Doin' Me Read Online Free PDF

Jewel yelled, “Where have you been?”
    Reyna froze. She hadn’t thought about how to answer that question without disclosing her weekend tryst.
    â€œHow dare you sneak into this house, wearing the same clothes you had on two days ago?” The creaking floor indicated Jewel was walking toward her. Before Reyna could turn around, Jewel’s hot breath burned her neck. Jewel sniffed. “You whore! You had me worried sick about you, and you have the nerve to creep up in here smelling like sex!”
    Reyna’s shoulders slumped, and she cowered momentarily. Not wanting to spend a second longer at the hotel, she’d opted not to shower that morning. Suddenly, an adrenaline rush of pride raged like hot coals through her veins. Her fists unclenched, and her stilettos made an echo when they clanged against the floor. Without warning, she spun around and glowered at her mother.
    Jewel looked as if she’d aged. Her eyes were puffy and sunken. The usual red silk head scarf was gone. Instead her hair hung loosely. Jewel had said she slept in the red scarf to symbolize the blood of Jesus keeping her unconscious thoughts pure. For years Reyna had wanted to tell her to try some red lipstick to keep her mouth pure.
    Reyna stepped forward and met Jewel’s glare. Today she would finally set this woman straight. “If you’d had half the sex I had this weekend with Daddy, he wouldn’t have left you.” She braced herself for Jewel’s right palm print across her face, but Jewel didn’t utter a word or react. Reyna counted the silence as a victory and proceeded to pour alcohol on Jewel’s wounds.
    â€œI am sick and tired of you calling me names. If I’m a whore, then you and Rosalie Jennings made me one.” She pointed at Jewel. “It’s your fault I wasted my life trying to serve some imaginary God. I needed a mother and a friend, but all you’ve ever been to me is some sort of religious police. Where were your sanctimonious convictions when you agreed to send me after a married man?” Reyna paused for an answer. Still nothing. “You knew Kevin didn’t want me, and if you’d been a better mother, you would have recognized that I didn’t want him, either. I was just trying to please you and our beloved pastor.” Reyna added several four-letter words for emphasis.
    â€œNo one warned me that what I was doing was wrong,” Reyna lied. Tyson had warned Reyna several times, but Jewel didn’t need to know that. The fact remained that Jewel had played a hand in her humiliation. “If my father was around, none of this would have happened. Like him, I can’t wait to get away from you.”
    Jewel finally found her voice, although it sounded more timid than Reyna ever remembered. “I think that’s a good idea. You’re a grown woman—too grown to live with a controlling and callous mother.” Jewel turned and started down the hall to her bedroom. Before turning the corner, she gave Reyna final instructions. “Leave your key and a forwarding address on the table when you leave.” Then she disappeared.
    If Reyna didn’t know any better, she’d swear she’d seen a tear slide down her mother’s cheek. It didn’t matter, anyway. Not only was Reyna free of her mother’s control, but also the anger she’d failed to direct at Chase had been successfully transferred to her mother. She felt light and relieved to have her freedom papers. She vowed right then that once she moved out, she’d never step foot in her mother’s residence again.
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    Twenty-eight hours later, seated behind her desk at work, Reyna regretted cursing at her mother. At the time the disrespectful words rolled off her tongue, Reyna had forgotten she didn’t have enough credit or employment history to lease an apartment on her own. The salary she’d received at her former church had been paid under