Free All I Want for Christmas by Lynn Emery

two of us.
I’m going to keep it that way for a good while; months at
least.”
    “Okay. You just keep saying
that to yourself,” said Maida, glancing at her smartphone. “Dang,
better get back to the office. Let’s have lunch?”
    “Sorry, but I have a
meeting. I don’t know when we’ll finish up. Tomorrow is better for
me. We’ll call Imani in the morning and see if she can make it.”
Nedra glanced at a file on her desk with sticky notes on the
outside.
    Maida’s eyes lit up with
interest. “Great idea. We can get the story on how her ‘talk’ with
Errol turns out.”
    “I wasn’t thinking of
that,” replied Nedra, giving her a scolding expression. “If she
wants to tell us, it’s fine. If not then that’s okay,
too.
    “We both know Imani will
spill it.” Maida touched the screen of her smartphone. “I’m going
to make sure my calendar is free for lunch. Talk to you
later.”
    Nedra shook her head at Maida. “You’re too
much. Goodbye girl.”
    For the rest of the day, as
she took calls for her boss and sat next to him in meetings, Nedra
thought about politics. Maybe she should take her own advice and
bring up the subject with Carlos. At two o’clock that afternoon,
sat at her desk eating a late lunch, Nedra decided that Maida was
dead wrong on all counts. She pushed aside any thoughts of her
personal and professional lives becoming complicated.
     
     
    ****
     
    A few blocks away, Carlos
sat across a table from his mother in her spacious office. They
shared some take-out Greek food that he’d picked up for their lunch
together. The scent of roasted lamb, garlic and onions filled the
room as though they were in the downtown restaurant where the food
had been prepared. Carlos tried to steer the conversation to his
mother’s day in the courtroom.
    “I don’t understand why
you’re hiding the Wallace woman,” said Yvonne as she took out two
bottles of green tea from a compact refrigerator in the corner of
the room.
    “We’re not hiding,” Carlos
replied for the second time. He sighed deeply for the third time.
The effort to keep his temper would most likely give him heartburn
soon, if he didn’t lose his appetite altogether.
    Yvonne found a pack of
napkins. She poured some tea into two tall, styrofoam cups and
placed them on the table. “Here you go. You always want extra
napkins. I hope you have extra cucumber sauce – you love that on your gyros more than I do. Well, it sure
looks like you’re hiding this relationship to me. Even your father
is wondering about it.”
    Carlos tried not to get
annoyed at his mother’s fussing and sighed yet again. “Nedra and I
are in the ‘getting to know each other’ process. We may not even be
dating after the holidays.”
    “ You’re already having
problems, huh? Well, I’m not at all surprised. She’s from one of
those old Baton Rouge families. Her mother lives in Thompson
Heights. They don’t have as much money as us, but they still think
they’re superior.” Yvonne sniffed and went back to putting cucumber
sauce on her gryos.
    Carlos had no desire to
stoke the smoldering fires of his mother’s resentment of Baton
Rouge and old, black moneyed families. He carefully picked at the
food before him and warily considered his next words. “Nedra and I
aren’t having any problems. She’s sweet and caring, and we haven’t
talked about her family history. She’s not like that,” he replied
in a calm tone with no hint of defensiveness. His mother was trying
to push his buttons.
    “Humph,” Yvonne replied,
and ate some more of her lunch in silence. After a few minutes, she
sipped her tea and patted her lips with a napkin. “You know she’s
going to be campaigning for that boss of hers.”
    “We haven’t discussed politics, so I don’t
think it matters.” Carlos continued to concentrate on his food.
    “It will come up, Carlos.
I’m supporting Mayor Bates in the state senatorial race, as you
well know,” his mother replied, her tone