Chapter 10 #2
“I did.” She looked down at her cup for a second before meeting my eyes again. “I wish shit coulda been different wit’ us, but you said you wasn’t interested in another relationship. Then I come back, and you’re fallin’ back in love and shit.”
“Yeah, well, shit ain’t different,” I said, rubbing my hands together. “If that baby’s mine, I’ma handle mine. Other than that, me and you good where we at, D.”
Denisha’s face changed a little, and I could tell that shit hurt even though she tried to play it off. “Damn, Smoke. I wasn’t sayin’ we had to…” Her words trailed off, but I wasn’t listening anymore.
I had spotted Lace coming down Main Street with Mrs. Harper from Harper’s Cafe, laughing about some shit while they walked. Mrs. Harper said something that had Lace laughing harder, and they tapped their latte cups together before Lace took another sip. Then she looked up and saw me.
Her eyes went from me to Denisha, and that smile disappeared quick as hell.
She looked Denisha over once before her eyes came back to mine, and I knew right then she had figured out who the fuck she was.
Her mouth tightened, but she didn’t stop walking or come over starting no shit.
Mrs. Harper kept talking, and Lace turned her attention back to her like she hadn’t just seen a damn thing.
Denisha followed my eyes before she looked back at me. “That her?”
“Yeah.” I kept my eyes on Lace until the crowd swallowed her up, and my jaw tightened because I already knew how that shit probably looked from where she was standing.
“She’s gorgeous.” Denisha was quiet for a second after that before one of her friends called her name from farther down Main Street. “I’m comin’,” she yelled, then looked at me again. “I’ll call you after I talk to my doctor again.”
“Aight. Let me know.”
She walked off, and I stayed where I was, still looking in the direction my woman had gone. I knew Lace well enough to know she wasn’t about to come over here asking questions or showing her ass in the middle of Main Street. She was gon’ keep that shit to herself, and somehow that bothered me more.
“Damn.”
I looked over and found Darius standing beside me eating a snow cone. “What?”
“That was some fucked up timin’.”
I looked at him. “You got anything useful to say?”
“Nope.” He took another bite of his snow cone and started walking off. “Handle yo’ business, nigga.”
“Man, fuck you.”
The festival got even more crowded once the sun went down. The temperature dropped, the lights strung over Main Street came on, and the DJ at the square switched from the family shit he had been playing earlier to music people actually wanted to hear.
They had a magic show going near the community park, and farther down, somebody had set up a huge outdoor movie screen with rows of chairs and blankets spread across the grass.
Kids were still running around with light-up toys and bags of candy, people were lined up at the food trucks, and the carnival rides stayed packed.
Around ten that night, the festival started slowing down.
Families with younger kids cleared out first, vendors started covering shit they were leaving overnight, and the crowd around the stage thinned enough for me to finally stop moving finally.
I was standing near one of the trucks when Darius came over with Mike and Shawn.
“We goin’ to Desire,” Darius said.
“Fuck you tellin’ me for? I’m goin’ home.”
Mike looked at me. “To do what, Sherrod?”
“Whatever the fuck I wanna do in my own house, Michael.”
Darius laughed. “This nigga ‘bout to go home and walk ‘round that big ass house mad.”
“Bro, fuck you.” I looked at all three of them and knew they weren’t leaving me the fuck alone. “Aight, fuck it. First round on y’all. I know that direct deposit hit ‘cause I’m the one who signed off on that shit.”
Shawn grinned. “There he goes!”
Desire was packed when we got there. Half the people who had spent all day at the festival had apparently decided they weren’t ready to go home yet.
Music was loud enough that nobody could hear anybody else’s business unless they were sitting at the same table, drinks were flowing, and the kitchen was still pushing food out.
We grabbed a booth toward the back, and I ordered a Remy and Red Bull, then sat there while Mike and Shawn argued about some woman Mike swore Shawn had been fucking with. Darius kept looking at me every couple minutes like he was waiting for me to start talking. I ignored his ass.
A woman I knew from around town stopped by the table and leaned close enough to ask if I wanted to buy her a drink. “Nah, I’m good.”
She looked surprised. “Damn, Smoke. Why you so mean all the time?” She walked away rolling her eyes and Shawn stared at me.
“What?”
“That woman fine as hell.”
“Then go buy her thirsty ass a drink.”
Mike laughed. “Nah, this nigga fucked up.”
Darius took a drink and leaned back in the booth. “Told y’all.”
I looked at him. “Told ‘em what?”
“That yo’ life in shambles right now.”
“Keep talkin’ and you gon’ be fucked up too.” That made everybody laugh except me.
We finished the first round and ordered another. After that, we went outside to smoke because I needed some air as much as I needed a fucking blunt. I lit the pre-roll and hit it a few times, letting the weed cloud my thoughts. Then, I passed it to Mike.
This nigga hit the blunt, then shook his head. “Fuck goin’ on wit’ you?”
“Nothin’.” I told him, and Darius laughed.
“You might as well tell ‘em.”
“Tell us what?” Shawn asked.