Chapter Forty-Six
Forty-Six
“I’m sorry, Ms.Crystal.”
I blinked at the sound of Noah’s voice. “Noah?” I said unbelievingly.
“Curse me out if you have to—I won’t blame you one bit. In fact, I know I probably deserve it.”
I grinned. “Yeah, you know you do,” I said. “What the hell is going on with you?”
“Oh, Miss Thing, if you only knew,” Noah said wistfully.
“Did you break up with Zhan?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. In fact, he’s coming in on Labor Day.”
“Really? That’s just two days away.”
Noah was quiet for a while. “Is it? I’m so behind. Where did the summer go?”
“I don’t know, Noah—the older you get, the quicker time just seems to fly by.”
“You said it, sweetie.”
“Well, are you going to tell me what drama you’ve been going through, or are we going to dance around it?”
“I will, one day, but not today.”
“Okay, I respect that. Just know that I love you and I’m here for you.”
“I know you are, baby, and I appreciate it. And know that I’m here for you as well.”
“I know you are.”
We basked in the glow of our commitment as friends for a minute.
“So how’s your roommate doing?”
“Chevy? Don’t you know?”
“Nah, she hasn’t returned any of my phone calls. Last time I saw her I was bailing her out of jail.”
“Get the hell out of here!” Noah screamed, and I could hear the kitchen chair being dragged across his expensive kitchen floor tiles as he prepared himself to get comfortable while I dished the dirt. “Do tell!”
“You don’t know about it, and she’s living right there in your house?”
“Girl, pleeeeeezzzze ! Ms.Chevy and I pass each other in this house like strangers in the night, like ships on the sea—”
“I get it, Noah, damn.”
“So what happened?”
“She hopped the turnstile.”
“Get the fuck outta here! That is a classless act, something I would never think Ms.Chevy would stoop to.”
“I know, I was shocked too. But you know for yourself that she ain’t working.”
“Well, I figured that out when she started sleeping until noon all week long. But her not working ain’t stopping her from shopping.”
“What you saying?”
“I’m saying she comes in here almost every day loaded down with bags.”
“What?”
“Am I speaking a foreign language?”
“No, not at all. Didn’t you say you thought she had a new man?”
“Shoot, knowing Chevy’s freaky ass, it could be a woman.”
I had to laugh at that. “Stop it, Noah. Chevy is a card-carrying heterosexual.”
“Yeah, okay—you never know what’s going on behind someone’s groove.”
I had to think about that for a while. What Noah said was true: I was living testimony of that. I never dreamed in a million years that I would be shacking up with a man and giving him money, but here I was doing just that.
“Well, I guess you’re right,” I said meekly.
“So what’s going on with you, Ms.Ting-a-ling?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all,” I lied. “Just working my ass off.”
“And what about that fine man of yours?”
“Ha, ha.” I laughed nervously at the mention of Kendrick. “Oh, he’s still fine,” I said.
“Umph, I know he is,” Noah said in a lustful voice. “You better keep a tight rein on that buck, or I’ll whisk him right from beneath your nose!” Noah teased.
“You do and I’ll kick your ass!” I said back with a laugh.
“You’ll try, at least!”
We taunted each other for a few more minutes.
“We have to get together before Labor Day,” I said.
“Well, that just leaves today and tomorrow,” Noah said.
“Well, let’s get together on Sunday, then,” I said.
“Good for me.”
“I’ll let Geneva know. Will you tell Chevy?”
“Well, I’ll slip a note under her door.”
“Better yet, stick it into one of the million pairs of shoes she owns—you know she tries them all on every night before she goes to sleep. It’s like a bedtime prayer for her.”
“Miss Crystal, you need help, girl!”