“Yeah. I remember you now.” His smile was wide as he rubbed his palms together and took a step back. “The glasses and hair threw me off, but yeah. I remember you.” I smiled so hard my cheeks almost touched my eyes as he continued. “I remember I went to the mall with Mike, and you were there with some skinny, light skinned girl.
“We kinda followed y’all around that day. When the mall was about to close, you tried to convince her to ride the merry-go-round, but she didn’t want to. While she and Mike talked at the food court, I decided to ride it with you.”
Clutching my chest, I picked up the memory. “All this time, I thought that was random. You just . . . sat down and didn’t say anything.” Giggling, I shook my head. “I was so nervous, I held my breath almost the whole time. You were so close, so warm, and you smelled so good. That moment made my night. I couldn’t stop talking about it after we left the mall.”
Our eyes remained locked until scratching on the door gained our attention.
Gremlin.
“I’m not going to call the police on you, but no interview,” he said softly.
“I’m going to gain your trust,” I told him. “It’s just going to take some time.”
“I don’t want to trust you.”
“Too bad. You don’t have a choice. Now that I know you remember me, I’mdefinitelycoming back.”
Ali chuckled and shook his head as he tossed the branch and headed toward his front door. Excitement was about to explode from the pit of my belly as I got in my car. As soon as I closed the door behind me, I squealed and shimmied in my seat.
Yay.
He remembered me.
5
Ali
After closing my high school yearbook, I called Mike. Though we didn’t hang out as much as we used to, he was still my oldest friend. High school and college was a wild time for the both of us, but when we graduated, our priorities shifted. While I lost myself in my career, he settled down and started a family. We both left Memphis, but he resided in Rose Valley Hills with his wife and their three kids. A part of me wished I had the wife and children version of life that a lot of my friends had, but my career fulfilled me in a way that left me satisfied.
“Wassup, nigga?” Mike greeted before yelling for his youngest son to stop running around the pool.
I chuckled before asking, “Where the hell y’all at?”
Mike sucked his teeth. “At Toya’s sister house. You know they couldn’twaitto come over here since her complex has the indoor pool. As soon as it hit eighty degrees, they were ready to come swim.”
That made me laugh because I could already hear them harassing Mike and Toya about swimming as soon as the weather allowed.
“I ain’t gon’ hold you. I just had to tell you about who pulled up on me.”
“Who? You finally remembered where you knew the girl from yesterday from?”
“Yeah. She came back today and reminded me. It was the lil shorty from school. The one I used to watch in gym and ride the wrong bus to follow home.”
“Ohhh word? Lil Peanut Butter?”
His recollection made me laugh as I nodded my agreement. “Hell yeah. Her.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t recognize her right away as crazy as you were about her.”
“Yeah, well, the glasses threw me off. I couldn’t really see her eyes. And her hair is shorter and curly now. You know back in the day she used to have it either in that bun or flat ironed straight.”
“Yeah, yeah. I remember for sure. Damn. Not the OG putting your wife right at your door since your ass refuse to leave the house.”
Now that got a hearty laugh out of me. “Nah it ain’t even like that. You know I ain’t dating right now, and I for damn sure won’t be dating another journalist again.”
Mike sighed. “Here you go. What Tiffany did was fucked up, but everybody ain’t that scandalous.”
“Don’t matter. I vowed to never date a journalist again, and I’m standing firm on that shit. I’ma let you go though so you can enjoy the family.”
