For a second, Kia looked like she’d stepped off a bus at an empty station only to find the person she’d expected wasn’t waiting for her return.
A woman in a floral jumper stepped out of the courtroom.
“Sullivan? Jackson? Judge Lavigne is ready for you.”
“They’ll use vow seven point five in the contemporary vow set,” Nina said when Sullivan, Kia, Opal, and Deja were standing in front of the judge’s dais. Deja vibrated with enthusiasm.
The ceremony took about five minutes.
chapter 11
Outside the courtroom,their party stood in awkward silence, like actors waiting for someone to call action on the set ofLaw & Order. Only Deja radiated happiness. She radiated so much, Kia wished she’d found a different witness. It felt wrong to let Deja believe Kia and Sullivan were really in love, she’d have to take her aside and tell her the truth sometime. Kia and Deja weren’t exactly close. It was hard to get close to someone who imitated every detail of your style and frequently declared you thefrickin’ hella dopestperson on the internet. Deja only saw Kia Gourmazing. Still, Deja deserved a modicum of honesty from Kia Jackson. Later.
“I guess we’ll leave y’all alone to enjoy your wedding night!” Deja said. “But let me know if you want me to film the after-party or a honeymoon. Are we going to do a real wedding ceremony with cake and a dress? I know. I know. Too much to think about right now.” Deja hugged Kia. “I got you whenever you’re ready. You two can bake the cake together. It’ll be fire!” Deja bounded off in fireworks of delight.
Nina and Opal exchanged a look.
“I’ve got a cheating husband to take for everything he’s worth,” Nina said.
Opal said, “I’ll come with you.”
They walked fifty feet down the hall and paused, watching Kia and Sullivan with the subtlety of a stop sign.
People doing courthouse business flowed around them like a river. But Sullivan was the only person Kia saw.
“Do you want to get a drink?” Kia tried to keep the pleading out of her voice.
Please, let this be okay.
Sullivan shook her head slowly.
“Later? We could catch up? Did you hear Professor Howard got fired for having sex in the practice kitchen? You dressed up for me.” That had to mean something. You didn’t dress up if you hated someone. Kia shot Sullivan her enchanting smile.
“Nina says her clients don’t wear REI. It’d ruin her image.”
That killed the last shred of romance in their wedding.
“Oh. We could still go out.”
“Nina’s right,” Sullivan said. “If you’d bought a vacant lot on Eighty-Second Avenue, we’d be cool. But you didn’t. Thanks for blocking Mega Eats though.”
“That’s goodbye?”
Sullivan looked expressionless, but she was upset. They’d spent so many nights in the practice kitchen and so many days in class. You couldn’t watch someone do the thing they loved most and not learn their tells. Kia could see the tension in Sullivan’s shoulders.
“I’m sure we’ll run into each other while you’re getting Taste the Love Land up and running, but yeah. Goodbye, Kia.”
With that, Sullivan strode toward her friends, who were obviouslynotin the process of suing a cheating husband. Nina took Sullivan’s arm and led her down the hallway like she was rushingher away from the paparazzi. Opal headed in Kia’s direction with equal speed.
“We need to talk,” Opal said when she reached Kia.
Sullivan’s friend had one of those faces that nature crafted to be happy: light-skinned with freckles dancing across her cheeks and a gap between her front teeth, big eyes hidden behind bright red glasses. The face of a loving first-grade teacher or a pastor at one of those queer-friendly churches that played “YMCA” at the end of the service. All that made her scowl look fiercer.I love all God’s little childrenexceptyou; you I’ll push into traffic.
“It’s good to see a young woman of color get the recognition she deserves. I really mean that. I just want you to know, outside of all this, I appreciate what you’re doing for the industry.” Opal put her hands on her hips. “But I’m going to be really clear about something. Sullivan hates social media, and you’re not going to take one picture of her.”
A lot of people hated social media until they found their thing: French bulldogs, DIY videos on caulking. But Sullivan probably wouldn’t find a thing.
“She told me, and I checked. She doesn’t have social media.” Kia offered thetrust mesmile that charmed everyone from security guards to CEOs. “I can’t believe she doesn’t have her own hot chef channel.”
