“Ain’t nothin’, mama, just waiting on your slow butt so I can order. I should’ve known you were out in the mall shopping,” Kisa told her, looking at the Neiman Marcus bags that Kennedy placed on the chair next to her.

“I sure was, but don’t act like you wasn’t either, ’cause when I went in Bob Ellis, the saleslady told me that you had just left out of there.” Kennedy laughed, picking up her menu, “So, what’s going on? What’s the big news?”

“We’re moving back to New York,” Kisa answered.

Kennedy looked up from her menu, “When?”

“After your wedding.”

Kisa’s news caught Kennedy off guard. She’d thought Kisa was going to tell her that she was pregnant or something. Kennedy would’ve been happy to hear anything except that Kisa was leaving her. They’d grown really close over the last two years. Much like Kisa, Kennedy left New York amid controversy after more than a few traumatic experiences.

When she was eighteen, Kennedy’s boyfriend had been killed execution style while she lay in bed next to him. When she was twenty-one, her cousin Nina, whom she was extremely close to, had died in Kennedy’s arms after receiving a severe beating from her abusive boyfriend, Cream. By twenty-two, Kennedy had met her now fiancé, Chaz, a bona fide hip-hop star. After rapping on one of his songs, Kennedy got a chance to become a rap star herself.

Living out her dreams in the treacherous music industry hadn’t proved easy for her, though. An old relationship between her and a rapper named Hassan sparked a beef between Chaz and Hassan that played out in the media. Added to that, Kennedy had gotten her face sliced open during a fight with Ria, the insane mother of Chaz’s children. Not to mention that she had also been arrested by federal agents at her own album release party. But nothing could compare to the near-fatal stabbing of Chaz or the loss of the twin babies who died in her womb because of a brutal beating she’d sustained.

Kennedy suffered a massive breakdown soon after the loss of the twins. Leaving Chaz and the music behind, she moved to Charlotte, where, under the careful eye of her beloved grandmother, Big Ma, Kennedy was able to heal completely. A year later Chaz had moved to Charlotte, and the pair had rekindled their relationship. Now at twenty-five, all of the demons that had long haunted Kennedy were behind her. She was also on the verge of publishing her first novel based on her experiences.

Kisa sensed that her news bothered Kennedy. “Are you disappointed that I’m going back?”

“No, cuzin, not at all. I mean, I’m happy for you … it just seems like the people I’m closest to outside of Chaz will all be living six hundred miles away.”

“Do you ever think about moving back?” Kisa inquired.

“All the time. You know how much I love Harlem. Shit, I’m Harlem made, born, and bred.” She smiled charmingly, then her smile faded. “I can tell Chaz really misses New York, although he’s there a few times a month. I know he hates being so far away from his daughters, his mother, and his sister.”