Sultry Nights. Donna Hill

settling down to one man kinda girl. It’s fine for Desi and Lee Ann, and Zoe, too. But I’m going to be just like you when I grow up,” she teased.

       Jacqueline glanced away then. “I believed that fairy tale once upon a time.” She took a sip from her flute. Her gaze seemed to see beyond the horizon.

       “Fairy tale?” Dominique almost choked. “You sure you haven’t had too much champagne, Auntie?” She laughed. Jacqueline didn’t. “You’re serious aren’t you?”

       Jacqueline placed a delicate hand on Dominique’s bare shoulder. “Let’s simply say that I’ve been there and done that and doing it alone…is not all that it’s cracked up to be.” She looked directly at Dominique. “There will come a time in your life when having someone that means something to you, and you to them, will be the only thing that matters. What the shame is—” she finished off her champagne and deposited the empty flute atop the tray of a passing waiter “—is discovering at that crucial point that no one is there but you.”

       Dominique frowned. It had been a lot of years since her aunt had set foot in the Lawson mansion. The rift between her and her brother, Branford, affected the whole family. But it didn’t stop Dominique from idolizing her aunt; that made what she said that much more unsettling.

       “Aunt J, is there something you’re not saying? Is there some other reason why you came back after all this time?”

       Jacqueline patted Dominique’s cheek. “Don’t mind me, sugah. One glass too many has made me all silly and nostalgic.” She flashed her famous smile and sauntered away, but Dominique wasn’t able to shake off the feeling that her aunt wasn’t telling her everything.

       “Earth to Dom. Earth to Dom,” Lee Ann called out, waving her hand in front of Dominique’s face.

       Dominique blinked away the images and tucked the conversation away, something she hadn’t shared with her sisters. “Sorry. What were you two waxing poetic about again?”

       Desiree hopped down from the stool. “All wasted energy Lee, trying to change this girl’s mind.” She stretched her arms high above her head. “I’m going to take a long hot bath and turn in. Early flight in the morning,” she added, looking at Lee Ann.

       Dominique stood between her sisters and wrapped her arms around them. “Now, if I tell you two something, I don’t want either of you to blow it out of proportion.” She glanced from one to the other. “I met someone.”

       Desiree and Lee Ann’s eyes widened.

       “You?” from Desiree. “But what else is new?”

       “You mean another someone, right?” Lee Ann teased.

       Dominique stepped out of the circle. “Laugh all you want.” She folded her arms.

       “A minute ago you were the poster girl for independence. Now you want us to believe that you found someone that’s going to last beyond the thirty-day expiration date.”

       “Fine! Laugh.” She snatched up her purse and was about to stomp away.

       “Okay, okay, we’re sorry,” Dominique pleaded. “Don’t be like that. We were just teasing.”

       Lee Ann took Dominique’s hand. “So…who is it?”

       Dominique tugged on her bottom lip with her teeth for a moment before blurting out, “Trevor Jackson.”