Page 24 of It’s The Dawg In Him For Me

“I'm not fucked up for anythin’, Papa, I'm just not a slow bitch.”

That got a real reaction outta him. A short laugh slipped out before he could stop it, and he looked at me like I had just impressed and irritated him at the same time.

“You got attitudes for days, ma.”

“And you got options,” I replied. “We both know what that means.”

That smile faded away a lil’ after that, not completely gone, but he was back in serious mode again.

“Iight,” he said, shifting his weight off the frame. “Let me ask you somethin then.”

I didn’t answer, just waited.

He took that as his green light.

“If I wasn’t even on no funny timin’ like you think I was, you think you still would’ve been trippin’ like this?

“I don’t know, I respond to what I see.”

He nodded like he was accepting that answer even if he didn’t like it.

“So you don’t believe in givin’ a nigga room to show you somethin’ different?” he asked.

“I do,” I said. “Just not after I already seen how you move.”

That shut him up for a second. He looked at me longer now, like the smoothness in him wasn’t enough to just talk me out of what I had my mind set on.

“You are not regular,” he finally said.

“I know,” I responded without hesitation.

That made his lips curl slightly, but he didn’t press it.

Instead, he took a few steps closer to me and licked his lips. The smell of his cologne filled my nose.

“I can't even lie to you,” he said. “You got me standin' here thinkin’ and shit. I might have to start thinkin’ different.”

“Thinkin’ different now don’t change what already happened,” I said.

“I hear you,” he replied, softer now. “But I'm tellin’ you I wasn’t even tryin’ to do what you think I was.”

I let out a slow breath, looking at him like I was weighing him all ova again.

“Rosama, I can’t stress this enough. I don’t care what you was tryin’ to do. That don’t mean nothin’ to me.”

That made him pause again.

But I kept going.

“I care what a nigga does who is tryin’ to talk to me. I care how they carry themselves and the company they keep because that is a reflection of them, and maybe you are not used to a bitch who cares. That has nothin’ to do with me”

He nodded with no interruption and just listened.

By the way he looked at me, I could tell that he wasn’t used to no shit like that.

“Iight,” he said quietly. “So, what now?”

I leaned against my doorframe and crossed my arms.