Did I really want to tell him everything? Including things with Rose? Jerome knew of Rose, but only through the lens of the last couple months of my relationship with her. Jerome didn’t know that Rose had once been the best thing in my life. As far as he was concerned, she was nothing more than a parasite that I couldn’t shake.
“Well,” I said. “Lane, Patriot, and I had a situation that merited us going to Brewskis. And…”
When I turned to look Jerome in the eye, his look of bemusement was so great that even I had to laugh. He had exaggerated an arched eyebrow and a gaping mouth to drive home the point that he knew I was hiding something.
“And what, the fucking hell, Mr. Axle, took you all the fucking way to Brewskis on a damn motherfucking Friday night? Did you, I don’t know, worry the bar was going to burn down because the Saints were smoking too much weed in there?”
I bit my lip.
“I had personal matters to attend to.”
“You had to rescue some pussy, it’s cool,” Jerome said. “I don’t need to know anything more. But go on.”
“Yeah, so, I took care of my personal business, but that left us open. Fortunately, we warned the rest of the club that an attack was coming, so we suffered no casualties, but it was pretty worrisome there for a second.”
Jerome nodded, rubbed his chin, and nodded some more, looking like a professor deep in thought.
“Sounds like things are getting pretty tumultuous over there, am I right?”
“That’s club business.”
“So yes, they are.”
Say this for Jerome—the man may have been aggressive in his takes and the way he treated us, but he was rarely wrong in figuring out what was and what wasn’t a weak point.
“You’re on a sinking ship, just like you were when I first met you.”
Really better not tell him I almost hooked up with Rose last night, then.
“But it’s cool. You do you, brother. You know full well that I am here to throw you a life raft if you change your mind. All you have to do is ask for it, and you’ll get it.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
A few seconds of silence passed as Jerome casually went to the fridge and grabbed two beers. He cracked them both open and gave me one. I initially declined, but it only took a single encouraging look to get me to change my mind.
“You really want to be there, huh?” Jerome said. “Like, damn, you’re for real sticking it out?”
“For now,” I said.
I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. It implied that my mind could be changed. Which...
I wanted to say that was wrong, but between last night and the rat in our club, I couldn’t pretend that things were perfectly stable and unchanging in my life. It really did feel like a lot of seismic change was just on the horizon, and if that happened, who knew what sorts of things would be going down in the coming days?
“For now,” Jerome repeated. “For now. Alright, man, alright. I—”
“Who told you what happened?”
Jerome chuckled.
“So, you’re going to keep quiet about why you went to Brewskis, but you’re expecting me to tell you everything?”
“Is it a big deal?”
“It’s not, man, but I doubt you’d believe who it was. It ain’t like Lane or Patriot are on my speed dial.”
Like I couldn’t have figured that out since they were right by my side.
“Look,” I said, chugging my beer quickly so I could make an out depending on the news. “I know this is short, but we got things going on at the club. I need to know who told you what went down.”
