The room dropped into a dim glow from the city leaking through the curtains. The kind of light that don’t help you sleep,it just reminded me the world was still moving while mine was falling apart.
Bully dropped onto the other bed, and I heard him fumbling with his phone, probably telling the whole hood about me.
My head was pounding, not just from the fight, but from the bottle and everything I was thinking about.
I closed my eyes tighter, but sleep wasn’t coming easy. Every time I drifted, I saw the same thing. Islah walking away from me and living her life with me not being a part of it.
I drifted off to sleep, telling myself that the next day was gonna end all the bullshit.
When I woke up the next morning, Bully was tapping my foot.
“Get your shit together nigga, she wants to meet early. She’s got some shit to do.”
I nodded. To me that didn’t sound like somebody who was leaving with me, but I didn’t speak on it.
I hopped in the shower, putting my face under the water and backing up quick, forgetting it was fucked up.
That water stung the shit outta my face. I hurried up and washed my body with the hotel soap, hopped out, and got dressed.
I didn’t have much with me, and damn sure didn’t have money to shop with, but you could never go wrong with a white tee, jeans, and some Timbs, no matter what the weather was.
While I waited for Bully to get dressed, I looked up Islah’s page and saw her tagging that nigga in pictures with a kid, talking about her stepson.
“Her stepson!” I blurted out.
She was really creating a whole family out here, and in her smile, I didn’t see no cracks in that changing.
But I didn’t give a fuck, I was still gonna try.
It felt like Bully took forever in the bathroom, but once he was done, we walked straight outta the room. Bully was talking to Islah about the place, the time, the parking, and wouldn’t let me say shit to her. I just followed that nigga like he was my damn daddy.
We pulled up to a lil’ café not far from the hotel and walked inside without Bully sayin’ a word to me. We grabbed a table in the back overlooking the whole shop and waited for her to show up.
“Where did she say she was?” I asked Bully.
“She’s coming, she was at something with her girls. She should be walking through the door any minute,” he responded.
Two, five, ten minutes passed, and just when I was about to tell him to call her, the door opened, and she walked through the door.
She looked so damn good, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was wearing a sundress that was flowy and stopped at her ankles. Her heels peeked through it. She brushed her hair outta her face as she walked toward us, and the ring caught the light, shining it directly in my damn eyes.
Once she reached the table, we stood up. Islah hugged Bully with a huge smile, then looked at me and sat down.
Bully tried to hold back his laugh, but couldn’t as we joined her sitting down, and she exhaled.
“Listen,” she said, staring at me harder. “What the fuck happened to you?”
I smirked. “Love…”
She leaned in. “Love did that to you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I was outside your job bringing?—”
“You were outside my job?” she repeated, cutting me off. “See, nah, I don’t need to hear any more. Gio, I came here to tell you to leave me alone. Me and you is over, and I’m not coming back.”
“What the fuck you mean?” I shot back. “Islah, we’re supposed to be together, we’re supposed to fix this shit.”
She shook her head. “No, we’re not, Gio. I moved on, and you are supposed to let me go in peace. Try to be happy for me.”
