Body By Night by Zuri Day

down just as Marc walked back over.
    “What do you say we do some weights, hit the sauna, and by then you’ll be off, right, Marc?”
    “Yeah, man, but I got a hot date tonight.”
    D’Andra couldn’t stop from rolling her eyes.
    “Aw, see, there you go; a typical female thinking the worst about men. The date is with my wife. It’s her birthday and we’re taking a red-eye flight to Vegas.”
    Marc had called her out correctly. “You’re married?”
    Marc held up the ring D’Andra had previously spotted.
    “I saw the ring. But the way you flirt…I couldn’t tell.”
    “Flirting is cool as long as you look but don’t touch.”
    “If you say so,” D’Andra responded.
    “I say so. But you guys go on and have a good time.”
    Night turned to D’Andra. “So where are we going?”
    “Actually, I’d better get home. Lots to do tomorrow,” she added in response to his raised eyebrow.
    Going out in a group would have been one thing but going out solo with Night felt too much like a date; even though it would be a spontaneous, casual one. Knowing how physically attracted she was to him didn’t make that sound like such a good idea. Better to keep this friendship on familiar footing, in a gym or around workout equipment.
    “It’s just as well,” Night said, watching Marc head back to the front desk. “I promised my mom I’d go to church with her tomorrow. Might as well make it an early night.”
    Since this is exactly what D’Andra wanted, it made no sense that his comment was disappointing. But it was. She wanted to be with him; she didn’t want to be with him. She longed for romance, but didn’t want to admit it. She wanted a man but knew she didn’t need the hassle right now. It’s just the way it was.
    “I didn’t take you for the church-going type,” she said.
    “I’m not really,” Night answered. He turned and walked toward the weights. D’Andra followed.
    “But they’re having some type of family day tomorrow. Mom makes me feel guilty if I don’t go, especially since I didn’t go on Christmas, about the only other time I walk among saints.”
    “And all the other time who are you walking around…devils?” D’Andra asked playfully.
    “No,” Night replied as he wriggled his brows. “Dolls.”
    D’Andra and Night worked out with the weights and then she went home, more hungry than ever for something that wasn’t on a restaurant menu.

9
     
    “Aunt DeeDee, come on, you promised,” Tonia said, shaking her aunt’s shoulder for emphasis. “Today is Sunday and you promised we’d go to the beach!”
    “Promised,” Antoine echoed. He was the baby of their family, even if it was only by seven minutes.
    “You said if we were quiet until ten o’clock you’d take us,” Kayla said, pointing to the clock.
    “Look!” she added triumphantly. It was ten o’clock exactly.
    “Get off me you little rugrats,” D’Andra said, trying to push them off her bed the way she was trying to push last night’s dream, another one with Night, out of her mind.
    “Are you gonna fix us pancakes, Aunt DeeDee?”
    “Uh-uh, I want waffles, with bacon!”
    “Are we still going to the beach, Aunt DeeDee?”
    “Ooh, yeah, the beach, please!”
    A chorus of pleases followed her into the bathroom, shut out by the door in their faces. The kids had a habit of talking to her simultaneously and just as crazy, she had a habit of being able to hear them all.
    Her head was cloudy from the liquor she drank last night, but the evening with her family had been fun for a change; when all three of them, she, her mother and sister, had gotten along. That in itself was a surprise, but the first one was that Cassandra was there at all, alone, on a Saturday night.
    “What’s up?” she’d asked when D’Andra came through the door.
    “Nothing. What are you doing home?”
    “I live here, remember?”
    How can I forget with you and your kids in my bedroom and me on the couch? “Of course not,” she said.