Page 12 of Cooly

I laughed. “You missed me and got nosy.”

She inhaled slowly, holding my gaze while the light at the tip glowed.

“Sometimes,” she admitted.

“I didn’t keep up with you,” I said.

She sucked her teeth. “You’re being mean now.”

“Not necessarily. It just hurt too much at first. I worked through it, though.”

Headlights cut through the dark before she could respond. A black SUV pulled up to the curb.

Diamond leaned out the window, her eyes scanning us.

"Y'all look like you've been through it," she said, her eyes trailing down to the bottles sitting beside us, a quarter gone from each. "Oh, you drunker than before?"

"Something like that, and no," I replied.

"Get in. I’m hungry."

Ayo stood first, brushing off her dress. I followed, grabbing the bottles from the steps.

The back seat of the SUV was warm, smelling like Diamond's expensive perfume and the faint hint of weed. She was in the front passenger seat and twisted around to look at us.

"So," she said, her voice dripping with curiosity. "Y'all catch up good?"

"Good enough," I said.

Ayo just smiled, saying nothing.

Diamond's eyes flicked between us.

"Uh-huh. I'ma need details later." She turned back to the driver. "Let's go."

The weed and whiskey had Ayo loose in the seat, her head tilted against the window, watching the streetlights blur past. I could see her thinking, chewing on her bottom lip the same way she used to in college when she was about to say something she knew would annoy me.

"Y'all still treating y'all relationship like a friendly fuck?" she asked, her voice slightly slurred.

Diamond whipped her head around, eyebrows raised. "Here she go."

"I'm just asking." Ayo shrugged, but there was an edge beneath the casualness. "It's been years. Y'all still doing that? Or did you finally figure out that ain't how normal friends act?"

I leaned back in the seat, letting out a slow breath. "We ain't done that in months. She's married now. Her and Malik closed their shit. They official."

Ayo hummed, something unreadable in her voice. "Interesting. So she settled down? No more free pussy for you."

"Damn, Ayo," Diamond cut in. "You really gonna do this right now?"

"I'm just trying to understand from before." Ayo turned to look at me. "Because when we were together, she was always around. Always in your face. Always had some reason to call you at two in the morning. And I asked about it. Remember? And you said y'all were just friends.”

I remembered. The arguments. The way she'd get quiet and tight-lipped whenever Diamond's name came up.

"I told you then. We weren't fucking when me and you were together. She was just a friend.”

"Friends who fuck each other when they're bored?"

"Ayo—" I warned.