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“And you. Get your ass away from my door.”

He looked at Chalis.

I laughed. “Why the fuck you looking at him? I’m talking to you.”

He moved.

“Thank you.” I brought my attention back to Chalis. “Now, you got thirty seconds to tell me why the fuck you’re in my crib.”

He scoffed. “Thirty seconds?”

“Thirty,” I confirmed. “And that’s a damn generous amount of time considering you already wasted enough of my mothafuckin’ night.” I lowered my gun slightly but kept it in my hand. “Now talk, nigga.”

Chalis stared at me. “You know why I’m here, nigga.”

I shook my head. “Nah, I don’t.”

He looked irritated, which only made me smile.

“I mean, I got a clue, but I don’t wanna just throw shit out there and hurt your feelings if I’m wrong.”

One of his boys let out a quiet laugh, and Chalis immediately shot him a look.

I checked my watch again. “Twenty seconds. And hurry the fuck up. Me and my lady got plans tonight, and she hates tardiness.” I paused long enough for a smile to spread across my face. “Well, shit. You should know that.”

Chalis’s jaw tightened. “That’s exactly what the fuck I’m here for.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Lakelyn.”

For a second, I just stared at him. Then I started laughing, and I wasn’t talking about some little chuckle either. I laughed so fucking hard I had to shake my head because out of every reason I had imagined for this nigga coming into my house shooting, that had not been high on the list.

“Oh, shit. You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.”

Chalis’s expression hardened. “What the fuck so funny?”

“Nigga, I thought you was here on some business shit!” I laughed again. “I mean, I know one of my guys roughed one of your boys up here recently, so for a second I thought maybe you came to cry about that. But shit, maybe you should’ve told your boy not to fuck with money that didn’t belong to him. I don’t play about my money, and I damn sure don’t play about a nigga reaching into pockets he ain’t help fill.” I shook my head, still amused. “Here I am thinking somebody got a real problem with me, and you came all the way over here because you still crying over Lakelyn?”

He didn’t answer.

I looked toward his friends. “Y’all knew this was what the fuck he was bringing y’all over here for?”

Nobody said anything.

I shook my head. “Goddamn. That’s embarrassing. Three grown-ass men pulled up armed because this nigga can’t accept that his ex moved on. Y’all ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

I finally lowered my gun and placed it on the console table beside me.

It wasn’t because Chalis had told me to or because I trusted any of the mothafuckas standing in my foyer; I was simply starting to realize that the nigga had come to my house over a woman who had already made it clear she didn’t want him, and I was about to send his ass home one way or another.

I looked back at Chalis. “Aight, my nigga. Let’s talk about Lakelyn. I got about five minutes to entertain your hurt.”

He stepped closer. “Lakelyn was mine first.”

Any trace of amusement immediately left my face.

I stared at him for a second before giving a humorless laugh. “Yours?”