“Girl,youdon’t even believe that. Your brothers both have good ass jobs. But fuck all that. Let me ask you this. Since you fucking with Too Low stirred up all this confusion, then where is he now? You been staying with him?”
She sighed. “No. Me and him got into it. And…he went back to the girl he used to be with.”
“The girl? Who is that?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. You…you know how Too Low is. He’s secretive. Never lets the left hand know what the right is doing. So, I don’t know who the girl is. He made sure of that.”
Hearing that, I was about to rebut, saying that I always knew his moves when we were together, until I realized that was only what I thought was happening. In all actuality, Too Low was able to conceal his cheating, which means that I literally didn’t always know what he had going on, either.
“Well, that’s convenient for him to get mad suddenly. Don’t you think?”
Again, she breathed into the phone. “No. I just feel like every-body’s looking for somebody to blame. From my point of view, I know that my dealings with Too Low had nothing to do with nothing.
Me and that man rarely even discussed my brother. I never gave him no top-secret information. We was just fucking around. That’s it. And that didn’t put him in a position to do a fuck thang to Face.”
“If you say so—” I got out, before my line beeped.
Seeing that name flash across the screen in the truck, my lashes
futtered.
“What the fuck,” I grumbled. “Hey, Mattie, I gotta go. Let me catch this call.” I clicked over, without waiting for her response. “Hello?”
“Babi, you good? You alright?” Too Low questioned. I exhaled. “What do you want, Too Low?”
“Damn. You still mad about what happened back at the apartment?”
I rolled my eyes. “The disrespect was loud.”
“Right. And I sincerely want to apologize for that, Babi. Straight up. A nigga was really moving o" hurt, and that was petty of me.”
“O" hurt?”
“Fucking right. What, you didn’t think that I felt nothing?” “No,” I huffed. “I just don’t get it. Mattie is his sister or what-
ever, but that’s about it. Ion really feel no way about you having dealings with her. I was just wondering why it had to be at that apartment.”
“And I understand that. That’s why I’m apologizing.”
“Yeah,whatever.Let’snotforgethowsheexposedyourass.
Been fucking her all along, huh?” “Mannn,” he stressed. “There you go.”
“Nah, nah. Why don’t you stop the bullshit for once, and be honest?”
“Honest, huh? Okay,” he took a deep breath. “The truth is that…Ilovedyou.Fromthebeginning.ButI’dfindothergirls
attractive sometimes. I knew that I didn’t wanna risk losing you. So, I was careful. Never flirted with anybody you knew. Didn’t regularly step out. Just occasionally knocked somebody down. It was always purely sexual, and would only happen if I had a run-in with them, if I was already outside. Bitches didn’t even have my phone number…and I know now that’s the reason I lost you. Because I did that shit behind your back, knowing that I was wrong. It never sat right in my spirit. That had me insecure. Especially when I’d go to jail. Had me tripping with you, when you’d never given me a reason. So, in hindsight, I paid the ultimate price. I left you susceptible to looking elsewhere for the peace I couldn’t give.”
“Okay. I guess I can accept that,” I claimed.
“Right. Look, I know that I fucked up. Then you literally broke a nigga’s heart. I aint lying. Never imagined touching down, and not seeing you waiting outside of those gates. Was the most humbling experience of my life. Went from having the finest rider in the jailhouse to nothing.”
I gulped, recognizing the heaviness in his voice. “Ion know what to say. You know that I loved you.”
“I know,” he admitted. “Yet you been living your life with another man.”
“Yeah—”
