“Well, hello and good morning to you, too, Cee Cee.”
Cicely sat up at the sound of her older sister’s voice. This was the woman who had literally put her life on hold and made sacrifice after sacrifice so that Cicely could have all of the extras in life. Six years older than Cicely, Latonya had worked while she was in college to help keep a roof over their heads. Then she had literally covered everything that Cicely’s scholarships didn’t so that Cicely could attend FAMU and not have to worry about working. And when she had married a very rich and successful businessman, he had stepped in and helped take care of his new wife’s little sister and grandmother to take the load off of his wife.
Although Latonya Stevens-Harrington would be the last person to expect any kind of gratitude for the things she’d done to help Cicely through the years, Cicely felt the weight of her indebtedness to her sister. She would never be able to repay Latonya for all that she had done for her.
However…all that indebtedness didn’t take away from the fact that it was super early on a Saturday morning, and all Cicely wanted to do was sleep.
“Morning, Peanut.” She called her older sister by her family nickname still, and she was probably the only person in the world that Latonya allowed to do so. “Can I call you back at a decent hour, say noon or so?” Cicely flopped back down on the bed and curled into the fluffy down comforter.
“Sorry, no can do. Gran and I have been calling you all morning. We were worried sick about you. Gran said she called your condo numerous times. I finally found Isaac’s number and called him. He wasn’t answering. Then I called his cell after I didn’t get an answer on your cell. He said you broke up with him. He sounds horrible, by the way, really distraught. But you must have a good reason for breaking up with him, and I would never tell you to second-guess yourself. But do you want to talk about it at all? What happened? Why did the two of you break up so suddenly?”
“She should have left that guy a long time ago! I never liked him. She should let me introduce her to someone worthy.” Carlton Harrington III’s big booming voice could be heard in the background. He must have been sitting, or, knowing the two of them, lying down in the bed right next to Latonya.
Latonya shushed him.
Cicely stretched out her legs and curled them back up. “Tell my darling brother-in-law that, although I love him to death, the I-love-me-some-alpha-jerk-reformed-playboys gene skipped me. I can’t fathom having anything in common with anyone he would introduce me to.”
Latonya echoed Cicely word for word, and Carlton could be heard gruffly mumbling that his wife didn’t have any complaints. There was more giggling from Latonya, and Cicely didn’t even want to think what Carlton must have been doing to her sister to warrant all those girlish giggles. It was TMI too dang early in the morning.
“That’s cold, Cee Cee. I thought we were better than that,” Carlton joked in the background.
“Smooches.” Cicely made a kissing sound. “Now, if that’s all, I really—”
“Oh, no, that’s not all. Gran and I have been thinking of what we can do to lift your spirits since you just lost that promotion… And now with everything that is going on with Isaac… You still haven’t told me exactly what happened, by the way…” Latonya let her words hang suggestively.
And I’m still not going to, at least not yet.
“Neither of which would be a problem if she would just come and work for Harrington Enterprise and let me hook her up with a real man instead of these Steve Urkel wannabes she keeps dating.” Carlton added his two cents, clearly getting Cicely back for her previous dig.
“Carlton!” Latonya let out an exasperated sigh.
Cicely laughed. Even if she really thought she had hurt her brother-in-law’s feelings with her comment about the alpha-jerk-reformed-playboys, she still would have laughed. Because rich, stunningly handsome control freaks like him needed to be taken down a peg whenever possible, and her sister was too crazy in love to do a proper job of it.
She knew she could have easily taken a job at her brother-in-law’s company, Harrington Enterprise. But she was serious about making a mark on her own. She had her sister to thank for all the sacrifices she’d made to ensure that Cicely became the woman she was. But she drew the line at nepotism and relying on family connections to get ahead in the business world.
“Anyway, Cee Cee, Gran and I figured we’d take a little shopping trip to New York City. We haven’t been to the penthouse there in forever, and the kids might even get to see some snow. You have the week off from work. It would be great. “
“Huh?”
“Thanksgiving in New York City. Macy’s Parade. Kids happy. Your mind off of the stress in your life, shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving…in New York City…” Latonya let her words trail in an enticing manner.
Cicely thought about it. She truly loved her niece and nephews. Carlton IV was eleven and Terrence was eight. They looked like their father but had their mother’s calm and loving personality. Her little niece, Evelyn “Evie” Harrington, was the spitting image of Latonya, but she had Carlton’s over-the-top, sometimes overbearing personality. Cicely sometimes called her little niece the five-year-old terror. But she loved those kids. She loved the family her sister had been able to create. She just wondered when she was going to be able to start a family of her own.
She really wasn’t in the holiday spirit. She would have been a killjoy for everyone. It was best if she stayed behind.
“Nah. You all can go without me. I’m not going.” Cicely sat up.
She had pretty much decided that she was going to spend the week away from people she knew. She’d do some self-reflection. Maybe a little wallowing in self-pity—just a little…. Then she would pick herself up and put the pieces back together again.
She had already started to psychoanalyze herself, and she had pretty much decided that even though her daddy issues hadn’t surfaced in the same ways as her older sister’s had, and she’d always thought she didn’t have any daddy issues at all, she clearly had them and then some to spare.
Gran, their father’s mother, raised Cicely and Latonya after their own mother died. Their father had left the family years before that and never looked back. They didn’t know if he was dead or alive now. Even with all the love their grandmother poured into them as she raised them on her limited resources, the telltale signs of little girls neglected by their father followed both women into adulthood.
Latonya’s daddy issues had made her believe that love wasn’t a possibility in her life. Even though she had married one of the richest men in the country, she spent the first part of their marriage waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop, waiting for Carlton to get tired of her and leave. That’s why when their marriage was tested by interference from Carlton’s meddling grandfather, Latonya gave up without a fight. It took years for them to rebuild their marriage and learn to trust in their love.
Cicely didn’t know if she trusted love or not. But she liked to think that she was wiser because she never chose men that could possibly break her heart the way her father did. Even though she was very young when her father turned his back on their family, she had vivid memories of his larger than life, ladies’ man persona. What he lacked in money, he made up for in charisma. And whenever he was around, it hardly mattered what their mother wanted. He was the man. He ruled. Cicely made it her business
