I was sitting at the table in my thoughts when I heard my sister clear her throat. Blinking a few times, I focused on her momentarily when the person next to her caught my eye.Couldn’t be, but it was, and she was trying her hardest to look everywhere but at me.
“Indiri, this is the cake maker and the woman who made all of the sweets for the wedding. Selah, this is my little brother Indiri. He’s also from Briar South.” She introduced us with an ulterior motive, unaware that I already knew Selah.
“What’s up, Selah baby? This why you ain’t called me?” I asked, watching embarrassment flash through her features. I hoped she didn’t think I was gonna stand here and act like I didn’t know her.
“Oh, so you guys know one another already. Like that?” Jade’s nosy ass cut in while I peered at Selah, who had yet to speak.
“N-no we don’t. We, well, I me—” she stammered, but I put a stop to that for her.
“Yes the fuck we do. Selah and I are good friends.” I grinned, fucking with her.
“Oh, okay. Then I don’t have to do the secret matchmaker thing I was trying to do over here. As a matter of fact, I’ll walk off and let you two friends catch up.” She stepped back before moving away from us and going toward the table where Oden sat holding their son.
“I didn’t know you we?—”
“Course you wouldn’t have. We never talk about shit like that.” I shrugged.
“Because you always let me talk about only me, never leaving room for you to talk about yourself or this big ass family you belong to.” She glanced around the room then back at me.
A chortle escaped my lips. “Nothing to talk about. There’s a lot of these motherfuckers. And I see you’re finished with the big job you were stressing over last week.” Selah and I had talked off and on for the last month and a half, between my trainingschedule and her work schedule. This week had been more off, considering she had been working on this.
“Yes. Now I don’t know if I’m tired or relieved. I’m just glad it went off well.”
“You’re relieved and you did good. Shit, look right there.” I pointed at Romance sitting at the kids table with the other kids chowing on the white and royal blue iced cupcakes.
She laughed, genuine happiness living in her eyes. Baking was her life, that much I’d learned from talking to her over the last few weeks.
“Now I’m wondering what you have planned after this.”
“Absolutely nothing. Maybe some rest and a good me?—”
“Nah, come chill with me.”
“Chill with you?” she repeated.
“Yeah, when is your flight back?” I asked, lowkey uneasy with how entitled I felt to her business. I didn’t like getting too comfortable with people, especially not with how much my name was in the media and how much people felt entitled to my business.
“In the morning.”
“Cancel it and fly back with me.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because you want to.”
She didn’t respond but instead took another sip of her wine. I made her nervous, but I didn’t understand why. She had been around me too many times to be nervous.
“Since when you get timid around me, Selah baby?”
“I’m not timid.”
“Then tell me why you are so far over there and haven’t rejected what I said?”
“Because what you said was right, but the last thing I’m trying to do is rush into something when I haven’t fully closed the door on my last situation.”
“And I ain’t asking you to. We are friends, right?”
“The way you turn your lips up to grin lets me know you have something else in mind, but as long as lines are clear and you’re feeding me, I’ll indulge your requests.”
