Apple Brown Betty Read Online Free PDF Page A

long as I did.” She didn’t mention her lunatic brother as a reason, but she thought it.
    â€œYou know there’s no love in this house,” Stephon reasoned.
    â€œDon’t do that, Stephon. You dishonor your wife and daughter by saying that. When your wife isn’t popping those pills, when she’s sober and attending to you and your child, there is plenty of love in that house.”
    â€œI’m unhappy,” Stephon said. “That’s all I was trying to say.”
    â€œSo get happy. Confront your wife again. Let her know what you’re feeling, and open yourself to what she’s feeling. Obviously she’s unhappy, too.”
    â€œI wish I’d met you first,” Stephon mused, “before I got married, before I got myself in this mess.”
    Cydney smirk-laughed. “That’s what makes life so interesting. You can’t go back, and you can’t change what has already been done. You can wish ’til the cows come home…” She looked toward the living room of her apartment. Even through the closed and locked bedroom door she could feel the presence of her brother, could feel the presence of her mother. She wished she couldn’t, wished she could completely rid herself of them both. Wished.
    â€œI love you,” Stephon blurted.
    â€œYes, I suppose in your own way you do,” Cydney said. “At least as best you can under your circumstances.”
    His voice registered hurt. “Are you not returning the emotion?”
    â€œI can’t do that, Stephon. You know that.”
    â€œYou can, you just won’t.”
    â€œCorrect again, boss.” She might as well put it out there and let him know what he was instead of dwelling on what he wasn’t. Boss and not lover, at least not anymore.
    â€œThis is some hurtful shit,” Stephon said.
    â€œYou haven’t given me my restaurant assignment for this month,” Cydney said, moving on.
    â€œHow can you so easily just brush past the issue of us?”
    â€œNo one said it was easy, but it is necessary. Far as I’m concerned, there is no us.”
    â€œWe shared a lot.”
    â€œAnd still do.”
    â€œNot the same.”
    â€œGood thing for the both of us it isn’t.”
    â€œWhat if I just left my wife?”
    â€œThat would show me that when my imperfections became clear to you, you’d be predisposed to calling up some other chick in the early morning and confessing undying love to her. Not exactly what I’m looking for in a life partner.”
    â€œYou’ve got to have an answer for everything.”
    â€œNot everything.” Cydney placed the pillow she’d been clutching back neatly in its spot on her bed. “But look, like I said, you haven’t given me my restaurant assignment for the month.”
    Stephon sighed. “I want you to do a review of that new soul food spot that opened in Asbury Park.”
    Cydney’s posture straightened, buoyed by interest. A new restaurant opened in the bleak city of her birth? “What’s that? I hadn’t heard about any new soul food place.”
    â€œIt’s on a…hold on.” Cydney could hear Stephon sifting through papers. “This downstairs office comes in handy when I want to just get away from it all,” he said when he came back on line.
    â€œYeah, I bet.”
    Stephon ignored her. “Cookman Avenue. Name of the place is Cush. You know the area?”
    I grew up around the corner, Cydney wanted to say but didn’t. “I’ll find it. Cush? What kind of name is that for a restaurant?” She crinkled her nose. “Sounds too much like mush.”
    Stephon managed a laugh. “The cat that owns it named it after some ancient African city.”
    Cydney was impressed. “Deep.”
    â€œYeah, this is an accomplished brother we’re talking about. Desmond Rucker. His family owned a chain of restaurants in