“For what?” Rook’s eyebrows knitted together. “Shit didn’t work out and it is what the fuck it is. I don’t need you to come hold my hand and console me, nigga. I’m good.”
“Alright.” I chuckled. “Well if you change your mind…”
“I know.” He smiled. “If nobody else got me, you got me.”
“Fucking right.” I walked over and dapped him up.
He looked me up and down.
“And where the fuck you going?”
“I’m going out.” I shrugged.
“With Asante?” he teased.
“Something like that.”
“What does something like that mean?” he chuckled.
I didn’t respond. He didn’t push. He just turned his head back forward and went back to playing his game. I pushed away from the couch and grabbed my keys to head out.
“Be careful!” he called after me.
“You know I stay strapped.”
“I’ve been knowing that, but that’s not even what I meant.”
“I know what you meant and I’m good. You told me to enjoy the last bit of unmarried life I had left, right?”
“That’s right.” Rook smiled.
I nodded once then headed out, locking the door behind me.
Asante had mentioned meeting up at a pizza place that his sister and her friend wanted to try out for karaoke and trivia so I headed straight there.
Asante let me know where they were sitting so I walked straight to their table.
Nadira had very similar facial features to Asante and she gave me a polite smile as she stood up to be introduced.
“This is my sister, Nadira,” Asante offered. “And this is her friend, Jhene.”
“Nice to meet you ladies.” I shook each of their hands in turn then we sat down.
It was a square table so we each had our own side but I had Asante to the left of me and Jhene to the right.
I noted immediately that Jhene was a beautiful woman and there was a chance that if our situation wasn’t what it was right now and I hadn’t met Asante first I would have asked her out but this wasn’t that and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d flirted with a woman or man that wasn’t Asante since I’d met him.
I was very aware of how we were seated, of the way this looked. This was probably the most public we’d been together and Asante had balanced the scales, the two of us and two women. It had the potential to look like a double date. I didn’t doubt that he’d done that on purpose.
“They’re doing pop culture trivia,” Nadira announced. “I was thinking men versus women for the first round.”
“Alright.” I nodded at that. “Let’s do it.”
We collected pens and paper from the host and put in an order for a pizza, some wings and a flatbread before the first round.
Apparently, Asante and I were not up to date on pop culture references. We got four of the ten questions correct while Nadira and Jhene got seven of them right. We counted them the winnerfor our table and moved on to movie trivia which we happened to be better at. We tied at seven and seven. Then, we went into music trivia where Asante and I got laid out again five to nine. We carried the history category.
Then, we took a break in answering the questions being asked when they brought food out.
