how dangerous rideshares can be? I’ll send my own car with a driver I can trust to get you here safely.”
I hadn’t heard right. “Wait. You mean like a car service?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
“Gimme thirty?”
She huffed into the phone. “Okay. See you soon.” She hung up.
I closed up the hidden room and stashed the newly discovered sketchbook and key under my mattress. I put the hair dryer on low heat, high air and blasted my scalp till I was sure I could safely take out the twists. I could not meet Marie in another state of crusty disarray.
Ten minutes under the dryer and the world’s fastest take down later, my hair was coifed and ready to go. My eyebrows were a mess and I didn’t really feel like putting on a full face of makeup, but I also wanted to look halfway cute. I threw on a pair of gold hoops and dragged a fingertip full of Vaseline across my lips. I slipped on a pair of sneakers and went downstairs. Mom and Mo were in the front room.
“Is it okay if I go over to Marie’s house for a little bit?” I asked.
“Who’s Marie?” Mom asked.
“That girl who came to the house the other day.”
Mom raised an eyebrow. “If you want to, baby, but do you think it’s a good idea? You just met her.”
“She seems pretty nice,” I said.
Mo gave me a look. “Nice, huh? Is that why you got on them hoops? Everybody knows that hoops mean you tryna look cute.”
“Do I look cute?” I asked.
“Always,” Mom said. “Do you need a ride?”
“No,” I said. “She’s sending a car.”
They both turned toward me, eyes wide.
“A car?” Mom asked. “What kind of rich people behavior—”
“Shoot, Briseis is single. Might be a match made in heaven,” Mo said.
Mom thought for a moment then nodded in agreement. “Secure the bag, baby.”
I cringed. So hard. “First of all, y’all are terrible, and second, that’s not what’s goin’ on. She knows about some of the plants in the apothecary, and she invited me over to talk.”
My phone buzzed.
Marie: Car’s outside.
“The car’s here.”
Mo scrambled to the door with Mom at her heels. I went over and peered around them. In the drive was a sleek black sedan with tinted windows. The driver’s door opened and a tall, bald woman with broad shoulders wearing a bloodred pantsuit got out and came around the passenger side. I pulled the door open and walked onto the porch.
“Miss Briseis?” the woman asked.
Mom’s mouth was stuck in a little O. Mo’s eyebrows arched up so hard they disappeared into the one wrinkle that ran across her forehead.
I kissed Mom and gave Mo a hug. “I’ll text you when I get there.”
I jogged to the car and the woman opened the door for me. Only when I was standing next to her did I realize she was at least six feet tall. “Okoye got nothin’ on you, huh?”
Her deep brown eyes moved over me, and she smiled, her mouth full of perfect paperwhite teeth.
“Miss Morris will see to it that she is home safe and sound,” she called up to my parents, who were still standing on the porch with their mouths open.
I climbed in and she closed the door. The car’s interior smelled like warm vanilla, and the upholstery was the same red as the woman’s suit. The driver’s door opened and closed, and the partition rolled down.
“Comfortable?” the woman asked.
I nodded.
“Help yourself to anything you’d like,” she said.
A refrigerated chest filled with soda and water bottles and illuminated by a ring of white lights was built into the center console. I pressed my lips together to keep from asking, out loud, what in the entire hell was going on. I picked up a root beer.
“This is perfect. Thanks.”
We turned out of the driveway and onto the road that led away from the house.
“My name is Nyx,” said the woman. “I work with Miss Morris.”
“Marie?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Nyx.
“You work with her? Like, driving people around and stuff?”
Nyx smiled. “Among other things.”
I opened the root beer and took a drink. “You probably won’t be honest with me, but I’m gonna ask anyway. Is this a setup?”
Nyx raised an eyebrow. “You’ll have to be more specific.”
“Like, she’s not trying to kill me or anything, right? My parents worry.” I’d be so mad if I put on these hoops just to get murdered by the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.
Nyx laughed. “No, you’ll be safe with her.”
That answer was a little