“It was a reel, baby,” he said. “I told you we always sendin’ each other shit.”
“About what?”
He glanced up at me. “Virgo shit.”
I made a face. “What?”
He smirked a little, but it ain’t hit the same as his usual one. “Me and her both Virgos. Our birthdays five days apart in September, so we be sendin’ each other stuff about that. Baby, Pluto is pregnant by my cousin. It ain’t like that, if that’s what you keep tryna get at.”
I sat there for a second, then shrugged. “I guess.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips against my foot, holdin’ it there for a second before lookin’ back up at me.
“Baby, I don’t wanna fight tonight,” he said.
His tone was softer now, and I could tell he meant that.
“I just want everybody to get along,” he went on. “That way, we can all start movin’ together. Go on trips, link up more, do shit as a group. I liked the vibe tonight, and a nigga don’t mind doin’ it often.”
I looked at him, and I could see it in his face that he meant it.
But that just wasn’t where I was at.
“If it keep feelin’ weird,” I said, keepin’ my tone calm, “I don’t know if I’m gon’ be able to do all that.”
He went quiet for a second, his hand slidin’ down his face before he let my foot drop out his hands completely. That small shift in him made somethin’ in me tighten without me even meanin’ for it to.
It wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t dramatic, but it was different enough for me to notice because Renza didn’t pull away from me like that. He was always touchin’ me and always findin’ some way to stay connected, even when we was goin’ back and forth. So the fact that he just let go and sat there instead of keepin’ his hands on me made it feel heavier than it probably should’ve.
I straightened up a little on the bed, watchin’ him closer now because I could tell that whatever I said had landed in a way he wasn’t just goin’ to laugh off or brush past, and that wasn’t somethin’ I was used to seein’ from him.
He sat at the edge of the bed, lookin’ straight ahead like he was somewhere else in his head for a second, and when he finally turned and looked at me, I could tell right away that somethin’ about him had changed.
His expression wasn’t the same one I had been dealin’ with all night, and it wasn’t the one he usually gave me when he was tryin’ to smooth things over or keep shit light between us. There was no playfulness in it, and there wasn’t no ease behind it either. That alone made me sit up a little straighter without even thinkin’ about it.
“Reni… I wouldn’t bring you around fake muthafuckas. I don’t even hang around fake muthafuckas, family or not.”
I didn’t say anything. I just listened.
“I’m not tryna make everything a fight either,” he added. “And I’m not gon’ keep bringin’ you somewhere you uncomfortable. So, if you don’t wanna be around them, then don’t.”
I frowned a little. “That’s not what I’m sayin’.”
“But I live here,” he said, cuttin’ in before I could soften it. “So there’s gon’ be times I’m with them. I want you here too, but if you uncomfortable, then yeah… my back kinda against the wall, baby.”
I sat there for a second, lettin’ that settle.
“I get that,” I said slowly. “But if you had your own place, I wouldn’t even have to feel like this.”
He turned his head toward me with his brows pullin’ together. “What you mean?”
I looked at him straight. “You know what I mean. It’s one thing to come over here for a few hours, but stayin’ the night in a house full of people that don’t really… bond with me… I don’t know.”
He stared at me for a second. Then his brows lifted.
“So, you sayin’ I need to move out?”
I held his gaze. “I’m sayin’ if we gon’ be serious and spendin’ nights together, it should be at our own places. Not somebody else’s house.”
