Derrick cut sharp eyes at Adam, a clear sign he was not amused with Adam’s shenanigans at all.
“Man, don’t nobody give a damn about these kids at seven on a Saturday morning. I should still be in my doggone bed. Not here watching kids give bad car washes to the entire town in the high school parking lot.”
“D, do me this solid. If we don’t have a certain amount of adult supervision, we have to cancel the event. With a last-minute faculty drop out, you’re the only thing standing between these bright creative minds losing their program.”
Derrick puckered his lips and took a quick sip of his coffee. By the tight flex of muscle at his jaw, Adam knew his boy wasn’t totally convinced.
“Please stop trying to sell me that ‘it’s for the kids’ nonsense. We both know the only reason you don’t want this event canceled is because you’re trying to get next to Janae, and you think looking like her savior is a direct route to getting in her panties.”
Adam shut his mouth and drank his coffee. One, Derrick didn’t know that Adam already had been to Janae’s promised land. Two, Derrick wasn’t completely wrong in his assumption that Adam wanted this event to go perfectly to help his cause with Janae.
Although they’d slept together—slept being a euphemism for sexing until they were damn near dehydrated and comatose—Adam still hadn’t secured the bag. He wanted more than a jump-off situation with Janae, and she’d yet to even agree to go out on a real date with him.
“How’s that going, by the way? She giving you the time of day yet?”
Adam shrugged. Derrick had a big mouth. There was no polite way to say it. He wasn’t a malicious gossip, but things sometimes slipped from his lips that shouldn’t. If you didn’t tell him specifically this was something classified, he often let things slip between friends. Again, he wasn’t a gossip, but he was so honest, keeping secrets was as unnatural to him as short haircuts were to Adam.
“She’s feeling me,” Adam admitted. “I just can’t seem to figureout how to go any deeper than that. She’s really focused on her kid. That’s an admirable thing.”
“But.”
That was also another quirk about Derrick’s personality. He was truthful to a fault, and he could always sense when others were holding back the truth too.
“There is no but. She’s dedicated to her kid and pouring her all into him. I’d love for there to be space to explore this connection we have, but even if we can’t, I’ll always admire her loyalty. She’s something special. She always has been.”
When Adam looked up, Derrick’s dark eyes had softened, and he could see compassion filling them.
“More than most, I know what it is to want more and never know if you’ll get it. At least you’ve found the courage to tell Janae how you feel. I’m still stuck in the friend zone and will likely be there forever.”
Adam groaned as he took in Derrick’s words and caught sight of Michael arriving with Vanessa. “Do you realize how pitiful it is that outta you, me, and Mike,” Derrick continued, “he’s the one that wound up with a fine-ass woman on his arm? We both know that boy had no game until we taught him how to talk to a woman. How did we end up here?”
Adam pointed between the two of them then tipped his head in Michael’s direction across the parking lot where their friend had just parked in front of the high school and was giving his girlfriend, Vanessa, what looked like the best goodbye kiss ever.
“D, of all the things I saw for the three of us, Mike getting more play than us never crossed my mind.”
They watched as Michael finally released Vanessa from an enviable lip lock and waved hello at the two of them before getting back in his cruiser and presumably heading to the sheriff’s department.
“God I hate him.” Adam’s lament was met by Derrick’s usual full smile.
“I do too,” Derrick responded. “But I gotta admit, seeing you this miserable makes me having to get up at the ass crack of dawn on a Saturday almost worthwhile.”
“I need new friends,” Adam bemoaned, only making Derrick laugh aloud.
“What you need to do is show Janae you want something serious with her.”
Adam shut his mouth again. Derrick was dropping consecutive truth bombs where Adam’s interest in Janae was concerned. Derrick was right, and as Adam scanned the faces congregating in the open parking lot, sighing when his eyes finally met hers, he knew he had to figure out some way to do exactly as his friend suggested.
“You’re right, D. I do.”
“Well, I’mma stand here and drink my coffee before I gotta deal with these teenagers. You need to go over there and handle your business.”
Adam nodded and turned to walk in Janae’s direction but stopped briefly to meet his friend’s smiling face.
“D, one of these days I’m gonna say those exact same words to you.”
Derrick tilted his head. “Probably sooner than either of us would like.”
Again, Derrick was right. Determined he would get his own situation handled before he told Derrick how to deal with his, he headed toward Janae.
