“Technically.” He raised a brow. “We gotta stick to the script though.”
I nodded. According to the pamphlet, we’d been officially a couple for eight months.
“Ten?” The DJ announced.
“Come on, babe, that’s us.” Tiana grabbed Malik’s hand and pulled him to the dance floor. I cheered them on, turning my camera around to record the couples as the DJ kept calling out years.
“Alright now. Where the couples that’s just getting started? Less than one year.”
“That’s us.” Hasheem led me onto the floor, weaving us into the crowd until we were near the middle. The band shifted into a slow groove. The Mary J. Blige version of “Sweet Thing” filled the speakers. Hasheem’s hands settled, one at the small of my back, and the other caught my hand and brought it up to rest against his chest. Heat pooled low in my stomach as we started to sway side by side.
My feet followed on autopilot. It should’ve been simple, just a slow dance, one we’d probably done a hundred times at parties over the years, but this didn’t feel like those dances. He pulled me closer, closing the last inch of space between us, and my breath hitched.
“Stop overthinking,” he whispered into my temple. “You stiff as hell.”
“I am not,” I whispered back.
“You are,” he said. “You act like we ain’t danced before.”
I exhaled slowly. He was right. This was no different than any other dance. I took a deep breath and allowed my body to rest in his arms and get lost in the music as I hummed along with the words. Something firm and unmistakable pressed against my lower stomach. Heat shot through me so fast I missed a step. For a second, I thought I’d imagined it, but when I shifted, it was still there, solid and very much saying hello. I glanced down before I could stop myself, and sure enough, there was Hasheem’s third leg smiling up at me through his pants. Hasheem’s fingers flexed at the small of my back like he’d noticed the exact moment I realized what was happening.
“Don’t,” he warned softly.
“Don’t what?” I whispered, my throat suddenly dry.
“Make it weird,” he said. “We grown. My body knows you fine. Don’t make it more than it is.” It already was more than it was supposed to be. Hasheem was hard for me. That was not in the best friend handbook.
“Hasheem…” I muttered.
“It’s no big deal.” He gave a little shrug, still swaying like nothing had changed. My nipples tightened against the thin fabric of my dress, and I prayed the lights were low enough that he couldn’t clock it. When he glanced down at me and licked his lips, I damn near lost it.
“I . . . I gotta pee,” I blurted, and then I slipped out of his hold and off the floor before he could say anything. I weaved through bodies on my way to the bathroom, like I was trying to catch a flight. My heart was beating so fast that as soon as I made it to the bathroom, I had to immediately grip the edge of the sink.
“What the hell?” I stared at my flushed cheeks in the mirror and inhaled and exhaled. Hasheem getting hard for me was not on my bucket list for this trip. “Okay. Harlowe, he’s a man. You’re a woman. Biology did what biology does. It’s no big deal. He’s still your best friend.” I tried to reason with my anxiety not to freak out more than I already was. I ran my hand down my face, being sure not to mess up my makeup. I needed to get my head in the game. Standing upright, I fixed my two piece set and shook off whatever the hell was going on. I pushed the bathroom door open, and my body collided with whomever was trying to enter.
“I’m sorry.” I looked up to see Simone.
“Harlowe,” she said.
“Simone.”
“You look nice.” Her gaze slid over me. “You can barely tell you’re a backstabbing bitch.”
My stomach dipped. Calling me a bitch was harsh, but I would let her have that one. “I . . . Simone,” I said, trying to find the words that would make me being here boo’d up with Hasheem hurt her even less. “It’s not . . . it’s . . .”
“I just find it funny how neither of y’all thought enough of me to shoot me a little heads up ‘we together now’ text.”
My mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
“I didn’t even know you worked for Duality,” I finally blurted. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
She laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “Yeah. Well, I was going to see y’all eventually. Y’all could have warned me.”
“I—” I swallowed. “It . . . happened fast.” I didn’t know what else she wanted me to say.
“How long?” she asked, eyes locked on mine.
My brain scrambled for dates, counting backwards through holidays and releases and all the fake timelines I’d been feeding the internet.
