I had known for a while.
I just hadn’t been ready to say it out loud yet. The life, my man had provided me was very good. But I could provide that for myself, and I had no doubt that Griz would provide for and protect me even better.
I got in the car and sat there for a second before I said anything.
Raja was in the passenger seat with Goldie’s leash wrapped around her hand and she was looking straight ahead out the windshield with that particular expression she got when she was deciding whether to say what was on her mind or let it go. I already knew which one was going to win.
“Raja.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to. Go on and say it.”
She cut her eyes at me. “That girl is crazy. How did she even find you? You sure that’s who you want?” She laughed.
“I know, huh. And damn you right. How the fuck did she find me?” I was now in deep thought on that one. She had pulled one of my moves.
“She came across that parking lot like she was ready to go to jail today. I haven’t seen somebody move like that since—” She stopped and something moved across her face briefly before she put it away. “Since a long time ago.”
I looked at her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have had you out here in the middle of that.”
“It’s fine.” She waved it off but I could tell she meant it. Raja didn’t hold things when she said she was letting them go. That was one of the things I had always respected about her. I have been in the middle of several of her and Dank fights, and the next day she was back to normal like nothing happened.
“Tell me what’s going on with her though. Griz, this looks like some toxic shit. She came to fight, and seconds later, you were kissing her forehead and making her leave without her dog. What the hell?”
I pulled out of the PetSmart lot and drove for a minute before I answered.
“It’s complicated,” I said.
“Everything with you is complicated. You gotta do better than that brother.”
“Her and I go back. Long way back. Before Dallas, before any of this. We grew up in the same town.” I kept my eyes on the road. “I ran into her out here by accident a few weeks ago.”
“And?”
“And she’s engaged.”
Raja turned her head and looked at me slow. “She’s engaged.”
“Yeah.”
“And you—”
“Yeah.”
She stared at me for a long moment and then she looked back out the front window and shook her head. “Grizzley. This shit ain’t right man. You know, this shit might not end good.”
“I know.”
“She is engaged to somebody else and you stole her dog.”
“I borrowed the dog.”
“You stole that woman’s dog.” She pressed her lips together and I could see her fighting the smile. “I have never in my life. You really stole her dog.”
“It was a strategic move. She can get the dog back, when she leaves that nigga and comes with me.”
Raja lost the fight with the smile. It broke through and she laughed, a real one, the kind that came from somewhere unexpected, and I hadn’t heard her laugh like that since before Dank died. It only lasted a few seconds before it settled back down into something quieter but it was real while it was there.
