Unbeweaveable by Katrina Spencer Read Free Book Online Page A

look. You think I deserved that treatment today?”
    No one said a word.
    â€œHello!”
    â€œOkay, you want the truth?” Norma asked.
    â€œUh-oh, maybe I should go in the other room for this,” Chris said, standing.
    â€œSit down!” we both said.
    â€œNow finish,” I said, slurping a huge bite of spaghetti in my mouth.
    â€œRemember that day a couple of months ago when I came to your job and ate lunch with you?”
    â€œYeah…”
    â€œYou were so rude and mean to your assistant. I felt bad for her.”
    I flipped my hair over my shoulder. “How was I mean to her?”
    â€œYou snapped your fingers at her, you name called—you were pure evil!”
    â€œI was?”
    â€œCorrection. You are.”
    â€œI’ll admit that I can be a little tough—”
    She knocked on the table. “This table is tough. You’re like—”
    â€œStainless steel,” Chris offered.
    â€œYeah. Thanks, babe,” she said, giving him a kiss across the table.
    â€œExcuse me while I throw up,” I said, making gagging noises.
    â€œAnyway, you’re like stainless steel. You mean well, you don’t stain and you look perfect, but you wouldn’t want to do a whole kitchen in it, you know? It’d be too—”
    â€œCold,” Chris said.
    â€œExactly!”
    â€œMaybe you should have left,” I said to Chris.
    He put his arms up in defense. “Sorry, just trying to help. Don’t kill the messenger. How you treat people at work is the same way you treat men.”
    â€œAnd how do I treat men?”
    â€œLike you don’t have the time of day for them, like you don’t need them, like they’re beneath you—”
    â€œWe’ve never dated, Chris. How would you know how I treat men?”
    â€œI did try to fix you up with my cousin Enrique, remember?”
    â€œOh. Oh, that. Well, that wouldn’t have worked out.”
    â€œAnd why not?”
    â€œHe was a waiter in your restaurant, Chris. I don’t do waiters.”
    â€œSee! That’s exactly the attitude I’m talking about,” Norma said. “You act like you’re better than everyone.”
    â€œI do not! It’s just that some people out there aren’t goal-oriented. I am, and that puts me on a different level than most people.”
    â€œYeah, a better level. Admit it, Mariah. You had it coming today with your assistant.”
    â€œI don’t think so. All my life people have been making fun of me. Norma, you remember how bad it was in school—“
    â€œEverybody gets teased in school,” Chris said. “Even the popular kids.”
    â€œWhich you probably were,” I added.
    â€œTrue. But I still got made fun of.”
    â€œNot like me. Tar Baby, Cotton Ball, African Booty Scratcher—”
    Chris spit up some of his wine. “What? African Booty—”
    â€œScratcher. I got called Blacky, Baldy, Chickenhead—”
    â€œYou had a very imaginative school,” he said.
    â€œYou weren’t the only one who got made fun of. Remember me? Wetback was one of their favorites even though both my parents and grandparents are American citizens. Remember how some of them wrote a fake yearbook and said that I was most likely to have eight kids and run a fruit stand? That was mean,” Norma said.
    Chris shook his head. “Oh, the trials of being rich.”
    Norma hit his arm. “It’s not funny. Mariah and I were the only minorities at that school. They really tore into us.”
    â€œBut your sister went to that school, too. She didn’t get made fun of?”
    I waved my hand. “Half-sister. And she doesn’t count.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause her father is white. She fit in with most of the kids at Druid.”
    He sighed. “Everyone gets made fun of. Including your sister. If you two hadn’t been teased so much maybe you