“Come on. Let me put you in another Uber. I got somewhere to be.” He steps away from me, turning around and swaggering back over to the ropes.
“Wait. But where’re you going after this?” I blurt out.
He raises his eyebrows. “Out.”
“To celebrate your birthday?”
“Nah…just out.”
“But I thought you didn’t have any friends?”
“I don’t.”
“So where’re you going then?”
“Damn,you nosy.” He lifts the ropes, waving me toward him. “I said I ain’t have no friends—I ain’t say I was a shut-in.”
I let out a giggle.
He rolls his eyes, smirking. “What, you want me to be lonely or something?”
“No, I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, actually.”
He looks back over at me with one of those questions forming on his face. “You lonely, Slim?”
I cross my arms, avoiding his gaze.
For the first time since I stepped foot inside the gym, that mucky feeling slithers back up my body.
“Yeah,” I mutter.
He lets a low snort and keeps his eyes on me while holding the ropes open. “Why you don’t wanna fuck with your friend? The braider. What she do to you?”
I clear another hunk of mucus from the back of my throat. “What ifIdid something to her?”
He shakes his head. “If you did, you ain’t mean to do it.”
“I’m…I’m not what you think I am.”
“What do I think you are?”
Innocent.
Without blame.
“A nice girl…”
“‘Cause you are. Now what could a nice girl like you do to her?”
“I went back on my word too many times, and when you do that, people stop trusting you,” I mutter, waiting for the judgment to cover his face like it did Terrica’s.
I don’t know why. This is the same man who’s friends with benefits with a married woman, the same man who even Terrica was afraid to get involved with. He’s the man who’s crazy enough to fight other crazy men for a living.
He shrugs. “Why you give a fuck about other folks trusting you? The only person you should trust is yourself.”
“I’d expect that response from somebody with no friends.”
“Friends get you in trouble. The quicker you learn that, the better off you’ll be.”
