“Rich,” she mutters. “I don’t…I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“You don’t think what’s a good idea?”
She wraps her arms around her middle, avoiding my gaze.
“You don’t thinkwhat’sa good idea, Faye?” I ask again.
I swear I see the tug of war happening with her heart in real time. Kenny’s on one side and Senior’s on the other.
“You should come back tomorrow,” she mumbles.
I shake my head, fighting with that part of my brain Slim unlocked where wild thoughts run rampant. They cloud my judgement and convince me that spending another night without her is impossible.
“I can’t do that. I ain’t leaving here without her.”
Kenny pats his pockets. “I’m calling the laws. Enough is enough. He needs to get off my porch.”
Faye sucks in a loud gasp when he pulls his phone out of his pocket. “You doing what? Have you lost your mind?”
“Nah. You’ve clearly lost yours over these past two months!” He swipes his finger across the screen with furrowed eyebrows.
She reaches out, snatching the phone from his grasp before he can press the first number. “The cops, Kenny? You’re gonna call the cops onRich?”
“I want him gone!”
She croaks out, “But it’s…it’s Rich. It’s?—”
“Senior’s son. Notmyson. He ain’t no kin to me.”
She cuts her eyes at me like she wants me to beg for a place in his life and at that gym.
“Let him call ‘em, Faye.” I swipe my nose, shrugging. “When they get here, they can help Lovie move her stuff to my truckafter they decide I ain’t doing nothing wrong by coming to pick up my significant other from her people’s house, just like she asked me to do.”
She shakes her head. “Don’t do this.”
“I don’t care about you, Kenny, or boxing right now. Gimme my baby so I can go home, Faye. I’m tired of all this back-and-forth shit. I’m tired of running.”
“How is this gonna solve our problem, Rich?How?This drama ain’t gonna pay this two million dollar debt we owe,” she blurts. “What about our plan?”
Kenny’s eyes grow. “Two million dollars? What plan?”
“C’mon, Faye. That wasyourplan.” I scoff.
Kenny flings his head back.
“How much longer you gon’ live like this?” I ask.
Kenny folds his arms against his beefy chest. “Yeah.C’mon, Faye.How much longer?”
She looks up and eyes the top of the porch like she’s trying to convince God to help her get out of this, but growing up she always said God wasn’t no genie that gave us what we wanted as soon as we wanted it. Faith didn’t work like that.
Kenny chuckles sarcastically, shaking his head. “You don’t have an answer for me? For your husband? For the man you took an oath with under God?”
“Ken I…I?—”
“Answer me! What two million dollars is he talking about? What plan does he know about that I don’t?”
Tears stream down her face while she balls her lips together.
