“While you’re healing let’s hope that another woman doesn’t come along and snatch Blaze up.”
“If she does then it just wasn’t meant to be,” I shrugged one shoulder.
“Some women get their hearts broken and become hoes. You became wise,” Melody shrugged.
“There isn’t anything wrong with a little hoeing. I actually don’t want to have sex with anyone but Blaze. That’s the fastest way to get attached though, so I’m trying to keep myself from acting like a fiend for it.”
“Good luck with that. I feel you though. I finally gave Ryan some, and we’ve been at it every day for the past week.”
“I’m not listening to you,” I placed my hands over my ears and closed my eyes.
It felt good laughing and joking with my sister without feeling like I was dying inside. Too many of my days and nights had been plagued by feeling sorry for myself because Jeremiah did me wrong. But when I really thought about it, I had a mother that told me she loved me almost every day, and I was thirtyyears old. My clients and siblings showed me love and poured into me on a regular basis. Love was all around me. Who gave a fuck if it came from Jeremiah. The love between a man and woman was different than love between friends and family, but not having love from a man didn’t make a woman less than. And it didn’t mean that she wasn’t worthy or good enough. The right man just hadn’t found her and being alone was better than settling.
Prayerfully, the worst of my breakup was over.
“Has the bitch boy still been bothering you?”
“Please don’t talk him up. Maybe him seeing the flowers is what did it. I can admit that it does look like I moved on very quickly. I can see how it might look like I already had someone in the cut, but I know the truth. He just thought I wouldn’t be able to find anyone else.”
“And when he saw that someone else is better than him in every way that really messed him up.”
“I just want him to move on with his life. I don’t bother him, and I wish he’d stop bothering me. It’s crazy how it took me overhearing one two-minute conversation and an entire two-year relationship came to an end.”
“That’s how it is sometimes.”
I finished talking to my sister, and when she left, I got ready for bed. I was trying my hardest to heal without becoming attached to another man but acting like I didn’t want to see or talk to Blaze as much as I really did was hard. But no matter how hard it was, I had to stick to my guns.
Chapter Six
BLAZE
I knewwhen Ryan started scratching his neck and looking off to the side, he was about to spew some bullshit.
“What?” I asked with a frown. He mentioned that he was about to link with his homie, Maurice at a sports bar, and I said I’d tag along.
“So,” Ryan cleared his throat. “I mean you can come, you know I don’t care, but Melody is bringing Rhapsody to hang with Maurice. I’m sure you don’t give a fuck about being a third wheel though. I’m sure you can find something there to entertain.”
I chuckled while flicking the tip of my nose. I wasn’t the type to kiss and tell so he didn’t know about me and Rhapsody. What had me tripping was the twinge of jealousy that made my jaw muscle twitch. I had met Maurice a few times, and he was cool people. If Rhapsody wanted to kick it with him, there wasn’t anything I could say about it.
“Bro, you fucked?” Ryan asked with wide eyes.
“Why you ask me that?” I played dumb.
“Shit, I didn’t know. You want me to tell him she canceled?”
“Nah.” I shrugged. “Rhapsody is single. I’m going to come have a drink and shoot some pool if that’s aight with you.”
“Man, you already know what it is. You can go anywhere I go.”
I went upstairs, took one of my gummies and got in the shower. Whenever I got ready to leave the sports bar, I wanted to be able to do so, so I drove my own car. I stopped and got gas, and I arrived at the bar a few minutes after Ryan and Maurice. When I walked over to the high-topped table they were seated at, Rhapsody kind of shifted in her seat, but she played it cool. I spoke to everyone at the table, and she spoke back. Their drinks had already been ordered, so when the server brought them over, she took my order.
I didn’t want to cock block, so I stood off to the side talking to mostly Ryan. When the server brought my drink over, I heard Maurice ask Rhapsody if she wanted to play pool. She said yes, and I couldn’t help but look at her as she sauntered toward the pool table dressed in denim jeans that looked painted on and a bra like shirt. Her stomach wasn’t all the way flat just yet, but I loved how she appeared more confident. She was bad for sure, and if she didn’t know it, that was a damn shame. The opinion of one fuck nigga shouldn’t change how she viewed herself.
“Where’s your date?”
I turned in the direction of the voice and saw a gorgeous dark-skinned woman giving me a flirtatious smile.
“I don’t do dates,” I replied in a serious tone, and she arched an eyebrow.
