Igrabbed some of Simone’s favorite snacks before I picked her up so that after our date, we could go home, watch movies and cuddle up. I knew that between yesterday and today, I hadn’t been acting like myself and Simone could feel it. I ain’t wanna let this shit going on around me make me lose my girl. Simone was what I needed. She really made a nigga better, so at least for tonight, I have to put everything else to the side.
The restaurant was nice the way Simone liked places to be. Not flashy, just good food and good atmosphere and the kind of place where you could actually hear the person across from you. She had changed into something simple that looked good on her the same way that everything else looked good that she wore. Sittingacross from her and looking into her pretty ass face, I could see that she was in a better mood than this morning which told me she had a good showing day. I hope she was able to sell a house or two.
I was present. Or at least I was trying to be. I was listening to her talk about the houses and asking the right questions while laughing when she said something funny. Hell. I ain’t want to be in the dog house, so I was doing everything right to stay in her good graces. While underneath it, my mind was running all over the place, the same as it had been running since that phone call last night.
We were halfway through the food when her phone buzzed on the table.
She glanced at it like it was a notification she wasn’t expecting, and her whole face changed.
Not slowly. All at once.
She picked the phone up and looked at the screen and I watched the color in her face drain, in real time. Her jaw tightened. Her eyes came up from the screen and found mine across the table and what was in them wasn’t a question. It was something colder than a question.
“What is this?” she said.
She turned the phone around and showed me the screen.
Unknown number. One message.
Ask your man what the biggest secret is that he’s keeping from you. Because shit is about to blow up and you deserve to know before it does. He is not at all who you think he is.
I looked at the screen and kept my face straight even though everything in my chest had just dropped. What the fuck kind ofbullshit was that? And who the fuck would have my girl number to even text her.
“Who sent that?” I said.
“I don’t know. It’s an unknown number.” She was already trying to call it back. It rang twice and then a recording said the number was not in service. She put the phone down and looked at me. “Gutta.”
“Simone—”
“Don’t.” Her voice was low but the tone she used told me she was holding herself together by a thread. “Don’t tell me it’s nothing. Don’t tell me somebody is playing games or playing on my phone. Just tell me the truth right now.”
The restaurant was feeling smaller and more caged in by the second. Noise, movement, people at other tables living their normal lives. And I was sitting here across from the woman I loved with a secret that had just been handed to her by somebody who wanted to burn my life down.
I looked at her.
And I thought about Sandra agreeing to meet me tomorrow morning.
Sandra.
It had to be her. Who else knew enough to send something like this to the woman I loved? Sandra said she’s been doing her research, so it had to be her. Who else had a reason to blow up my life before I could get to her first. She was trying to control the narrative before that meeting. Trying to make me look like the villain before I had a chance to present my side of anything. Or even trying to scare me off so that I wouldn’t push the issue about the baby.
That was a chess move.
And it meant tomorrow’s meeting had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
“I need you to trust me,” I said to Simone. “I have always been who I said I am, and who I show you I am. You know I’m half in the streets but I’m almost out. That’s the only thing I’ve done that you wouldn’t approve of but you also know I keep that shit far away from home and away from ever touching you. Whoever that is texting you, they really are playing games and I truly don’t know who the fuck that is,”
She looked at me for a long time. Everything she felt moving across her face before she pulled it back.
“You better hope so, cause please don’t let me find out otherwise.” She picked up her fork and looked at her plate. “You know, I don’t even play with you.”
I nodded and looked down at my food and didn’t taste another bite of it.
Somebody was playing chess with my life.
And tomorrow I was going to find out exactly who was sitting on the other side of that board.
—
