Chapter 23
Solana Thomas
The Next After Noon
“This can’t be real life,” I groaned, annoyed as I stared at Marlo’s delusional ass.
When I got to work this morning, I could already tell something was off, Mikael wasn’t his normal joking and talking shit self.
He had a frown on his face and the only person he smiled at was Sunshyne when he took her to wait on the bus.
Then Marlo barely acknowledged me. I figured he was mad because I didn’t answer his calls last night, but I was busy.
Now I wasn’t doing anything I wasn’t supposed to per se.
Dealing with Marlo was hard because it made me crave something that I hadn’t in a long time, a man of my own.
In an ideal world that would be Marlo. It made sense because we made sense together.
Everything was so easy when it came to us being together.
We got each other in ways it seemed like only we could understand.
There were times Marlo knew what I needed before I could say it.
Just being in his arms was enough to calm my soul on days when the world seemed to be against me.
In another universe Marlo would have been my person and we’d be together.
That wasn’t in the cards for us, Marlo already has a girl.
Despite the fact he didn’t seem like he was happy with her, he didn’t show any signs of wanting to leave her.
I wasn’t in the business of setting myself up for failure.
Marlo really threw me for a loop when he used my rose on me.
I thought everything was going to be weird between us after that, but they weren’t.
He acted like nothing ever happened and I was baffled.
I couldn’t even use one of my favorite roses without images of him flashing through my mind.
While he acted like what happened didn’t faze him.
That little comment he made yesterday in front of Zaylee was the first time he acknowledged anything pertaining to that situation.
But that was all he did because after that it was back to nothing ever happening between us.
If Marlo was going to act like nothing happened then I would too.
If Marlo never opened his mouth then neither would I.
We’d continue being friends or whatever he called it, but I wasn’t about to make myself unavailable to other niggas because of him.
Before dating was never heavily on my mind because after dealing with Sonni I was put off of relationships.
Then when I became open to dating, I had too much stuff going on to think about entertaining anyone.
I wouldn’t even have had a babysitter to watch Sunshyne if I did want to date.
Now that I was in a more stable environment and my financial situation was better, I could entertain the thought of dating.
I mean why not? I wasn’t getting any younger and Sunshyne basically abandoned me.
She was adamant about me getting my own friends.
If she wasn’t plotting with Marlo to get Mason and Mallory to come over.
She was getting Mikael to take the three of them somewhere.
I will say I loved the way Marlo and Mikael embraced Sunshyne like she was a part of their family.
You couldn’t tell Sunshyne Mikael wasn’t her Unky.
The bond they shared was amazing and I loved Sunshyne was able to have a family outside of just me.
“All I wanna know is why my phone calls didn’t get answered?
” Marlo calmly repeated himself for the millionth time.
He was dressed in his normal work clothes, Black Dickies, B&B mechanic shirt unbuttoned with his white crew neck t-shirt showing.
His long hair pulled up into a bun. His thick bread looked like it had been freshly lined up today.
His body was leaned back against the wall with his leg propped against the opposite wall by the shower on my skoolie.
As I said earlier Marlo barely said hi to me when I came into work.
Of course, he interacted with Sunshyne like always but me no.
I brushed it off, if he had a problem he was grown he could tell me.
The second Mikael took Sunshyne to put her on the bus Marlo suddenly found his voice.
He claimed he thought he heard noises coming from my skoolie earlier and wanted me to unlock it so he could check.
I thought maybe a raccoon or a bird might have climbed through one of the windows I left open.
Since I didn’t live in my skoolie anymore I used it as a break room.
Instead of leaving for my break I’d come in here to eat, relax, or even take a nap.
To keep my skoolie from getting that closed in smell I would leave a few windows cracked.
It wasn’t far-fetched that something might have gotten in through the window.
I didn’t think twice when I followed behind Marlo to unlock my skoolie.
The point where I should have known something was up is when he let me go in my skoolie first. It didn’t even dawn on me that Marlo wouldn’t let me go in first if something was really on my skoolie.
This crazy ass nigga let me walk through my skoolie checking for a wild animal.
I’m looking under beds, in drawers, the shower, everything I could check in or under, I did.
The entire time Marlo was chilling just watching me search and that’s when it dawned on me he hadn’t moved past the entrance area.
When it finally hit me he was on bullshit and I asked him what was really going on.
Marlo wanted to start asking me a million questions like he was my nigga.
Marlo was my nigga in a sense of us being friends but at the end of the day I didn’t have to answer to him I was grown.
That was where we couldn’t come to an understanding at.
“Cause I was sleep. You called me almost at midnight,” I averted my eyes to the wall behind Marlo. I may have been lying but he didn’t need to know that.
I wasn’t lying about being at home, but I definitely wasn’t asleep. I watched Marlo’s many calls. I even texted him asking if it was an emergency, when he proceeded to say no, I went back to ignoring him.
“So, you can text in ya sleep?” He squinted at me with a hard glare.
I shrugged my shoulders briefly making eye contact with him as I replied. “I guess,” Then looking down at my fidgeting hands.
“Imma ask you one mo’ time before I make you tell me. Where the fuck was you last night,” Marlo said as he stood straight up pulling his slightly sagging pants up.
Sighing I threw my hands up in defeat, letting them fall at my sides. I walked further into my skoolie. I plopped down on my couch, crossing my arms defiantly. I looked up at Marlo as he glared down at me menacingly.
With every ounce of attitude, I had in me I smartly said. “I don’t know what to tell you besides I was at home asleep.”
I wasn’t about to tell Marlo the part about me being on the phone with Jrome.
I met him the other day at a gas station.
I was kind of hesitant about exchanging numbers with him.
I hadn’t dated in so long and then there was Marlo.
As much as I denied my actions being affected by him they were.
He didn’t want me dating so subconsciously I listened to him.
Just so happened the day I met Jrome, Marlo and me were supposed to hang out.
In the midst of me debating about turning Jrome down, Marlo had to cancel on me because Fallon wanted to have a family day.
That moment put everything in perspective for me.
I would be a fool to put my dating life on hold because a nigga with a family didn’t want me to date.
Yeah, Marlo has done so much for me at same time he wasn’t offering me anything more than help and friendship.
So, I ended up giving my number to Jrome and we’d been talking since.
I could see myself really liking him. We have a lot of things in common and talking to him was always fun.
He’d been trying to take me out on a date as bad as I was kind of nervous.
Last night Jrome had finally persuaded me to say yes and now I had a date for this weekend.
I didn’t know how I was finna pull it off when Marlo was acting like it was the end of the world because I didn’t answer his calls last night.
“Let me see ya phone.” He demanded with his hand outstretched as he walked in front of me. My eyes ballooned at his request. There was no way I was giving him my phone. I’m sure he’d lose his mind if he read my text thread with Jrome.
“No, there's nothing in there for you.” I definitely replied.
“You talkin’ to a nigga huh?” He bitterly chuckled. I couldn’t even make myself look at Marlo’s intense gaze. I would have given myself away if I did.
“It doesn't matter.” I mumbled while I pretended to be focused on the dirt under my nails.
“Why don’t it? The fuck you need to talk to a nigga for?”
“Cause we’re friends. I don’t question you about what you do with Fallon.” I narrowed my eyes at him, finally giving him eye contact. “Maybe I want somebody I can call my own too.”
“Fallon is irrelevant. The fuck do that even mean. You got other shit you can be focused on. A nigga ain’t finna do shit but stress you the fuck out.”
“Well, I guess I’m ready to be stressed the fuck out cause I’m over being alone.”
“That don’t work for me.” Marlo replied, making my brows bunched together as I mentally tried to comprehend if he was serious. He kept a straight face which meant he was dead ass serious.
“Good thing you’re just my friend.” I said back to him smartly.
“Solana you pissin’ me off. Whatever nigga you talkin’ to dead that shit. You wanna chill with a nigga. You got me. You don’t need nobody else.”