“I said it was a goddamn safety hazard!” I roared. I took a sharp breath, looking down at her, entirely pushed past my limit. “For a woman who’s so damn smart, you really are acting incredibly foolish.”
The kitchen went dead silent.
Alyssa stepped back, pointing a steady, trembling finger toward the front door. “You’re not gonna keep insulting me, Julian! You know what?Leave. Just… go!”
“Gladly.”
I grabbed my phone off the counter, bypassed the Genesis keys completely, and didn't look at her as I walked past. I snatched my shoes from beside the door, jamming my feet into them.
I gripped the doorknob, pulling it open, but the raw, ungrateful sting of the last twenty minutes burned too hot inside. I stopped at the threshold, didn't turn around to face her, but I let my voice carry into the quiet condo.
“A simple 'thank you' would have been acceptable.” I scoffed again, stepped out into the hallway, and slammed the door behind me so hard the wall vibrated.
The next day,the Genesis was still sitting in her spot. I didn't text her. She didn't text me. The silence between my penthouse and her condo had taken on a heavy, physical mass.
I went to the office needing to think. I texted Tre and Zion.
Where y’all at?
ZION
Studio.
I’m coming through
TRE
Bring some food then. I’m starving.
Studio B wasdark except for the glow of the soundboard. Zion was slumped low on the leather sofa; Tre leaned against the high-top, nursing a stout. I gave them the rundown, and Tre was mid-rant before I had my jacket off.
“I’m just saying.” He set his bottle down. “You buy the woman a flawless, top-tier vehicle and she blows up on you? That’s a six-figure statement of devotion. It’s ungrateful. Women are a complete trip when you try to do right by them.”
“It’s not about the car, Tre.” Zion didn’t move from the sofa. “Jules, you put your foot to the gas. Y’all become a couple and your first reflex is maximum scale. She probably needs to feel like she’s got a voice in her own life.”
“I didn’t know I needed to hold a committee meeting to give a damn gift.” The irritation came back up my spine. “This the part of a relationship nobody advertises? Irrational BS?”
“Exactly,” Tre said. “Straight bullshit. Zion want you all Zen and patient and shit. Everybody ain’t built for that, Z.”
Zion ignored him, which was the only way to handle Tre. “I’m not saying she was right in how she came at you. I don’t know her like that. But I knowyou.” He sat forward. “Every woman before her wanted what you had. All of them. And you gave it, because it was easy and it didn’t cost you anything. You handed over your wallet because your wallet was safe and easy.Youwere never the thing to offer.”
I didn’t answer that.
“Now you’ve got one who got past the part you give everybody and found the part you don’t give anybody, andthat’sthe part she wants. So when you tried to hand her your wallet and she threw it back, it feels like her not wanting you. But I’d put money on it having almost nothing to do with you.”
He was right, but I wasn’t going to say so. Zion dealt in feeling, though. He could tell me what the problem looked like from the outside. He couldn’t tell me what was underneath it. Only one person in the building could, and he’d married my sister.
“Raschad here?”
“Tracking vocals in B2, last I checked.” Zion’s brow went up. “Why?—”
I was already moving. Behind me Tre started in, “You stay acting like you Zion Vanzant or some shit, man. Sick of it,” and Zion saying something about how between the two of them, he was glad one of them had some sense. I let the door cut them off.
B2 was smaller, the booth glassed off in the back. Raschad had his headphones around his neck, scrubbing a take on the screen. He looked up when I came in and read my face in about a second.
“Heard you bought Alyssa a Genesis. Didn’t go well, huh?” He pulled the headphones off and set them down.
“She complain to you?”
