As soon as I hit send, I place the phone down on my kitchen counter and pace back and forth.
My cellphone rings. I answered the FaceTime call and set the device up against the toaster. Jada appears on the screen. She’s on her treadmill running.
“Hey gorgeous,” she sings, slightly out of breath. “I was waiting for you to call me once you got in last night. You better be glad I saw you were home safe.”
Before I could respond, two other boxes popped up on the screen. Pam is sitting at her vanity with a mask on her face and rollers in her hair. Kyra is lying across her bed with a bonnet on.
“Hey, ladies!” Kyra sings.
“Morning, baby girl.” Jada greets.
“How’s my baby doing this morning?” Pam asks.
“She’s sleeping in,” Kyra pans the phone over to her sweet baby girl knocked out in her bed wearing a matching bonnet.
The last two boxes appear. Meagan is in her kitchen cooking pancakes while Destiny is outside on her balcony with a cup of coffee in her hands.
“Morning!” Meagan greets.
“Morning,” we all say at the same time.
“So, Ella, what’s up? Why do you have us all on the phone this morning?” Jada starts the discussion.
I stop pacing, stare into the phone with my bottom lip between my teeth.
“I had sex last night,” I blurt out.
Jada nearly loses her footing on the treadmill. Destiny chokes on her coffee. Meagan drops the pancake she was flipping while Pam and Kyra look shocked.
Jada turns her machine off and wipes at her face. “Wait, you and the dentist?”
I cringe at the mention of the dentist. “Eeeewww, no. That date was horrible.”
Kyra sits up in bed. “Wait, then who did you sleep with?”
“Ella,” Pam groans, pinching her brow. “Please don’t tell me it was your ex.”
“I swear if it was, I’m coming over there and beating your ass,” Jada places her hands on her hips and stares at me through the screen.
I chuckle. “No, it wasn’t Andrew.”
“Girl, then who?” Meagan asks, plating a pancake.
I open my mouth to say his name, but stop. Did I really want to tell them this? I love these ladies and I know they wouldn’t rat me out, but a part of me wanted to keep this to myself. What if they judged me? It’s not like Mitch was a real contender to date. And the whole point of this is to find someone I can date and take to the wedding.
“An old friend,” I finally say.
I’m met by silence from all the ladies.
“An old friend?” Pam repeats.
“Yeah.” I nod my head. “After the date, I ran into him and we kind of connected.”
I felt bad about lying, but this was for the best.
There is another moment of silence.
“Does the old friend have a name?” Jada asks with one brow raised.
