“Nope. Not here.” Tiana came flying out of nowhere. “We not doing this out here.”
“Let me go!” Harlowe tried to break past me and Tiana, tears already running down her face. “You see this shit? You see him standing out here with this half naked bitch! Are you serious right now, Hasheem?”
I looked around at the crowd. Phones were out all around us and people were whispering.
“Put them damn cameras down.” Tiana clocked that quick. “Ain’t nobody getting a show off my friend’s pain. If I see this on TikTok, I’m reporting pages. I swear to God.” Everybody’s phones went down, but nobody turned away.
“Harlowe.” I tried again, reaching for her. “Lowe, just listen to me for one second. It’s not what it looks like. I was up here to—” She jerked away from my hand with pure disgust on her face.
“What could you possibly say?” she demanded. “I came out of my massage, heard there was a fire, and find you at her door with the sprinklers going off while she standing there damn near naked. How is that ever not what it looks like, Hasheem?”
I opened my mouth, but Tiana cut in, grabbing Harlowe’s hand.
“Not here,” she said firmly. “You can cuss him out in private if you want, but you not gon’ give these people a front row seat to your business. Come on.”
Harlowe’s shoulders started shaking. She sniffled hard, swiping at her face with the back of her hand.
“I don’t want to look at him,” she said, voice cracking. “I can’t. I can’t.” She broke down in Tiana’s arms.
“Lowe!” I called again, but she ignored me and kept walking.
“Sir?” one of the security guys said, stepping into my line of sight with a little tablet. “We’re gonna need a quick statement from you about what happened with the fire.”
I dragged a hand down my face. I didn’t have time for no statement. I needed to get to Harlowe before she jumped to more conclusions and ended us before we even got to start.
“Candles in the room,” I said. “Her robe landed on one, caught the fabric, small surface fire. I moved the burning material into a metal can and held it under the sprinkler to trigger suppression. Fire’s out. No injuries.”
“And you are?” he asked. His eyes flicked between me and Simone.
“Hasheem Hart,” I said. “I’m a firefighter back home. That’s why I knew what to do.”
“It was my fault,” Simone blurted, clutching the blanket tighter. “I threw the robe. I didn’t mean for it to hit the candle. He was just trying to stop it. He saved my life.”
“Anything else you need from me?” I asked. I didn’t bother looking at Simone. I didn’t care to.
“No, we might follow up later,” he said. “But for now, you’re good. Please don’t re-enter the room until maintenance clears it.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” I turned to walk away, my feet already moving again. I didn’t give a fuck about reentering Simone’s room. That was her mess to deal with. Mine was a few villas down, probably destroying all my shit by now.
“Yo.” I looked up to see Malik coming toward me. “Man, tell me you weren’t in there doing what the fuck it looks like you were doing.”
“I wasn’t.” I blew out a breath through my nose. “You really think I’m dumb enough to cheat on my girl in a resort full of cameras and gossiping-ass people?”
He studied my face for half a second, then nodded once. “Aight. Then go fix it,” he said. “’Cause from out here? It looks bad as hell.”
“Yeah,” I said more to myself than him, already picking up my pace toward our villa. “I’m on it.”
He wasn’t wrong. I hated that I’d even given Simone enough room to spin anything, and I hated that Harlowe had to see what she saw. If I lost Harlowe behind some shit I didn’t even do, I was going to lose my mind.
I should’ve knownthis was gonna happen. Should’ve known playing in mess was gonna result in mess. Booking a whole romantic retreat with my best friend, who just so happened to be my ex’s brother, who just so happened to have an ex-fiancée who not only was my friend but worked for Duality? Of course, it ended in heartbreak and humiliation. How else was it supposed to end?
“God don’t bless no mess, Harlowe,” I said to myself as I shoved the door open like it was the problem.
“What are we grabbing?” Tiana asked as she walked through the door. She’d been right there since I was about to go upside Simone’s head in that stupid blanket.
“Everything,” I said, kicking my sandals off. “I just got my heart ripped out in public. I’m not coming back.” Was I being Dramatic? Absolutely. Was I probably overreacting? Also, yes. But it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t. Tiana didn’t say anything. She just nodded and got to work retrieving my suitcases. We laid them all out across the bed and started filling them up with my things. Tiana was a real one. She barely knew me, but she was here right by my side, supporting my delusions and being a ride-or-die friend.
The wild part was, I knew better. I knew Hasheem. I knew he wasn’t the “sneak around with his ex the day after asking me to be his” type. Even in the middle of my meltdown, some stubborn, sensible part of me kept whispering,there has to be more to it than what you saw.Still, I kept shoving clothes into my suitcase like I was about to board the next flight to Azalea. Packing gave me something to do with my hands while my heart tried to decide between “this nigga ain’t shit” and “you know that’s not true.” I stopped long enough to press my palms into my eyes. It didn’t stop the tears. They pushed past anyway.
