Chapter 18
Melody sat across from Ma Ma while the two of them talked and caught up. What started as a normal conversation eventually found its way to Major, which wasn't surprising considering he had been stressing her out for weeks.
“I think that nigga cheating," Melody blurted out.
"What happened now?"
"I don't know for sure but shit just ain't adding up."
"What ain't adding up?" Ma Ma looked up from her phone and quizzed.
"The nigga line always ringing. He barely answer when I'm around. He take forever to call and text me back, and the other day I seen somebody saved in his phone under just the letter T."
"T?" Ma Ma's eyebrows shot up.
"Just T and the phone kept ringing back-to-back too. Whoever it was wasn't giving up."
"So why you ain't answer it?"
"Because his ass walked out the bathroom right when I was about to."
"Damn." Ma Ma laughed.
"Exactly."
“Well, Best friend, I told you my cousin wasn't shit."
"Here you go."
"I'm serious. I love him to death, but I warned you. The nigga fresh out of jail, barely twenty-one, and getting money. What exactly did you think was going to happen?"
Melody sucked her teeth but didn't answer.
"The most y'all probably can do is get money together. He a hustler and you a hustler too.”
As much as she hated admitting it, Ma Ma had a point.
When she thought about the best moments in her relationship with Major, most of them involved getting money.
Whether they were planning a lick, counting cash, celebrating after a play, or talking business, those were the times they seemed most in sync.
Outside of that, they spent a lot of time arguing, accusing each other of things, and trying to force a relationship that seemed to get more complicated every week.
"Damn."
"See! You know I'm right." Ma Ma smiled.
"I hate when you right."
"Everybody does."
Melody rolled her eyes and tossed a pillow at her best friend. The conversation stayed on Major for a few more minutes before drifting to other topics.
From there, Ma Ma did most of the talking.
She bounced from neighborhood gossip to stories about people they grew up with, and every few minutes she managed to add her man into the mix.
Melody listened while occasionally adding to the conversation, but her attention slowly started drifting elsewhere.
At some point, her phone buzzed and without thinking much of it, she picked it up and glanced at the screen.
It was Cameron, just checking in to see how her day was. Melody texted back and from there, their conversation went to the bet they made on the football game. And before she knew it, Cameron had somehow talked her into coming over.
"Who the fuck is that?" Ma Ma asked, snapping her out of it.
"What? Huh? Melody looked up.
"You sitting over there smiling hard as hell at your phone."
"I'm not smiling."
"Yes, you are."
"I am not."
"Best friend, you absolutely are."
“It’s my classmate but I got to go so I’ll tell you about it later.”
The second the words left her mouth, Melody grabbed her purse and headed toward the door before Ma Ma could ask any more questions.
A few minutes later, she climbed into her car and pulled away from the curb. The entire drive, she found herself smiling every time her phone lit up with another text from Cameron. She kept telling herself they were just classmates, but that excuse was starting to sound less believable every time.
When Melody finally pulled onto his block, she parked and flipped down the visor. She checked her face in the mirror, adjusted a few loose strands of hair, and applied a fresh layer of lip gloss before nodding in approval.
After grabbing her purse, she climbed out and headed toward the front door. The bell had barely finished ringing before he opened.
"Hey."
"Hey."
Both of them smiled before she stepped inside.
"It actually smell good in here. Almost like you know what you doing."
"Almost is crazy, but I told you, I throws down."
Melody continued walking through the house until she spotted the food sitting on the dining room table. She immediately started laughing and pointed toward the containers.
"Nigga, this from Kisha's Kitchen."
"Aye, you never said whose kitchen it had to be cooked in." He chuckled before going on.
"And besides, what an Out West girl know about some Out South shit?"
"Boy, please. Don't start."
Still laughing, the two of them sat down and started eating. As they ate, Cameron asked what she had been up to lately.
"Nothing really. What about you?" Melody replied.
"I actually just got back from New York."
"New York? What was you doing out there?"
"I went to a convention for young inventors and engineering students."
"Oh really? Tell me more." Melody sat up straighter.
"Well, I've been developing something called Smart Flow.
It's basically a smart water-monitoring system designed for apartment buildings and older homes.
The technology uses sensors to detect leaks, pressure problems, and pipe damage before they turn into expensive repairs.
The system sends alerts directly to a phone app so building owners can fix problems before they become major issues. " Cameron proudly explained.
"So basically your invention tells people their building about to fall apart before it actually happens?"
"When you put it like that, yeah." Cameron laughed.
The more he explained the project, the more impressed Melody became. For the next several minutes, she asked questions while Cameron answered them, and before she realized it, she had completely stopped thinking about Major and every other problem waiting for her outside that house.