“Nothing.”
I grabbed her shoulder and stopped her from walking. We stood facing each other, and I could see one of those red flags she warned me about waving. She was trying to shut down on me. “Don’t tell me that you get jealous over your male friends like you do over your man.”
“Not unless I want that friend to be my man,” she replied in a soft voice as she glanced at me from underneath her eyelashes.
“And is that what you want?” I asked, closing the distance between us.
Angel opened her mouth, and I prayed that what was about to come out of it was what I wanted to hear. But she didn’t get to say anything before I heard another voice screech, “Christian! Is that you?”
Aww shit!
I slowly turned away from Angel and saw Kyra Brown, a girl I used to mess around with. I hadn’t seen her in about six months. It figured that she would pop up when it was most inconvenient.
“Hey, Ky. What’s up?” I greeted her.
“Nothing. I was just thinking about calling you the other day.”
I turned to look at Angel. “Angel, this is a friend of mine, Kyra. Kyra, this is . . .” I stared at Angel for several seconds to see what she would say. I wanted to say that she was more than a friend, but she didn’t give me the approval.
“Hi, I’m Angel, an old friend of his.”
I swallowed my disappointment and pointed to the stroller, “And this is her daughter, Belle.”
Angel smiled and extended her hand, but Kyra nodded and ignored her hand. Kyra asked, “So she’s not your kid then?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, hating the tension that Kyra was creating. I wasn’t feeling the disrespect that she was showing Angel.
“Hey, we were about to head out. You be easy, a’ight?”
“Why don’t I call you tonight? Maybe you can come through later.”
I didn’t bother to respond but took Angel’s hand and pulled her away. She tugged her hand free of mine.
“What’s up?”
“I can walk without you holding my hand, Chris. I’m not a little kid who needs to be led.”
“I was just trying to pull us up out of that moment, okay?”
“Christian!”
“Damn,” I muttered as I heard another voice call out to me.
I turned to my left to see another girl I used to mess with, Faye, coming in our direction.
Before I could stop her, she ran to me, wrapped me in her arms, and kissed me on the cheek. “Ohmigosh! I’ve missed you so much! You haven’t returned any of my calls. Where have you been? I’ve been going through a dry patch lately, and I haven’t been able to find you. You know I’m like a dope fiend when it comes to you!” Faye’s words gushed forth like water from a spout.
I managed to untangle myself from her hold. “Hey, girl. How’ve you been?”
“Do you need to ask? It’s clear she’s been missing you,” Angel muttered beside me.
“Oh, you’re having a family day. I’m sorry,” Faye apologized, looking embarrassed.
Rather than correcting her, I stepped back and grabbed Angel’s hand again. “It’s all good. But you have a Merry Christmas, all right?”
I turned and pushed the stroller with one hand while clinging to Angel’s hand with the other. I didn’t bother to look back.
“Would you slow down?” Angel fussed.
