Chapter 3 Asia
By the time Bella and I made it back to her car, I had snapped out of it.
Thoughts of Nyree still lingered, but I pushed them away. Just 'cause a nigga looked good didn't mean he was good.
Everything that glittered wasn't gold - I had learned that the hard way.
"So…" Bella said with a coy smirk as she pulled out of the Dave and Buster's parking lot. "What did you think of Que?"
My mind was so far away from him that I almost forgot who she was talking about. I quickly recovered. "He's cool," I offered, but said nothing more.
"And…?" she prodded, drumming her manicured nails against the steering wheel. The rhythmic tapping matched my growing irritation.
I sighed as she flicked her blinker to turn down a side street, the clicking sound filling the momentary silence. "Look, I appreciate you for trying to get me back out there, but I'm just not ready for a relationship at this point in my life."
"But Asia…"
I held a hand up. "But nothing. I'm not interested." My tone came out icier than I intended and I might have hurt my best friend's feelings with the way I said it, but she was starting to irritate me. Hell, I was starting to irritate myself.
And I knew why.
Nyree's face flashed through my mind, the mystery man who showed up after the group outing was over. The way he looked at me made my body tingle and I couldn't understand it.
Why was he on my mind so heavily when we barely spoke to each other? The memory of his voice, that deep timbre with a hint of rasp, was doing things to me that I couldn’t describe.
Bella turned up her playlist, the bass thumping through the speakers and vibrating beneath my feet. I took it as her way of letting me know she was pissed by the way I had just spoken to her. I opened my mouth to apologize but decided against it for now. I would make it up to her later.
I didn't want to say I was sorry and then she go right back to trying to hook me up again.
We zoned out listening to a few of the songs, the melodies filling the car. Then when we burst out singing the lyrics to Cardi B and Kehlani's song at the same time, our little spat ended.
Bella was back to her giggly self, shoulders shimmying as she drove. The scent of her coconut shampoo wafted toward me when she tossed her hair.
Once the song was over, she turned to me. "It's not that I'm trying to pressure you, Asia. I just want to see you happy again."
The sincerity in her tone brought a tear to my eye. I blinked it away.
"I understand that, and I appreciate you, but a good man is hard to come by in the times we're living in, friend." My voice came out softer now.
Bella opened her mouth to say something else, but the music changed and another song started playing about a man claiming to be different but turning out to be just like the rest.
"See? That's what I'm talking about," I said, gesturing at the dashboard.
Bella sighed. "I get it, but you can't stop trying though."
"No, I can't, but I'll get back in there when I'm ready."
Silence fell between us, broken only by the patter of rain and the low hum of the music, until it seemed that Bella had given up the fight for tonight.
"I guess I'll leave you alone," she said in an exaggeratedly defeated tone, the corner of her mouth quirking up. "But don't stay out the game too long, bestie. If me and Blake work out, I'm gonna need you for double dates."
From the way she perked up when she mentioned Blake, I prayed once again that his ass would do right by her. Bella had a tendency to fall hard and love even harder. If anybody needed someone looking out for her, it was her, not me.
"I'll keep that in mind," I said, happy that we were now pulling up to my apartment building. "Good night."
"Night night!" she said in a singsong voice, then giggled as I rolled my eyes. The sound of her laughter filled the car one last time as I pushed the door open.
Bella waited until I was inside the building before she drove off.