"Hard Place"
In all of Eva's twenty-three years of living, she had never turned down a crispy piece of fried chicken, macaroni cheese, collard greens, and a side of cornbread. Yet here she was, sitting at her family dinner table with a nonexistent appetite.
The sad thing was, her mother only cooked like this once a month. As much as she loved taping into her southern roots, she refused to be responsible for her husband and kids suffering a heart attack.
Eva always looked forward to Soul Food Sunday.
But she couldn't do it. She couldn't eat. Not when her older sister, Mona, found out she had been dating a guy for a year and hadn't told their parents
Luckily, she hadn't figured out that Eva was engaged.
That wasn't going to last long, though.
If Eva didn't tell her parents about her fiance by the time dinner was over, Mona was going to do it for her.
Eva stabbed at her mouth-watering mac and cheese, trying to figure out what she was going to do.
Or how she was going to confess rather. If she weren't worried about how her parents would react, she would have told them a long time ago.
It was her father she was especially nervous about. He didn't mind her dating, but he was going to mind who she was dating.
"Eva?"
Eva looked at the end of the table where her mother was sitting.
"Yes?"
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Eva forced a smile.
"Then stop playing with your food," her father looked her up and down suspiciously. "Your mom slaved in the kitchen, don't you waste this good cooking, now."
"Sorry," Eva cleared her throat and straightened her posture.
As she prepared to force food down her throat, she suddenly got kicked in the leg.
Keeping in a curse word, she looked across the table at Mona.
"Tell them," she mouthed.
Eva kicks her back in response.
"I'll tell them," Mona mouthed. "I'll tell them if you don't."
Eva glared at her, challenging her. She would not let her sister bully her into this.
"Tell them," Mona mouthed again.
Eva shook her head no.
That's when Mona did the unthinkable.
"Eva's dating someone," she blurted out.
Eva was so stunned by her big sister did that she froze for a long moment. She was so furious that she found herself clutching the fork in her hand. It was taking everything in her not to leap across the table and teach Mona a lesson.
All the forks accept Eva's clung to the table.
"I didn't know you were dating again," said their mother.
"They've been dating for a year," Mona continued to spill.
Eva pushed herself away from the table and stood up, "shut up, Mona! I swear if you say another word, I will -"
"His name is Andy," Mona kept going.
"Andy," their mother frowned. "That's an interesting name for a black boy."
