“You was,” Syx said. “You was stressed as fuck. It was beautiful.”
I didn’t respond.
Just leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes.
The silence stretched between us.
Then Syx’s voice cut through, quieter now.
More serious.
“On some real shit, Amai,” he said. “What you trying to do with Alexis, knowing you got that other situation?”
I opened my eyes.
Looked at him.
He wasn’t grinning anymore.
“That’s my past,” I said.
“Bullshit,” Syx said. “Just because you ignore something don’t make it not real.”
I exhaled slowly.
“I know.”
“So, what you gonna do?”
“I can’t even begin to add that situation to my plate right now,” I said. “Especially when it’s a non-factor.”
“A non-factor?” Syx raised an eyebrow. “Amai?—”
“I haven’t heard from her in months,” I said, cutting him off.
“Shit about to hit the fan, and you acting blind and shit,” he stood up and shook his head. “I’m going to bed.”
“Take your meds.”
“Aight.”
Syx shook his head but didn’t push it further. He knew when I was done talking about something.
I stood, needing to move, needing to get away from the weight of the evening and the mess I’d created by inviting Alexis into my space. By letting her think there was room for her in a life that was already too complicated.
“I’m heading to the office,” I said.
“It’s almost midnight, cuz.”
“I know.”
I grabbed my keys and left before he could say anything else.
The drive downtown was quiet. The city at night had a different rhythm—slower, more honest. Less pretense. I took the elevator up to the forty-second floor and walked into my office, the floor-to-ceiling windows showing me the skyline stretched out like a kingdom I’d built brick by brick.
I sat at my desk and tried to work.
Tried to focus on the reports Priest had left—territory updates, shipment confirmations, the usual machinery of my operation. But my mind kept drifting. To Truth. To the procedure that was supposed to happen today. To the fact that I didn’t know if it had gone well or if something had gone wrong.
