“Yeah, I’m straight.” I lied. I was tired of discussing my failed marriage. Plus, Huncho was cool, but he wasn’t my friend, Hymn was. I wasn’t about to stand out there and pour my heart out to him.
Hymn walked out onto the balcony and placed one arm around my shoulder. “Oh shit, why you out here? You smoking? I’m gon’ have to watch yo’ ass tonight.”
“Don’t watch me watch the strippers. I’m for sure cracking on something tonight. It’s been too long. London filed for divorce, and I’m not about to keep dealing with blue balls.” What a hell of a way to announce the fact that I was getting divorced. Hymn removed his arm.
“Damn homie. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Man,” I waved him off as Huncho passed me the blunt. “I’m good. I will be good. Tonight is about you and Brion. Fuck what I got going on.”
Hymn eyed me skeptically, but I ignored the empathetic glare and pulled more smoke into my lungs. Shit would be what it was. I would never ask Hymn if his fiancée went both ways, but the strippers she picked were top-tier. They were all bad as fuck. At one point, Hymn even facetimed her, so she could see the stripper giving him a lap dance. I remembered those days. The fun and spontaneous ones.
Every time a disheartening thought invaded my mental, I took a shot. By the time the caterers came back to clean up, I was at least six shots in and starting to feel like it. I watched Alandra like a creep for a little bit while she moved around the room cleaning up until she finally looked up at me.
“Why are you staring?’ she asked in a nonconfrontational tone.
“You hate me?” I concentrated on speaking clearly and not slurring my words because I was wasted.
“Hate you? No. What transpired between us was a long time ago. We were young, and you found your person. It wasn’t me. What’s the point of being angry?”
“You single?” my eyes roamed over her freckle covered face. Alandra’s brows hiked.
“I am, but you’re not.”
“Oh, you don’t read the blogs, huh? Good shit. I’m getting a divorce. My wife left me months ago and got her own place. She had me served a few days ago. We’re done.” Even as I spoke the words, my chest tightened. Alandra shook her head as I grabbed a bottle of tequila.
“So, you think years later, I still want to be on a back-and-forth roller coaster with you?”
“Who said anything about a back-and-forth roller coaster?” I frowned. “We know one another very well and have history. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes if you were taken, but us catching up and having a conversation is back and forth?”
Alandra rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we’ll catch up and converse until it leads to something else and then you and London will suddenly work things out and get back together, and I’ll once again be the one looking dumb.”
I poured a shot glass full of tequila and drank it without flinching. “Forget I said anything, Alandra. Have a good night.”
Shit, maybe I should hit up Miamor or Jenette’s thirsty asses. At least they knew what it was and didn’t come with the extra shit. I wasn’t getting my wife back so fuck it. I wasn’t going to sleep without busting a nut.
CHAPTER 8
HUNCHO
After leavingmy last class of the day. I sat in my car staring at all the students walking from building to building or from the buildings to the parking lot. I must have sat there and stared for at least twenty minutes. That morning when I woke up, my calf muscles were so stiff, I could barely walk. It felt as if I’d had the worst muscle cramps of my life, and I was feeling the aftermath of the spasms. This fuck ass autoimmune disorder was starting to piss me off. Yeah, I got kicked out of school, but I could pray for a miracle, and a miracle would have been getting picked up by an overseas team.
The worst thing that could happen to me would be if a team reached out to me, and I told them I couldn’t play because of this syndrome shit. Every time I got angry about my situation, it made me want to drink alcohol, and I’d been drinking way too much lately. I saw how being an addict had ruined my mother’s life, and I didn’t want that for me. But my life would pretty much be ruined anyway if I woke up numerous days out of the month swollen, stiff, or in pain. The job I had working on Hymn’s houses was a physical one. If I had a flare up from the slightest bout of physical exertion that would make for a lame ass life moving forward.
My mom had been calling me since she got released from rehab. She was staying with my grandmother and wanted me to come see her. I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t grasp the concept that she was expecting too much too fast. We weren’t like that. It might hurt her but shit, it hurt me when she wasn’t around. She’d have to get over it like I did. Finally, I started the car. I had finished work on both Hymn’s properties, and I actually wanted to buy my own property to flip. I hadn’t mentioned it to Hymn because he’d just give me the money to buy the house, and I didn’t want that. I wanted to get it on my own. I had money saved but not enough to buy a property that was anything more than $30,000. If I did find one that cheap it would need an insane amount of work done to it. Whatever I ended up selling a property for, I wanted at least a $100,000 profit.
If I didn’t want Hymn to get the property for me, the fastest way to get it on my own would be going to a bank and getting a loan. My credit was good, and I had a job that I earned great money from. I didn’t see why I wouldn’t be able to get a loan. If that failed, I’d let Hymn give me the money but only under the condition that he let me pay him back. Impulsively, I grabbed my phone and went to the contacts. The number I was about to call was random as hell, and I wasn’t even sure why I was doing it. Maybe because she acted as if she cared.
“Hello?”
“You busy?” I pulled out of the parking space I’d been in.
“No, I just got finished filming a YouTube video. I’m starting a baking channel. What’s up?”
Her news made my ears perk up like a nosey ass dog. “Word? What you baking over there?”
“I did apple cobbler.”
“Damnnnnnn,” I drawled. “You got some more left?”
