Chapter 11 Asia
I couldn’t believe I agreed to this.
What was wrong with me, going back and forth about Nyree like a game of double dutch?
One second, I was ready to accept his advances, go on dates and get to know him. But the other second, I was holding back, feeling like I wasn’t ready to put myself back out there yet.
He seemed like a good guy, but so did Quan at first.
A call from Bella interrupted my thoughts. Swiping the screen, I answered. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself!” she said in a playful tone. “How was you and Ma’s vacation?”
Bella always referred to my mother as Ma since Ma took her under her wing when we were teens.
Bella didn’t have the best relationship with her mother, Roxanne, so my mother stepped in and took over that role.
She was the one who threw Bella’s Sweet Sixteen when all Roxanne did was show up to the party late, get drunk, and try to fight one of our other high school friends after flirting with her boyfriend.
I tried not to speak on Bella’s mother too much, but she was the source of a lot of my friend’s anxiety. Roxanne was always into some shit, and half the time it was like Bella was the mother and Roxanne was the daughter.
“It was good,” I said, reflecting on all the fun me and Ma had.
“What did y’all do?”
I applied my lip gloss then smoothed my lips together with a sigh and began working on my lashes.
“Went to the boardwalk. We took one of those day cruises to see the dolphins. Ate some good food, then came back home. She seemed happy when I dropped her back off at her house.”
“Damn, and y’all didn’t think to invite me? I got beef with your daddy too!”
I chuckled. “Girl, shut up.”
“Did you see the wedding pictures? Trashy as hell, Chile.”
Rolling my eyes, I tapped my screen to look at Tiffany’s page from my burner profile. Of course, Bella was being dramatic. The wedding looked nice, though my father was a trifling mess for marrying that woman for her money.
“Sooner or later she’ll figure him out,” I said, feeling depressed at the thought that my father was a fuck-boy at his grown age.
Staring at his smiling features for a few moments, my eyes blurred. He didn’t realize that what he did to my mother also hurt me. Yeah, I was a grown woman but when Ma hurt, I hurt. And my father didn’t even think to consider that.
“That she will,” Bella agreed, breaking me from my thoughts. “Anyway, what are you doing today?”
I froze.
This was the moment where I should tell her about Nyree. How we saw each other at the hotel and exchanged numbers. How he asked me out and told me he wanted to be my man.
But something inside me couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t tell her about him and get her hopes up just to have Nyree be just like all these other niggas and then both of us be let down.
Something told me my thought process was irrational but I couldn’t shake it.
So I swallowed my feelings and said, “Nothing much. Just laying around the house.”
“Ugh, so boring,” Bella replied and my heart panged with guilt.
She believed me without hesitation when I just told her a boldfaced lie for no reason.
I opened my mouth to come clean but then Bella’s tone perked up. “Oh girl, let me call you back! Blake is beeping in.”
I smiled at the excitement in her tone. “Talk to your man, girl.”
“Indeed I will,” she said in a singsong voice. “Okay bye!”
The call ended.
I loved my best friend with every breath in my body. That nigga Blake better do right by her.
Staring at my reflection in the mirror, I sighed once again. “Guess I look good enough for this little date or whatever.”
I quickly flipped off the light switch and exited the bathroom so I wouldn’t catch sight of the smile forming on my face.