We wore matching, white pajamas with red hearts all over them. Free set her camera up on her tripod before forcing us to take pictures. Even though I gave her a hard time, you had to know I was posed up just how she wanted me to be.
A nigga was Wizard Kelly on her page because she refused to post my face, but she made sure everyone knew she had a man. Because of that, I didn’t mind the pictures or videos she loved to take. It wasn’t hard for me to understand that Free was a content creator, and getting content was natural for her.
Once she felt we had taken enough photos, she went to grab her phone and shut the lights off. “Finally,” I huffed, pretending to be irritated.
“Oh, hush up, Stanley,” she joked, coming back over to curl up beside me. “Turn the movie on, babe. I got a date with my man, Moose.”
I tensed up with a frown. “Aye, I’ll snatch the whole TV out the wall. Don’t play with me like that.” She giggled uncontrollably because she loved to get under my skin. I didn’t play that celebrity crush stuff, especially not with no white man as the competition. Free had me fucked up, so after turning on the movie, I scooted away from her and folded my arms over my chest.
“Why you all the way over there?” she asked with a frown of her own.
I shrugged. “I figured your man, Moose, would keep you warm and shit since y’all got a date and whatnot.”
She clapped her hands together while laughing like something was funny. Free just didn’t know I had beef with Adam Sevani if I ever happened to run into him. When I dropped that man, it was going to be her fault for being funny.
“Oh, get out of your feelings. I’m just playing.”
I shook my head. “Mhm, that’s why you got small lips for a Black woman.”
She tucked her legs under herself so she was sitting on her knees. She folded her arms over her chest. “Okay, and that’s why your hairline is crooked.”
I jerked my head back. “Who hairline crooked? Can’t be mine, baby.”
She nodded. “And is! The fuck! That goatee starting to get patchy too.”
I burst out laughing. “Now, you going too damn far.”
I picked up some popcorn and tossed it on her. She scoffed before scooping some of her own and tossing it on me. When her hand was free, she jumped on me and started fake-fighting me. I couldn’t stop laughing, because she was so easy to get workedup. And she loved to argue. I knew the small-lips thing was going to get to her. She said Tampa had been saying that since they were children. I loved her thin ass lips though. I couldn’t get enough of them, actually.
I wrapped Free up in a bear hug. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry, baby.”
She started laughing uncontrollably. “You’re annoying.” She pushed me off her. “Move. You’re making me miss the movie.” I released her, and we both flopped back on the couch. “Rewind it to the beginning, please.”
I sucked my teeth but picked up the remote to rewind the movie. “You starting your good bullshit already, I see.” Free had a bad habit of rewinding movies and TV shows on scenes that she liked.
“Don’t start with me, ’cause you know that’s why I like to watch TV alone.”
I chuckled because I honestly didn’t care how many times she rewound a scene. My favorite part about Netflix and chillin’ was the chill part. As long as she was next to me, and I could rub on her ass, I was in my happy place.
“You’re cleaning up all this popcorn by yourself too,” she said, reminding me of the mess we made.
I shrugged. “I don’t care. Just get over here already.” I opened my arms for her, and like the big baby she was, she crawled across the couch and into my lap. My fingers went to her scalp and began their usual massage while she melted deeper into me. I released a slow exhale, soaking it all in. I swear my chest was made just for her. Everything about Free was created perfectly for me, and it was becoming more obvious with each day that passed.
Ihad all the windows down while I drove because it was a fairly warm day for it to be December. My music was blasting loudly, so I was singing at the top of my lungs. I was on my way to Tai’s house from the gym. I had to go sweat off all the food Ketai was feeding me. You couldn’t convince me that the man wasn’t trying to plump me up. Every time I looked up, he had some food, and I was eating it. I just needed to stop looking up at this point before my chin was too heavy to lift.
“Rolling down a lonely highway, asking God to please forgive me,” I sang like I was the one who wrote the lyrics. My R&B playlist had a way of opening up my heart and shedding layers of my soul.
I left the city behind, and lush greenery came alive in front of me. My mind drifted to Ketai. Just thinking about him made my nervous system slip into an ease I’d never experienced before. Sometimes I had to pinch myself because, was it too good to be true? I did my best not to think like that, to not punish Tai or myself for the actions of a man in my past. He wasn’t any of them. He was his own man and in a league of his own.
It was the way he never made me have to ask for his time, attention, or affection, the way he made it a priority to check in on me throughout the day, just to let me know he was thinking about me. He wasn’t the type to sit on the phone for hours, and I was okay with that. He was a man on a mission, building a business that he was in the process of expanding into the international real estate markets. If my man was too busy to talk to me, I would much rather it be because he was getting to that bag.
Then Ketai was a generous man with money. That type just hit different. If we added in the fact that he didn’t allow his success to be his entire personality, it made me want to drive faster so I could get started on his dinner. Like, the man had my head gone, nose just wide open, and I didn’t care who knew. I did a little happy dance in my seat because yeah, . . . my man, my man, my man.
“Ou, this is my song,” I said jovially while turning the volume up on my music to the max. “Ooh, who would’ve thought I’d get you?” I sang with tears in my eyes because I mean,wow.Who would’ve thought?
Thump!
“Ahhh!” I screamed when I realized I’d hit something. “Oh my God! oh my God!” I began to panic. I threw the car in park, then hopped out. Because I was on a rural road, there were no other cars but mine. My heart beat rapidly as I rushed to the front. Tears came to my eyes when I saw the little YorkshireTerrier lying there. “Oh, noooooo!” I cried as my hand covered my mouth.
