”

“You don’t care?” Donovan asked.  He looked skeptical.

“Uh
-uhn,” Kyra said, shaking her head.  “Why would I?”

“I dunno,” Donovan said.  “I just thought since you didn’t like her, it might have upset you if you thought we had sex or something.”

“You mean like
jealousy
?”

Donovan shrugged.  “
I don’t know.  Maybe.”

“We’re just friends,” Kyra said.  “Friends don’t get jealous.  Right?”

Donovan nodded.  “You’re right.”

“But it is good
to know that I don’t have to find Regina and punch her in the mouth for something she did so long ago,” Kyra said.

Donovan
cut his eyes and grinned.

“
I’m kidding,” Kyra said.  “You know I’m just kidding.”

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Donovan took her to Red Lobster, and they dined on lobster tails and so many crab legs Kyra thought she should send an apology letter to PETA.  While they dined, they talked more about what Kyra missed out on during Donovan’s junior and senior years at Finley High.  And then he wanted to know what happened to Kyra when she moved to Arkansas.  Kyra was eager to talk, but she didn’t want to dampen the mood with her war stories.

“Why do you want to hear about that?” she asked.  “Didn’t nothing good happen in Little Rock.”

“Because it’s a part of your history,” Donovan said.  “I know it wasn’t bad 24-7.  Even the slaves had
some
happy times.”

Kyra laughed at his analogy.  “You know what, that’s a good way to describe it.  Everybody in the hood knows they’re in the hood.  They know they’re poor, and the neighborhood stinks, and you can get killed for cashing your paycheck at the corner store.  But at the same time, we always found time to party.  A lot of people live every day like it’s their last
, because it might just be.”

“I don’t want to know about everybody,” Donovan said.  “I wanna know about you.”

Kyra’s smile slipped for the first time since they arrived at the restaurant.  “I don’t really wanna talk about it,” she said.  But just as quickly she offered him a brief recap:  “When I left your mama’s house, I was hurting.  I didn’t want to live in Little Rock.  But I had to accept that’s where I was gonna be, and I might as well get used to it.  It was hard.  It got real bad sometimes.  I used to wish you were there.  I wished you were with me.”

“I’m sorry my mama kicked you out,” Donovan said.  He never realized how big an impact that decision had on
Kyra’s life.

“Please,”
she said.  “That wasn’t your fault.”

“I feel like it was,” Donovan said.  “I never forgave myself.”

“Stop, please,” Kyra said.  She shook her head and then batted her eyes.  But the tears pooled and fell anyway.  She quickly reached to wipe them away with her napkin.  “I don’t wanna cry,” she said.  “I’m having fun.  Please.  I don’t wanna talk about that.”