“Just be careful how you bring it to him,” I said. “I don’t want this turning into something where somebody gets hurt based off what I think I heard.”
“I hear you. But Gutta is smarter than that. He’s not going to move off speculation alone.” She looked at me. “You need to be careful too. You’re going back home to a man who may have tried to have your ex crush’s little brother killed. Remember, you the one who said Marcus knew everything about Street already and kept up with all his fights. What if he did this to try and hurt the man that you really love? Anybody who has heard of Street, they know that his family is the most important thing to him.”
“I know. That’s what I’ve been thinking but I don’t want to believe that could be true Simone. I just don’t. Marcus is too kind and gentle to pull something like this.
“Bri.”
“I know Simone. I’ll be fine, and I’ll figure it out.”
She looked at me like she wasn’t fully convinced but she let it go because she knew me well enough to know I had already made up my mind. I wasn’t going to run from Marcus based on a phone call I had overheard. I needed to be smart about this. Watch him. Pay attention. And the moment I had something real and solid I was going to move.
We hugged at the door and I got in my car and sat there for a second before I pulled off.
My phone buzzed on the passenger seat.
Marcus had texted.
Marcus: Hey babe. You coming home soon? I’m cooking.
I stared at that text for a moment. It was simple. Normal. The kind of text a man sent his woman when he was thinking about her and wanted her home. The kind of text I had received from him a hundred times before and never thought twice about.
I thought twice about it now.
I typed back. On my way.
Put the phone down and pulled out of Gutta’s driveway and drove toward the life I had built with a man I was no longer sure I knew.
—
The condo smelled like garlic and something roasting when I walked through the front door. Marcus was in the kitchen withhis back to me, moving around like everything was fine. Music playing low from the speaker on the counter. Glass of wine already poured and sitting on the island waiting for me the way he always did when he cooked.
He looked over his shoulder when he heard me come in and he smiled.
“There she is. I was starting to wonder about you.”
“I went to see Simone,” I said. “Lost track of time.”
“How is she?”
“Good.” I set my bag down and walked to the island and picked up the wine. I took a sip and stood there watching him move around that kitchen like a man with nothing on his conscience.
He was good at this. That was the thing I kept coming back to. He was good at normal. At comfortable. At making everything around him feel settled and safe. This is exactly why I was questioning what I knew that I had heard.
“You okay?” He glanced at me while he stirred something on the stove.
“Just tired,” I said.
“Sit down. Food will be ready in twenty minutes. You can tell me about your day while I finish up.
I sat on the barstool at the island and held my wine glass. I watched him and smiled at the right moments and answered his questions about my day and performed every bit of normal that I had in me.
But something had shifted in me that I couldn’t shift back.
And Marcus had no idea.
—
That night after he fell asleep I laid in the dark next to him and stared at the ceiling and thought about Street’s face in that parking lot. That cold controlled anger when I told him what I heard. The way his jaw had gone tight and his fist had come up to his mouth like he was fighting hard to not lose it. He had stood there forcibly holding himself together.
