18. JB
JB
Hannah had cooked salmon and asparagus, but neither one of us finished eating. JJ had been asleep for a couple hours, the house was finally quiet, and me and Hannah ended up in the bedroom.
She had that sweet vanilla stuff on she always wore, had the whole room smelling like her. Now she was down on her knees between my legs with her hair tied up in that messy bun she always wore when she was getting ready to put in work.
“Oh, you think that’s funny?” I had asked, smacking her ass.
“I’m sure you just pent up, baby. I mean, with your girl gone and all.”
“Your ass the one finna be pent up. Turn around.”
She did, and one look at that ass had me ready all over again. We had been drinking that night. I wasn’t thinking about condoms, consequences, or none of that. I was thinking about what was right in front of me.
Me and Hannah had never crossed that line before Lee went away. I’d had other women on the side, but Hannah wasn’t one of them. Then we had that night at the casino, she ended up pregnant, and three years later, here we were.
“Damn, baby.”
Hannah came up for air and looked at me before slowing down some. She already knew if she kept going like that, I wasn’t lasting long.
My phone dinged on the nightstand. I had been checking the damn thing more than I wanted to admit since the pumpkin patch, waiting on Lee to call, text, anything.
I hadn’t been back by our place since I went to her mama’s that night.
I was trying to give her some space and let her cool off instead of making shit worse.
Figured after a few days, she’d be ready to talk to me.
I ignored the notification and tried to put my attention back where it was supposed to be. Then it dinged again. I sucked my teeth, grabbed it, and looked at the screen.
Anika is live now.
Normally I would’ve cleared the notification and kept doing what I was doing, but after everything that happened, I opened it.
Music blasted through my phone, and Anika was somewhere in the background yelling, “Ayeee!” like a damn fool. The red neon sign behind them read The Daiquiri Trap.
Then the camera moved to Lee. She had a drink in her hand, dancing and laughing while Anika recorded her, looking like she ain’t have a care in the world.
I sat up a little straighter, watching her carry on like everything was good. Like she ain’t just found out about Hannah, JJ, and the baby, or been crying her eyes out at her mama house a few nights ago.
“JB?”
Hannah pulled back and looked up at me. “What’s wrong?”
I didn’t answer. I backed out of the Live and went straight to Lee’s page. The first thing I saw was a picture she had just posted.
Free & single again.
I stared at that caption longer than I should’ve.
Single.
Like fifteen years with me could disappear because she typed a damn caption under a picture.
Free and single my ass.
She was posting that she was single, dancing all over Anika’s Live, smiling like she was having the time of her life, and something about seeing it pissed me off worse than her saying it to my face.
I locked my phone.
“JB, baby, what is it?” Hannah asked, putting her hand on my thigh.
I moved away from her and got off the bed.
“I gotta go.”
I grabbed my boxers off the floor and stepped into them before reaching for my jeans.
Hannah sat back on her heels. “Go where? What happened?”
“I said I gotta go, Hannah.”
“Okay, I heard you. I’m asking where.”
I pulled my shirt over my head and grabbed my jacket.
“JB.”
“What?”
Her eyes dropped to the phone in my hand. “What did you just see?”
“Nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing. You just jumped up in the middle of…”
“I gotta handle something.”
“Handle what?”
I shoved my phone into my pocket.
“Come lock the door behind me.”
“JB.”
I was already headed out the bedroom before Hannah could say anything else, and I ain’t look back.
Every red light on the drive across town got on my nerves. All I could see was that Live, Lee dancing and laughing, then that caption sitting under her picture.
Free & single again.
Yeah. Aight.
By the time I got to the daiquiri spot, the parking lot was packed. I pulled up near the curb, parked, and went inside. Music hit me as soon as the door opened, and I stood there scanning the room until I found Lee toward the back with Anika and her friends.
She had her phone in her hand, smiling down at the screen, then looked across the room at somebody. I followed her eyes and saw that nigga from the pumpkin patch sitting at another table with some woman.
Except he wasn’t looking at the woman.
He was looking at Lee.
She looked right back at him before dropping her eyes to her phone, and a second later, he did the same.
Oh, hell nah.
I ain’t know exactly what them two had going on, but I knew what that looked like. I started toward her, and when Lee finally glanced toward the front and saw me coming, that smile disappeared before I even made it to the table.
I walked straight up to their table. “You out here having a good time?”
Lee looked up at me, then picked up her drink and took a slow sip. “That’s what you do when you’re single.”
That hit harder than seeing the post.
“Come on, Lee. Let me talk to you.”
“We ain’t got nothing to talk about.”
“I’m not doing this in here. Come outside.”
She set her cup back on the table. “Then don’t do it.”
I reached for her arm, and that got everybody at the table moving. Anika pushed her chair back first.
“JB, don’t.”
Nina leaned forward. “Don’t touch her.”
Wren was right behind her. “She said she don’t wanna talk to you.”
I pointed at Anika because out of all of them, she knew better than anybody this wasn’t her business. “Stay out of this. I’m talking to my girl.”
Lee’s face changed. She looked me dead in my eyes and said, “I’m not your girl, JB.”
I ain’t like hearing that shit come out her mouth, especially with everybody sitting there watching me. I stepped closer, but before I could say anything else, a chair scraped across the floor behind me.
I already knew who it was.
I turned and saw Van standing beside his table. The woman he came in with was still sitting there, looking between us, but his attention was on me and Lee now.
“JB,” Lee warned.
I looked from her to him. “So this what this is? This nigga just happen to be here?”
“Are you serious?” Lee asked.
Van started toward us, but one of the security guards cut him off by getting to me first. He stepped between me and the table and put a hand against my chest.
“Hey, man. Back up.”
I knocked his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
The guard squared up in front of me. “I’m telling you one time. Back up.”
“I’m talking to my girl.”
“I’m not your girl!” Lee snapped.
Van had made it a few feet from the table by then. He stopped there and looked at me. “You heard her.”
I turned toward him. “Nigga, stay out of this.”
“You the one came in here cutting up.”
“Van,” Lee said.
He looked at her instead of me.
“I got it,” Lee told him.
Van nodded and backed off without arguing with her. He didn’t go all the way back to his table, though. He stayed close enough to see what was happening, and for some reason, that got under my skin almost as much as him walking over there in the first place.
The security guard turned toward Lee. “Ma’am, you know him? You want him to leave?”
Lee looked at me for a second. I don’t know what I expected her to say, but it damn sure wasn’t what came next.
“Yeah, I know him.” She looked at the guard. “And yes. I want him to leave.”
That fucked with me.
“You heard her,” the guard told me. “Time to go.”
“Lee.”
She picked up her drink. “Bye, JB.”
“Come on, Lee.”
“I said bye.”
Another security guard walked up and stopped beside the first one. “You walking out, or we walking you out?”
I looked at Lee, then past her at Van. He was still standing there, and I wasn’t finna give that nigga the satisfaction of watching security drag me out.
“Aight.”
Lee didn’t say anything.
I backed away from the table. “Aight, Lee.”
She still ain’t answer me, so I turned around and walked toward the door with both guards following behind me.
As soon as I got outside, I went straight to my truck and slammed the door. I sat there pissed off for a minute, thinking about Lee dismissing me in front of everybody and that nigga standing there watching the whole thing.
Fuck it. I was finna beat her home.
By the time I pulled into her driveway, I had already decided I’d wait until she got there. She could act like we ain’t have nothing to talk about in front of her friends, but fifteen years didn’t disappear because she posted a caption and told security to put me out.
I went up the steps and stuck my key in the lock.
It wouldn’t turn.
I frowned and tried it again, twisting harder this time, but the key still wouldn’t move. I pulled it out and stared at the lock before it finally hit me.
This woman changed the locks.
“Oh, you got me fucked up, Lee.”
My phone started ringing before I could decide whether to call her. Hannah’s name was on the screen. I almost declined it, still too pissed off to deal with another conversation, but I answered.
“What?”
“Where did you go, JB? What is going on with you? You just walked out and...” Hannah stopped talking suddenly, and I heard her suck in a sharp breath through the phone. “Ah, fuck.”
I straightened up. “Hannah?”
“JB, I’m cramping.”
Everything I had been thinking about Lee dropped out of my head. “How bad?”
“Bad.”
“You bleeding?”
“I don’t know. Just come back. Please.”
“I’m coming.”
I looked at Lee’s door one more time, shoved my phone in my pocket, and headed back down the steps. Whatever me and Lee had to deal with was gonna have to wait. Right now, I needed to get back to Hannah.