"Come in," Anna said stepping aside to let Mason Tolliver enter the house. It had been eleven years since the two of them had been in that house- her mother's house-together. She slowly followed him through the foyer and watched him shrug out of his blue blazer. He stopped at the closet and hung it up slowly. Then, he toed of his shoes and pushed them into the closet with his foot.
She couldn't help smiling. It was as if he still expected her mother to fuss at him for walking on her carpet with his dirty shoes. If she was still alive, she would have done just that. It was remarkable to see that her childhood friend was just as trained as she and her brothers and sisters. Mason knew the rules, after spending so many years playing at her house, he was conditioned. Her mother would have been proud.
Anna and Mason had met in third grade when she and her family had moved to The Hollow. They had been one of only two black families in the tiny Tennessee town. That hadn't stopped Mason from befriending her on the first day of school. For years his racist father had cussed him for running around with "that little black girl" and his mother had silently agreed. Mason, however, did not buy into their beliefs. He saw something in his best friend Anna Bella Townsend. She was fun and they got along great. Her family was big and loud and had quickly to give him his own seat at their dinner table. Even after Anna's father had left the family, they were raucous and fun. Her mother hadn't been depressed or angry, she'd just moved on. He had wondered what his own mother would have done if she'd been left to raise him on her own.
Mason had loved Anna's mother. Miss Sophia took him in every day. She didn't complain about having one more mouth to feed on a child that wasn't one of her own. She just shoved plates full of scrambled eggs with buttermilk pancakes, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and fried chicken with mashed potatoes, buttered cornbread, and collard greens in front of him every day. It was as if she somehow knew that he wasn't eating that well at home. Then again, how could she not know? When he'd first started visiting, he'd been skinny as a stick.
"Tut, tut, tut," she'd said, placing her meaty fists on her generous hips. "You aint got nothin' keepin' you from blowin' away in a strong wind, boy! Get in this kitchen and eat somethin'. You aint leavin' MY house hungry!"
She had fed him at least one meal everyday of his life back then. Even after his mother had had some choice words with her in the supermarket about feeding her son "whatever slop it is you eat", Miss Sophia hadn't stopped giving him food. If anything, she piled his plate higher. To keep his mother quiet, Mason never bragged on how good her cooking was again, though. He didn't want her insulting his best friend's mother and make her tell him not to come over and play anymore.
Mason cleared his throat as he shut the closet door. "So, where do we go from here?" His voice was uncharacteristically quiet. His pale face glowed yellow in the dimly lit hall and his strawberry blonde hair looked almost red. He trained his emerald green eyes on Anna and she squirmed uncomfortably.
Anna ran her French manicured nails through her dark brown hair and sighed. How had she gotten herself into this position? Somewhere along the line she'd resigned herself to never speaking to Mason again, much less having to deal with the fact that she'd had his daughter, and given Bella to her sister Leena to raise. The past six years had been a blur of modeling jobs, red carpets, and parties. She'd managed to almost forget that one day she'd have to tell Mason the truth. He hadn't been in her world. He hadn't been in her mind. Then, her mother died and her world had tail-spinned out of control, landing her back in the hills of Tennessee face to face with her childhood playmate and the father of her only child.
She had been sixteen when she left The Hollow to live with her father in Nashville. He had been a record producer, working with mostly gospel acts and a few country music artists. Her mother had been so proud of Anna for forgiving him and allowing him back into her life. Maybe she had been able to do that because she had been the youngest and less affecting by his leaving than her siblings. She had missed Mason terribly and after a few years decided to visit him at University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She'd told her father she wanted to visit her mom, which wasn't a total lie. The visit was cut a few days short so she could see Mason at UT.
He took a three day weekend, skipping classes that Friday so they could spend every moment together. She gave him her virginity in his dorm room that first night and they spent the rest of the weekend in bed. Lucky for them, he didn't have a roommate, or maybe unlucky because she found out she was pregnant two weeks after she got back to Nashville. Just after her nineteenth birthday, she went back to The Hollow and had the baby with her mother's help. When her sister Leena came to visit from Richmond, Virginia, Anna begged her to keep the baby for her, just until she figured out what to do with her life.
One year later she was an up and coming model, but the lifestyle wasn't conducive with being a single mother, so Leena had kept Bella while Anna sent her money every week. Six and a half years later, Anna had still been running from responsibility, until her mother died. Now, she was left with a house full of memories and Bella sleeping soundly upstairs.
"Are you still mad?" Anna asked crossing her arms in front of her protectively.
Mason rolled his green eyes. "What do you think, Anna? I was pretty upset when I thought that you had fucked me and dumped me seven years ago. Now, you tell me that I have a daughter that you've been hiding from me? How the hell am I supposed to feel?"
Anna wanted to cry. He was right. She'd been a selfish bitch. She'd hidden the truth from him for all these years and he hadn't deserved that. He'd been in love with her since they were teenagers and she'd trampled his heart by ignoring his calls after their weekend together. Then, she stomped on it again when she'd shown him Bella earlier that day. He'd known as soon as he looked at that child. His face had twisted into a mask of realization and shock before she'd even opened her mouth to introduce them. Bella had his shocking green eyes and her butter cream complexion made it obvious that her father was white. She wasn't anywhere near Anna's cinnamon brown. Her long, smooth chestnut brown hair had been pulled back in a braid that reached the middle of her back. She had a lot of his facial features too, she was all him, except for her mother's perfect little bow mouth.
"How many times do you want me to apologize?" Anna hissed through clenched teeth. She went on the offense as she grabbed the large wood ball that marked the bottom of the banister. Her knuckles whitened she held on so hard.
Mason's eyes filled and he turned away to hide it from Anna. "As many times as it takes to give me back the last six years with my daughter."
Anna cringed at his cold tone. The words dropped heavily like blocks of ice. "Are you going to take me to court for custody?" It was a fair question.
"How can you ask me that?"
"Well, you are a lawyer. I assumed that would be your first thought."
Mason turned back to her and frowned. "Do you even know me?" He pulled her to him by her upper arms and for a fleeting moment she thought he'd shake her. Her forearms bumped against his chest, he pulled her so roughly, but he wasn't fazed at all. "Do you have any idea how much I loved you? Don't you think I know how much it would hurt you if I took custody of her?"
Anna couldn't look into his eyes. They were so intense. She'd loved the bright color when the two of them were young and those eyes were full of mischief. Now, they radiated with pain and seemed to bore into her soul, as if searching for something. She stared at his white oxford shirt instead. "Well, love for me won't get in your way anymore so what do you care?"
Mason let go of her arms and pitched his hands roughly through his strawberry blonde curls. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Is that what you think? You think I don't love you anymore?"
"Of course you don't love me anymore. It's been seven years since..."
