Chapter 1 #2
I hung up and looked over at Sha’Nelle. She had her heels in her hand and was slidin’ her feet into them like she was just as ready to leave as I was.
“I guess you need a ride back to the crib,” I said, grabbin’ my chain from the dresser.
She looked over at me. “Nah, I was gon’ walk back in this dress and these heels.”
I gave her a look. “Watch yo’ tone.”
“Nigga, you watch yours.”
I shook my head while openin’ the door. “You always got somethin’ smart to say.”
“And you always be listenin’,” she said, walkin’ past me into the hallway.
I ain’t say nothin’ to that ’cause she wasn’t wrong, and that was annoyin’ as hell.
We made it to the elevator, and once we stepped inside, I faced the doors. I could feel her standin’ beside me, and I knew she knew I was tryin’ not to look at her. That made the corner of her mouth lift, and I caught it in the reflection of the elevator doors.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothin’.”
“Nah, what’s funny?”
She smirked a lil’. “It’s a secret. I ain’t supposed to tell you.”
I turned my head just enough to look at her. “Why you love fuckin’ with a nigga?”
Sha’Nelle frowned like I had accused her of somethin’ serious. “How you gon’ get mad at me ’cause I don’t wanna tell you what I’m laughin’ at?”
I looked forward again. “Yeah, a’ight.”
“You the one over there fightin’ for yo’ life ’cause you don’t wanna make eye contact, nigga,” she added.
“I’m lookin’ at the doors.”
“Congratulations.”
I pressed my tongue against my cheek and forced myself not to laugh ’cause I wasn’t givin’ her that.
The elevator finally opened, and we walked out into the lobby together.
It was too damn bright down here, and the smell of coffee and expensive cleanin’ products made my head hurt worse.
The clerk at the front desk spotted us as soon as we came up, and she looked relieved like she had been waitin’ on us all mornin’.
“Good mornin’,” she said, reachin’ under the counter. “I tried to give this back to you earlier this mornin’, but you and your wife kept walkin’ past.”
I frowned. “That ain’t my wife. She not even my girl.”
Sha’Nelle smiled at the woman like she had been waitin’ on her moment. “No, he’s not my boyfriend. He’s actually my slow ass lil’ cousin on my daddy side.”
I looked at her. “Sha’Nelle. Stop fuckin’ playin’ with me.”
“He deaf in one ear too,” she kept goin’, soundin’ serious as hell.
“That’s why he couldn’t hear you callin’ him about his phone.
We been workin’ with him for years now, but the doctors said once he started eatin’ grass behind the elementary school, it was only so much they could do.
Some days he normal, some days he just be starin’ at walls and hummin’. ”
The clerk’s face dropped with panic, and I snatched my phone off the counter before she started apologizin’ to me for a disability I ain’t even fuckin’ have.
“A’ight, appreciate it,” I said, then looked at Sha’Nelle as we walked away. “You got real problems.”
She laughed like she was proud of herself. “You should’ve seen yo’ damn face.”
“I’mma pray for you.”
“Make sure you pray for yo’ lil ear too, cousin.”
I shook my head and unlocked my phone as we headed toward the exit, but as soon as the screen lit up, my whole mood switched.
Reni had called me over and over, and the messages was sittin’ there waitin’ on me with the kind of energy that let a nigga know peace was nowhere nearby.
She was goin’ off about me bein’ at a hotel with another woman when I was supposed to be at Kay’Lo’s weddin’, and by the time I got to the last message, she had already told me she was done and not to call her.
I stopped walkin’ for a second and stared down at the phone.
Sha’Nelle slowed beside me, but she ain’t say nothin’ right away. For once, she let the joke sit down.
I let out a long breath and rubbed my hand over my face ’cause this was exactly the kind of shit I had been tryna avoid.
Every damn day I kept myself in check. Every damn day I reminded myself I had a woman, and every damn day I stayed away from situations that could make me look like the kind of nigga I wasn’t.
Then, somehow, I still ended up standin’ in a hotel lobby beside Sha’Nelle with Reni blowin’ up my phone like I had done the worst shit in the world.
The fucked-up part was I couldn’t even blame Reni for how it looked.
I looked toward the doors, tired already ’cause I knew the day was about to be long as hell.
“Damn,” I muttered.
Sha’Nelle looked at me from the side. “She mad?”
I slipped the phone into my pocket and kept my eyes forward, ignorin’ the question.
Sha’Nelle ain’t smirk this time, and she ain’t throw a joke on top of it either. She just nodded a lil’ like she understood the weight of it, even if neither of us had anything to explain yet.
I pushed the door open and stepped into the mornin’ heat with her beside me, still feelin’ half high, half hungover, and fully sick of Pressure’s bitch ass.
The sun hit my face, and I squinted while reachin’ for my keys, already knowin’ I would have to go clean up a mess I ain’t even remember makin’.
And the whole time, Sha’Nelle walked beside me, quiet as hell, which somehow made it worse ’cause I was used to her havin’ somethin’ smart to say. I glanced over once, then looked away before she caught me lookin’ too long.
A nigga was fightin’ temptation every day, tryna stay faithful to Reni and tryna keep his life clean where it needed to be, but somehow, I still ended up caught in the exact kind of bullshit I’d been dodgin’.
The thing that had me heated wasn’t just Reni bein’ mad or Pressure settin’ me up with them damn edibles. It was the fact that wakin’ up beside Sha’Nelle ain’t feel as uncomfortable as it should’ve, and that right there was the part I wasn’t ready to deal with.