“Every meeting isn’t cute or funny,” Sugar said.
“They are if you make them. For example, if you asked me how I met Birdie, I could say, ‘She’s my grandmother,’ or I could say, ‘She wrapped me in a warm towel after I was pushed out of a water balloon completely naked in a room full of strangers.’ The last one sounds much better, doesn’t it?”
Bean nodded. “I see what you mean. Okay, Sugar saw a guy about to shiv me from the back. He kicked the shit out of him and fucked up his knee. We’ve been friends ever since.”
“Aw, you big old softy,” I teased.
“I need food or weed,” Sugar said. “I can’t take any more unless I have food or weed.”
I poked out my bottom lip. “Boo hiss piss.”
Sugar opened his mouth, likely to explode, but promptly closed it because our food had arrived.
“Thank fuck,” he groaned and dove into his meal.
I took a bite of mine and glanced at Birdie beside me. She’d been completely consumed with Charli and Coochie. I tried to join their conversation once, but none of the names they said sounded familiar. Even if they had, I couldn’t have gotten a word in edgewise between the three of them.
I turned my attention back to Bean. “What were you inside for?”
Bean coughed, seeming to have swallowed wrong.
“Sorry, I thought this was one of those deals where it wasn’t rude for me to ask because I did a stretch too.”
“It’s fine,” Bean said. “But my story would be better at another time.”
That piqued my interest and made it hard not to push him for more, so I turned my attention to Sugar. “What about you?”
“Involuntary manslaughter,” he said with a mouthful of food.
“Involuntary,” I snorted. “Wuss.”
Bean sucked in a sharp breath as Sugar straightened in his seat.
“You clearly weren’t paying attention when I gave an example of how to better tell a story.”
He put his fork down and looked at me. “My younger brother asked me to drop some shit off to a friend of ours. She was a regular client of his and lived near me. We talked in front of my car. I gave her her shit, and she gave me his money. All captured on my dash cam, which was confiscated when I was arrested two days later. The dope was bad. She was found dead the next morning. Oh, plot twist, my brother set me up.”
“Why?” I asked.
Sugar sighed. “Because he wanted her, and she wanted me.”
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “He killed the girl he liked and set you up for murder because she liked you?”
Sugar nodded. “Wasn’t the first time that happened, but he wanted to make sure it was the last.”
“Hold on,” I said and slapped my hand on the table. “It wasn’t thefirsttime?”
“It wasn’t the first time a girl was interested in me instead of him,” he clarified.
“Oh, good,” I said. “For a second there, I thought you were stupid.”
Bean laughed so hard he coughed.
“Are you causing trouble?” Birdie asked.
“Not on purpose. They aren’t used to my bluntness.”
“He’s not,” Sugar said. “I’ve had more than enough exposure.”
