I knew I technically couldn’t blame him for me falling in the pool, but I could blame him for being in my space.
“So, did he push you or did your clumsy ass fall?” she asked for clarity.
“I fell, but it’s not like he tried to save me or anything!”
“Would you have wanted him to?” she quizzed.
“Hell no!” I barked.
It was safer to hate him, to hate all men. Anything with a dick and balls, really. I didn’t discriminate.
“Exactly, so what you complaining for?”
“Because I don’t want to share my space with that nigga for the rest of the week!” I whined.
“I get it, girl, but don’t be too hard on him.”
“Why not? He was always a dick to me, and you know it!”
Lauryn let out a soft chuckle. “Your ass wasn’t nothin’ nice either, bitch. Don’t front.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“But nah, Cass, I’m serious. Go easy on him. He’s been through a lot lately.”
“Girl, bye. Like what? What could be so wrong in his perfect little world?”
“Well, for one—you know he’s coming off that injury that took him out of the finals, and two, I know you heard about that nigga gettin’ traded.”
My lips downturned. “I knew about his knee, but I didn’t hear the bit about the trade. But, I mean—it’s not like he got fired, right? He’s a ball player. Those niggas get traded like Pokémon cards all time.”
She snickered. “Yeah, but the way he found out about the trade was embarrassing as hell. TMZ caught him coming out of physical therapy and started bombarding him with questions about how he felt about being traded to one of the worst teams in the league before the Mambas even got a chance to call and tell him personally.”
“Oh shit,” I mumbled, sinking further into the cool bath water.
“Yeah, Mark said they talked not too long after it happened and he was pretty fucked-up about it.”
“Damn, really?”
“Um, ball is that nigga’s life, Cass. You know that.”
I kissed my teeth and mumbled, “Fuck.”
Lauryn’s words made me quickly realize what I’d said to him earlier was condescending. The emotional salvage yard that was once my heart had me talking savage as fuck and acting completely out of my character. I never had a problem putting him in his place, but I would’ve never kicked him if I’d known he was already down.
“What?” Lauryn asked.
“Ugh,” I groaned, “I might’ve said something about how it didn’t require a lot of brainpower to play basketball to him during an argument when we were checking in.”
“Cass!”
“I know! I’m sorry, I didn’t know, and I was just so damn mad at the time, I just said whatever was on my mind.”
“You need to go and apologize to that man!”
“I’d honestly rather just come to your villa and chill for a bit,” I said, trying to change subjects.
“Girl, listen, we are stillso tired. We got off the plane and got here and took showers and a nap, and we are still in this comfortable ass bed.”
