“Okay, good thing is, we got enough liquor in the sprinter for a whole party,” Ellie said.
“Let me go tell Shy to send her motherfucking content team home. Can you help your niece wash her hands?”
Courtney nodded.“Yeah, I got her.”
“Make sure she sends that thirsty-ass assistant home too,” Sloan added.
“Girl, nah, that’s who we sending to the store for the shit we need!” Ellie protested.“We need her!”
Sloan walked back out to the living room and over to the kitchen table where Cassidy sat, chopping it up with James. The two seemed to have broken the ice, and Sloan was appreciative because she knew Cassidy wasn’t friendly.
“So, slight change of plans. We’re going to need y’all to go do some man stuff for a while,” Sloan said.
James scratched his head skeptically.“I know y’all don’t know each other, but it’sFriendsmas, and we can’t leave our girl out. So ‘tis the season to make new fucking friends,mmkay?” Sloan proposed. She saw their resistance, but before either of them could answer, she settled the matter.“Okay. Now, me and my girls are going to get this house together, cook some food, and prepare some bomb drinks. While the fellas are going to take the sprinter and take the kids to find a Christmas tree for this house. doesn’t have to be real. We need a nine-foot tree and all the accessories. Can y’all handle that?”
“Doesn’t sound like we have a choice,”James grumbled.
“Don’t be the Grinch that stole Christmas, James. Go get your coat,” Sloan snickered, patting his shoulder as he walked away.
Cassidy scratched his temple and met her eyes. She closed the space between them.
“Please do this,” she whispered.“I need to know what’s fully going on with my friend, and I don’t feel safe leaving her here with him.”
He sighed.
“Yeah, okay,” he submitted.“I’ma have to learn how to tell you no.”
“Now, why would you do that?” she teased.
“Spoiled ass,” he whispered, biting his bottom lip. Her breath hitched, he was so close, and an anxiety filled her that she couldn’t explain. She was so conflicted when it came to him. Cassidy was a felon. He had a history of extreme violence, and she didn’t believe in rehabilitation, but he presented something so different than what she expected a man fresh out of prison to be.
He saw her sudden apprehension, and he took a step back.
“We’llbe back.”
When Ellie walked back inside, she looked like she had seen a ghost.
“What’s wrong?” Sloanasked.
“Brooklyn wants to go with her dad since the plans have changed,” Ellie said.
“He says he’llpick us up,” Brooklyn stated.
Cassidy stopped at the door.
“Do I need to stick around for that?” he asked.
“No, I can handle Cairo,” Ellie said. James emerged from the back of the house, and the men headed out.
SWV set the soundtrack for the cleaning session as Ellie, Sloan, Courtney, Shy, and Lola went to work. They sang in four-part harmony like they used to when they were in middle school.
You’re the Onewas their shit back in the day, and they swore they were going to be the next big girl group. It didn’t matter that Shy could barely hold a tune, she had a big ol’booty and a cute little waist, and she could dance her ass off.
“Girl, this song wild as hell. We were singing about being side chicks back in the day andain’t even know it,” Courtney joked.
“No, for real!” Shy laughed.“I been a side chick a time or two. It’s a little lit. All the dick and none of the drama,” She shrugged, and Ellie tossed a sponge at her.
“Girl!” Ellie shouted, nodding to her daughters who were posted on the couch. They were hypnotized by their devices, thankfully. Brooklyn never took her headphones off her head, so she hadn’t heard the banter, and Tessa was in heaven playing her Nintendo Switch.
