“Declined—as in, funds not available.”
It was like the woman was suddenly yelling over a loudspeaker.
“Funds what?”
“Do you have another card?”
“I have that one,” Troy said. “Can you try it again?”
“I did it twice. The card doesn’t work.” The impatience in the woman’s voice was mounting, yet she seemed to be getting some weird satisfaction from the turn in events.
“I—” Troy turned to see Kiona laughing with one of the salesgirls. Just then she remembered what she’d said to Lucy—that she’d told her not to put any more money into the account. “I—”
“Ms., other people are waiting,” the woman said.
Embarrassed, ashamed, and nervous, Troy opened her purse and pulled out the only other card she had—Kyle’s business account card from the church. He’d given it to her in case of an emergency.
“Try this one,” she said. “I know it’ll work.”
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See the World: The 3T Get-Out Guide
The weekend rut is the worst rut of all—you shop, you sleep, you meet your girls for drinks and dip and maybe a movie. It happens this way every weekend and pretty soon you get bored and mix it up by…just staying home. Stop limiting yourself. Stop limiting your universe. Expand your horizons by expanding your calendar.
Instead of inviting your friends out for the same old drinks at the same old place, try something new, somewhere new. Here are ten things you and your soul sisters can try that’ll be sure to be added to your list of favorite pastimes.
1. Get in the saddle: Because horses are everywhere, dude ranches are hard to miss. Put on your leather stirrups and go for a ride on the wild side.
2. Make your own clothes: Believe it or not, crocheting is making a comeback. Find a local sewing circle and see what you can make. You may never wear that lopsided sweater, but you can brag about making it.
3. Cook it up: Yeah, you can cook soul food, but can you make chicken tikka masala? Stop paying for good Indian food and learn how to make your own by taking a cooking class next Friday night.
4. Go hiking: While communing with nature might leave you with a few mosquito bites, the benefits for your mind, body, and soul will be worth it.
5. Pitch a tent: The only thing funnier than a bunch of children in the woods is a bunch of sisters building a campfire. Make s’mores and tell relationship horror stories.
6. Turn up the heat: Yoga is wonderful, but hot yoga is magnificent. It’ll open your pores and leave your skin quite fab! Warning: Don’t cover your hair. That’ll make it worse.
7. Go to the opera: From Aida to Black Orpheus, opera is full of storylines you’ll enjoy and high notes you’ll have fun trying to duplicate.
8. Save a tree, save a kid: If you and your bestie are tired of hearing about each other’s problems, try solving the problems of the world by getting involved in your community.
9. Make beautiful art: Adult education programs teach everything from pottery making to sketching. Priced from $40 to $200, the weekly classes usually cost less than the bag on your arm.
10. Support a sister: Find an independent sistergirl painter, poet, filmmaker, singer, or dancer and support her work on a Friday night.
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The great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a woman want?”
—Sigmund Freud
To the surprise of no one in the universe but the woman wearing the second $85,000 wedding ring he’d bought her, Lionel wasn’t considering moving his budding brood back to New York City and he wasn’t even willing to talk about it. Riding in the passenger’s seat on the way home from the airport after a terrible game that solidified his team’s exclusion from the NBA finals, he’d told Tasha no so many times she’d stopped counting.
“No. It doesn’t make any sense,” Lionel said after she mentioned that they could probably find something big and pretty and cheap in just a month or so. While getting good property in Manhattan was like getting a private phone call from Jesus, it was a recession and they had the kind of money that could at least get a Hispanic Realtor named “Hey-suess” on the line—Tasha had come up with this joke to break the ice. “Where are my kids?” Lionel asked. He hadn’t even chuckled about the “Hey-suess” line.
“With Milania.”