I heard Christian sigh loudly. “She dropped by not too long ago. We argued. She wanted me to admit that I was using Angel to make her jealous.”
“Did you?”
A loud applause sounded from the ballroom behind me, drowning out their voices. When it died down, I heard Christian speaking again.
“. . . wanted her to think that I was settling down, figuring that shit might hurt her ass. Angel’s the perfect person to make a nigga look settled.”
My heart stopped, and my soul ached. Before I could confront him or turn and leave, a woman approached them from behind me.
“There you are, Mih. I was looking all over for you.”
I still hadn’t moved, even as she walked past me and went to Jeremiah. Both Christian and he turned toward the woman and spotted me at the same time. There was no way that I could fight the tears off.
“Angel!”
I ran, but it was only so fast that I could move before Christian caught up with me. He grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him.
“What did you hear?”
“Enough.” I seethed and jerked away.
“Please let me explain.”
“You made yourself clear.”
“Baby, please,” he begged, following me.
I snatched away from him and glared at him. “Leave me alone, please!”
“Angel, baby, come on. You’re tripping.” Christian called after me as I rushed into a private bathroom and locked the door.
He remained out there banging on the door, but I refused to go out. I sent a text to Sawyer, asking her to get rid of him, and eventually, she did. I left the ball in an Uber.
Chapter 16
Christian
Ihad spent the last two days deep in my feelings. But today was one of those rare occasions when my brothers, my father, and I were all off at the same time. Just because he headed up our station, my father didn’t play any games, and he didn’t give us preference over the rest of our crew.
In fact, he held Nicholas and me to stricter regulations than he did the other men. Joshua didn’t work with us at the firehouse. He worked as an ER registered nurse at the hospital three blocks from us. Yet, his hectic and demanding schedule often didn’t align with ours either.
When Joshua texted and told me that he was headed to our parents’ house to watch the game with our dad and brother, I immediately hopped out of bed, showered, and headed there too. I didn’t have the entire day off like they did though. I’d had most of the day off, but I was going in at eight tonight to work someone else’s shift, who I volunteered to cover for.
It was the only thing that could ail my grieving heart. I was pissed as fuck that Angel hadn’t given me the chance to explain. She had only heard part of the conversation, and while whatever she heard hadn’t sounded good to her, she needed to hear it in its entirety to understand the full implications of what was said.
Jeremiah had been pissed at finding out that Angel and I were kicking it, and I hadn’t given a shit about it. While he didn’t buy the whole scenario that I was just doing it to get back at Erica, as she had told him, he was angry because he had always known that I had feelings for Angel since meeting her. I had spoken with him yesterday after things had calmed down from the night before. I sat on the couch, watching the game with my brothers and dad, but my mind wasn’t on the game. I thought back to the conversation that I had with Jeremiah yesterday.
“Listen,I always knew that Angel and I weren’t meant for each other. I tried to fit a square peg into a round hole. And when that shit didn’t work like I wanted it to, I spent years trying to make her be the woman I wanted her to be, rather than accepting and appreciating her for who she was.”
“Nigga, who you telling? We all could see that. Not just Josh, Nick, and me, but your brother, Jude, and all of our boys.”
“You know what made me want to make it work even more?” he asked, looking at me.
I had gone over to his parents’ house to kick it with him and talk about what happened the night before at the ball.
“No. What?”
“The fact that I knew she was feeling you. Nobody else might have noticed it, but I did. She always got all girly and giggly whenever your ass came around. She wore shit that I told her she couldn’t wear around you, and she would stay all up in your face, asking if you wanted something to eat or drink. She never did that shit when the others were around and you weren’t. The worst part about that shit is that y’all seemed to get along so well. It was like y’all got each other in ways that she and I never did.”
