“Yay. Tell me you don’t have plans. I want you to meet me at that cute little lounge by the boxing club. The one we went to last month with the fye wings.”
“You do know I have kids, right?” Blossom joked. “I might have to go home and cook or help with homework.”
“Um first of all, you don’t have kids, you have grown men. Creed is on his way to college, and Chosen is more mature than me. They will be okay while you have a few drinks with me and listen to me vent about my terrible life.”
“Oh Lord,” Blossom groaned. Fancy could be dramatic for sure, but she attracted drama like magnets attracted metal. If she said she had some tea to spill most times it was piping hot and made Blossom’s eyes bulge out of her head.
“Yeah. It’s real. So, can you meet me or not?”
“I can. You are so needy. It’s exhausting. You owe me a drink.”
“Baby, I’ll buy you two.”
“Okay, Crazy. I’m on my way.”
With a chuckle, Blossom eased into her BMW, wondering what Fancy had gotten herself into this time. Her drama didn’teven always include men. There was work drama. Family drama. Neighborhood drama. Drama simply loved Fancy. She was a gorgeous OBGYN, and Blossom was obsessed with everything about her friend. She didn’t have a gay bone in her body, but everything about Fancy was tea. Face, body, fashion sense, hair, car, house—all tea. Fancy was five-foot-five with cocoa-colored skin and hair so thick and long no one believed it was hers. People always swore it was K-tips, tape-ins, or some kind of extensions. Fancy was model thin and had a sharp nose, pouty lips, and deep dimples. There were days she got up at four a.m. for work and didn’t get home until nine p.m., and she never complained.
Fancy and Blossom met in college and had been inseparable ever since. Blossom wasn’t joking when she called Fancy needy, but she honestly didn’t mind. She hated that she was the type that held everything in. Blossom felt letting people know just how broken and sad she was during her divorce would make her appear weak or pathetic. Many days, she faked smiles in public and cried her eyes out behind closed doors. She even tried to fake it for her sons. Blossom didn’t have anyone she allowed herself to be vulnerable around, and she admired Fancy for always being so open and transparent about her struggles. Whether it was a cheating man or a drug addicted father, a brother with six kids that was a deadbeat father, and he expected her to pick up his slack, or a co-worker that didn’t respect her because she was Black and a woman. Drama for days.
When Blossom arrived at the lounge, she spotted Fancy’s Audi right away. Flipping the visor down, she checked her appearance and reapplied her lip gloss. Thank God, she cared about how she looked when out in public, and she wasn’t underdressed for the lounge. As a basketball coach, people expected her to dress like a boy and not be so girly. Blossom loved heels. She also loved her super long stiletto-shaped nails.That day she chose to wear grey, wide-legged sweatpants from Alo, a cropped white tummy shirt underneath a grey zip-up jacket and black strappy heels. Before getting out of the car, she removed the jacket. The heels and the crop top made the sweats sexy and just like that, she was dressed for the occasion.
Blossom wasn’t a man hater. She loved love but since her divorce, she felt free. She didn’t have to not be herself to make other people happy. She did what she wanted when she wanted and didn’t have to hear anybody’s mouth. Being single was so peaceful that it would take a very special man to make her consider a relationship. Cedric wasn’t the worst person in the world, but he’d done a number on her and made her very leery of sharing her life with another person.
When Blossom entered the lounge and spotted Fancy already in the booth blowing hookah smoke from her mouth, she chuckled. Blossom trekked over to the booth and slid in. “Okay, we already started.”
Fancy rolled her eyes just as the server came over with two strawberry lemon drops and placed them on the table.
“Friend, you know I don’t lie. If I say I’m stressed, she is stressed. I went ahead and ordered your drink.”
Blossom’s brows hiked as her friend guzzled down the cute, dainty drink like it was water.
“Okay, hit me with it because I’m too curious.”
Fancy sighed. “Last night, I was next door watching a movie with Capo, and when I got home, Nick was sitting on my porch. Like out of his chair and his ass planted on my porch.”
Blossom pulled her lips into her mouth to keep from smiling. It wasn’t funny. It really wasn’t. Nick was a guy that Fancy used to date, and he was having a hard time accepting that she was done with him. In fact, he was borderline stalking her. The fact that he was in a wheelchair made some people downplay Fancy’s complaints. Blossom knew better, and just because Nick was ina wheelchair didn’t mean he was harmless. The situation wasn’t funny, but she couldn’t understand why he got out of his chair to sit on the porch.
“Go ahead and laugh, bitch.” Fancy rolled her eyes before placing the hookah tip between her red coated lips.
“I mean, it’s not really funny,” Blossom slowly replied, still trying not to laugh. He’s actually becoming quite annoying. It’s been what, three months?” Blossom sipped her drink.
“Yes! Like get the fuckin’ hint, creep. This man is capable of sticking his dick in anything that breathes, but he wants to play the victim card when I tell him I’m not dealing with him anymore. People always leave me,” she mimicked in a deep, whiny voice. “Um, because you’re a womanizer, dick face.” She frowned.
Blossom took another sip of her drink before putting it down. “Okay, I’m going to have to take notes, so I don’t forget anything. We have to cover Nick for sure, but I can’t forget that I want the details on Capo. So, what did you say to Nick?”
“I told him to get his goofy ass off my porch before I called the police. He had the nerve to say he’d been out there for two hours and asked me what I was doing in my neighbor’s house for that long. I ignored him and walked past, and that muhfucka grabbed my ankle and wouldn’t let go.”
Blossom laughed embarrassingly loud for several minutes. By the time she was done, tears were rolling down her cheeks, and her stomach was hurting. What made it even funnier was the fact that Fancy was genuinely pissed.
“I’m sorry, Friend. I don’t mean to laugh.” Blossom wiped the tears off her face. “Nick is still a man, and his behavior is concerning. He has a gun, right?”
Fancy nodded. “More than one.”
“Yeah, I think it might be time to get a restraining order. Nick always had a bad temper but since being in that chair, it’s gottenworse. A person that’s as miserable as him won’t hesitate to do dumb shit.”
“I’m so over it. Even after I went inside, it took him another thirty minutes to leave. The man is unhinged.”
Fancy met Nick a few months after she graduated from college. She was on her way to medical school, and they were just casually dating. Fancy was knee-deep in her studies and didn’t have time for a serious relationship anyway, but when she found out he had two different women pregnant at the same time, she immediately cut him off. A few years later, he tried to spin the block, and Fancy gave in because he swore he’d changed.
