Tasha stared at me hard, and for a second neither one of us said nothing. We had been friends too long for everything between us to need words anyway. She knew when I was scared, angry, embarrassed, or trying to hold myself together by a thread even if I never admitted it out loud.
“I’m serious,” she said quietly. “You can stay with me.”
“I know, stop telling me that.” I frowned.
“You don’t deserve this.”
My eyes started watering again, but I blinked it away fast because I was not about to cry in this living room with Rome ten feet away acting like none of this mattered. “I know,” I repeated softer this time.
From the kitchen, Rome sucked his teeth. “Y’all done?”
Tasha shot him another nasty look. “Nobody talking to you.”
“I’m just saying. You in my house yelling early as hell like we on a damn reality show, go home.”
“Cause you beat on women!” She snapped.
Rome leaned against the counter completely unfazed biting into an apple with his gold teeth shining. “Ain’t nobody beat on her.”
Tasha laughed in disbelief. “You know what? I really can’t stand men like you.”
“And I can’t stand loud ass females who don’t know how to mind they business.” He winked. “We even.”
“This is my business!” she snapped. “That’s my best friend!”
I stepped between them before this turned into a whole screaming match. “Tash,” I said. “It’s cool.”
She looked at me and I looked back at her. Right there in that moment, without saying it out loud, I tried to tell her with my eyes what I couldn’t say in front of him.I’m good girl, not good-good but calm down. Please stop pushing right now, I got this.Tasha stared at me for another second, reading everything all over my face the way only somebody who really knew me could. Her expression relaxed just a little, but I could still see the anger in her eyes.
“You sure?” she asked searching my eyes. “It is not okay to let a motherfucker pound on you.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Girl, this is not ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’,” I told her. We were little girls sitting in the living room watching that movie with my grandma years ago and now here she was quoting it. I once again assured her I was good, because I needed her to leave before Rome’s mood changed again. Behind us, Rome walked into the living room smelling like weed and cologne while acting like he hadn’t terrorized me less than twelve hours ago.
“I told you she fine,” he said again. “Y’all making this bigger than what it is.”
Tasha looked him dead in his face. “One day somebody gone kill you behind playing with women like this.”
Rome smirked. “Ain’t nobody worried about all that. You know what’s up with me. I’m the same one who protected ya’ll from every fucked-up nigga in your past.”
“Tash,” I warned again.
She let out a frustrated sigh before grabbing my hand and pulling me a little closer toward the front door. “If you need me, call me,” she said low enough so Rome couldn’t hear. “I don’t care if it’s three in the morning and stop worrying about that damn money right now.”
Shit, that money still hurt. Of course I could make more, but it was the principle. Rome wanted me trapped. He wanted me depending on him long enough to stop trying to leave altogether. Whole time all he was really doing was making me hate him more. Tasha squeezed my hand once before letting it go, but before she could move away, Rome’s voice came from right behind me.
“You staying or you leaving?” he causally asked, like nothing had happened.
I slowly turned around to look at him and the calmness on his face aggravated me more than the bruise throbbing across my cheek because that man really knew how to stand there pretending everything was normal after turning my whole world upside down. For a second, I just stared at him.
“I guess I’m staying,” I rolled my eyes.
Tasha made a noise behind me like she couldn’t believe what she had just heard, but I didn’t stop walking. I headed straight for the stairs, with my emotions all over the place. I could feel both of them watching me while I climbed up each step, but I honestly didn’t have the energy to deal with either one of them anymore.
“Navy,” Tasha called after me.
“I’m good,” I lied without turning around.
“You don’t look good.”
