“Youreally,reallywanna know?”
I huff, rolling my eyes. “Yes, dang.”
He smiles and shrugs. “I found this pretty girl in my kitchen…”
His eyes follow a random bluebird soaring from a small shrub in his yard while I hang on to his every word and try to picture this mystery girl.
“She was about yea high.” He moves his hand above his taut stomach to demonstrate. “Brown skinned… curly hair… dimples…nosier than a motherfucka.”
He looks over at me. “I snuck up on her while she was digging in my cabinets and she clocked me right in my shit ‘cause she couldn’t stab me with a fork.”
He taps the side of his face with a balled fist and clicks his tongue. “A nigga ain’t been the same since. She fucked me all up.”
I choke out a low giggle, looking away from him again. “You’re really annoying.”
Hereallyisn’t.
He’s just flirting despite complimenting my “engagement ring,” and Lord knows my body can’t take it. There’s even this weird heaviness that sneaks up on me as my middle pulsates again.
“So what about you?” he asks.
“What about me?” I glance down at my dangling legs.
“What happened to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Who taught you to be so scared of?—”
“Go show him!” somebody yells in the distance. “Go!”
The neighborhood dog rounds the corner of the house with a woman on its heels. His loud bark echoes through the quiet morning air.
Rich groans and lifts his body, and I want to groan too because he was about to ask another deliciously bold question.
The woman drags a boy behind her by his shirt’s collar, and the dog lets out another ear-piercing bark as they get closer, like he can sense the urgency of whatever’s going on.
“Here.” Rich hands me his smoothie, but keeps his blunt.
I frown and take it.
“Stay right here,” he mutters, sliding off the back of his truck and sauntering toward her and the bleeding boy.
Even if he wasn’t floating, I don’t think he would’ve walked any faster. He moves as if they always came spinning into his backyard like a tornado. As soon as he gets close to them, the woman squeals out a “See! I told you!” She tugs the boy in front of her wide hips and lets go of his collar.
She has the body I used to beg God for—wide hips, a huge ass, full breasts, and a nice bronzy caramel tone. She’s so curvy that she fills out every inch of the tight maxi dress she’s wearing. She has all thethingsAJ loves in his other woman. Terrica always swore women like her were his real type.
I can’t see Rich’s face, but I want to. I want to see how he looks at her so I can see if she’s his, even though it doesn’t matter. Me and him will never see each other again after today.
The woman cranes her neck to get a better look at me curled in the bed of his truck. She frowns as he nudges her back at the waist, and I get it.
This doesn’t look right.
What if sheishis and here I am sitting in the back of his truck like some side chick while he’s half naked? What if that’s his kid?
Rich mutters something I can’t make out, and the woman stops mean-mugging me to shove the boy toward him. “I told you I want you to show him how to defend himself.”
The boy can’t be a day older than six or seven. He’s nothing but a baby, but apparently she doesn’t think so.
