“Do you want me to meet her?”
“If you want to.”
“I don’t want to fuck up anything you have going on with your family, Asante, but if you want me to be there, I’ll be there. Just let me know.”
“Alright. I’ll keep you updated.”
“Bet,”
I hung up and hopped up. I grabbed my watch and slid it on then headed out.
Nadira and Jhene were sitting together in my living room, giggling and talking when I walked out.
“Who’s driving?”
“I can drive!” Nadira hopped up. “We already have an appointment to check the car out in person so it shouldn’t even take long.”
“Alright.” I yanked my door open and gestured for them to lead the way. “Let’s do it.”
The three of us filed out and into Nadira’s car. Jhene hopped in the back so I could sit beside my sister and we headed out.
The car dealership they’d picked out was an hour away. Throughout the drive out, Jhene was nice and respectful. We talked about the degree she had in criminal justice and my time in the military mostly. I asked how she and my sister had met and they talked about the pilates class they apparently took together.
When we got to the place where Jhene was supposed to be buying the car, Nadira stayed at the spot while I went with her to test drive the car. After we returned, I popped the hood andchecked everything out. I asked a few questions that I noticed she hadn’t brought up and haggled down on the price so she saved three grand.
We walked off the lot with a successful deal and I yawned and stretched as we pulled off. Jhene had arranged to pick the car up the following morning to get the title and paperwork taken care of and hand over the cashier’s check she was going to get when the bank opened again.
“See,” Nadira looked at me with a smile. “That wasn’t bad, right?”
“Nah. It was cool.”
“And it didn’t take long,” she added.
“It didn’t,” I admitted.
“And I appreciate you coming out and helping me,” Jhene said.
“No problem. For real. If you need me to hook you up with a real mechanic, let me know.”
“Okay.”
“So now that we’ve got that taken care of, Jhene and I have been seeing a lot of stuff online about this pizza place that apparently has karaoke and trivia. Do you want to come?” she sang. I looked at my watch. “Your friend can come too,” she added. “It’ll be fun.”
I shot her a look. “It’ll be fun, huh?”
“I don’t know why you’re acting like I’m standoffish or something.” Nadira rolled her eyes.
“You’re not standoffish. You just like to put your nose in my business when it doesn’t need to be.”
“And I apologized.”
“You know what they say about when people apologize but don’t change their actions?”
“That it’s manipulation?”
“That’s right and you’re not about to manipulate me so if I hangout with you and invite this man, keep your opinions on him to yourself until you can lay them on me, not him.”
“Okay.” She nodded immediately. “I won’t. I promise.”
