His one-word, dry response made Ron glance his way. Nyesha’s lips pursed with a slight smirk.
“That’s unfortunate,” she mumbled.
“She know you out?” Ron asked.
Najee didn’t answer right away. He rubbed the back of his neck, exhaling through his nose.
“Nah. Figured I’d pop up on her.”
“Mm.” That was all Ron offered.
It was one of thosemm’sthat said a whole lot without saying anything. Najee knew he wanted to say more but was glad he didn’t. Saying more would’ve forced him to confront what he’d been pushing to the back of his mind. Renae’s energy had been off for months now, and though he tried not to be the overthinking type, jail didn’t give him much else to do but sit and analyze everything.
Now that he was out, he needed answers. He needed to look her in the eye and see if the shift he’d felt was real or if he was just tripping.
“That’ll be your best bet. She’s been acting funny with me, but you know we were never really close, so I don’t know why I expected anything different,” Nyesha said, rolling her eyes.
Najee studied her for a second. The subtle tension in her jaw said more than her words did. “What she been on with you?”
“Nothing really. Whenever I would reach out to check on her or see if she needed anything, she would be really dry. Not mean, just sarcastically polite and you know I peeped that,” Nyesha explained, shrugging.
Not only that, but she posted some questionable Facebook statuses that had Nyesha looking at her sideways. If she didn’t want to be with her brother anymore, that’s all she had to say.
Najee sucked his teeth, shaking his head. “I ain’t know all that.”
“You wouldn’t. I never said anything ‘cause it wasn’t my place,” she said, eyes meeting his. “Plus, I ain’t want it to sound like I was hating.”
“You not hatin’, though,” Najee replied. “You lookin’ out.”
“True. That’s your woman, though, so I stay out of y’all’s business. Anyway, hopefully she kept y’all’s house intact. I have some of your mail and stuff.”
Najee nodded but didn’t respond right away. He was stuck on the fact that Renae hadn’t only been moving weirdly with him, but his family, too. He thought she was just going through the motions when she barely answered his calls. She then made the excuse that she had been busy and hadn’t seen her phone ringing. There were only so many times Najee had let that lie slide. Acting like she couldn’t find the time to speak to the man who still provided from a cell was bullshit.
He recalled how consistent she used to be. How consistent and firm her love for him was. The slightest switch-up wasn’t hard to catch. Ever the observant, Najee hadn’t missed a thing. He wanted to believe that she was just going through it too, but now he knew it was more, and he had every intention to figure out what.
“It’s all good. I’ma figure out what’s up and move accordingly.”
“As you should. Just be ready for whatever you might find out,” Nyesha said. “She’s not the same girl you left out here, and you’re not the same man.”
Najee’s brows dipped, creasing his forehead. “What you mean by that?”
“I mean… jail changes people. We know that. Even though it was a year and some change, you grew up in there. And from what I’ve seen, she didn’t grow with you. Or chose not to grow with you. I’m not saying it can’t work, because it can. What I’m saying is don’t walk in expecting it to feel like it did before.”
He nodded slowly, fully understanding what she meant now.
“I feel you,” he said. “I just gotta see for myself.”
Nyesha gave him a half-smile. “Okay. Don’t let her talk circles around you either. You know how she can be. Real goodat flipping the narrative and making you feel like you’re the problem.”
He chuckled a little, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “Damn, Iyanla. You been peepin’ for real, huh?”
Nyesha chuckled. She was indeed trying to fix his life. “Always,” she said, tossing him a look that was part smug, part concerned. She never played when it came to him and would go to war with anyone about her brother. “I just didn’t say anything because I know that’s not what you wanted to hear in there.”
Najee didn’t really want to hear the shit now, but it was needed. It was the extra dose of reality that most people didn’t receive or chose to ignore. Both were costly. His mind was running wild with thoughts of what could’ve changed since he got locked up. Thinking the worst had never crossed his mind until recently. That’s not how he wanted to view Renae.
“I ’preciate that, sis. I’ll see you later on.”
She smiled brightly, knowing in some hours she’d be hugging him and no longer waiting for one of his collect calls.
