“It wasn’t yesterday, A,” he said softly.
She got that stubborn expression on her face before sheturned her attention to her toes.
He got closer to her.
Not too close, but close.
She looked up at him.
Perfect height, even if she had on heels.
He was tall, he wasn’t into short women.
But he wasn’t into tall women either.
She was neither.
Yeah.
Perfect.
“My mom isn’t over my dad and we’ll just say my dad’s beengone way longer than your mom has, and it sucks,” he shared.“It fuckin’ hurts.Every day,wakin’ up andseein’her in pain.I get it doesn’t feel goodseein’ himwith another chick orthinkin’ what that means abouthow he felt about your ma.But trust me, the alternative is way fuckin’ worse.”
“It just…makes me remember, not that I’d forget.But thepain comes back, you know?”
He shook his head.“I don’t know,seein’as Ma hasn’t gone there.But I just want her to be happy.That’s, like, theonly thing in this world I want.Because she’s the mom who made it so I wantfor nothing else, so it’s more like, Ineedthat for her.You get me?”
She nodded and said, “I’m sorry, J.That does sound like itsucks.”
“Don’t be too hard on your dad and don’t make him worryabout you.It’s not cool.”
She nodded again and started to fold into her car.
He was about to ask her name, get her number.She wasunderage, butjust.
And they’d just had the deepest conversation he’d had sinceHound sat him down to share about the birds and the bees and how he’d knockJag’s block off if he took a girl ungloved.
But someone called his name and he looked to the housethey’d exited.
Some dude he knew was shouting something he couldn’t hear.
Jag called, “What?”
And in that time, she got in her car, closed her door andher Honda started.
When he heard the engine catch, he looked down and throughthe window at her.
She waved, gave him a smile she didn’t really mean becauseshe was sad and had learned too young how big life could suck.
And he stepped back wide when she pulled her car out of thespot and drove away.
The next time he saw her was maybe a year later.At aconcert.At the Gothic.
She was coming his way when he spotted her.She’d seen himbefore he saw her.
She smiled and waved.
She looked good, happier.
