Page 16 of Cooly

“Nasty,” she mouthed.

I smiled and kept walking.

Ayo ordered the Uber while we stood outside. The sky had started changing, the black softening into that dirty blue. Music still vibrated through the brownstone walls behind us, but out here, the street was quiet.

Her ride was four minutes away.

“You feel better?” she asked.

I paused, checking in with myself. Indigo still held real estate inside my head—that hadn’t vanished overnight. But it didn’t feel like a ton of bricks sitting on my chest anymore. I could finally breathe around her ghost.

“Better than I have in months.”

“Good.”

Her Uber turned onto the block and slowed beside us.

I opened the back door for her. Before she got in, she rested her hand against my chest.

“I think you should call Indigo.”

My body stiffened. “She told me to leave her alone.”

“Then call her once. Not to win her. Not to make her feel guilty. Tell her about the warehouse.”

I looked away. “Why?”

“Because she deserves to know the real reason you kept showing up for her.” Ayo paused. “And you deserve to stop carrying a memory she doesn’t even know the two of you share.”

“You think it’ll change a damn thing?”

“Maybe not.” She shrugged softly. “Closure doesn’t always rewrite the ending, Chinedu. Sometimes it just helps you make peace with it.”

The driver caught my eye in the rearview mirror.

Ayo slid into the leather interior. “Take care of yourself, Chine.”

“You too, Ma.”

She pulled the door shut and rolled the window down halfway. “And grow your locs back. This little heartbreak fade ain’t you.”

I couldn't help the laugh that burst out of me.

The Uber pulled away from the curb. I stood there until its taillights disappeared at the end of the block.

My phone felt heavy in my pocket.

For the first time in months, I didn’t want to call Midnight and ask her to choose me.

I just wanted to tell her the truth.

Chapter 7

Ayo had been gone for six hours, and I was sober and still awake.

I kept thinking about her telling me to call Indigo. I decided to call her husband since she had explicitly told me not to call her. I knew he’d answer.

He did—on the fourth ring.