Page 57 of D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

“No. Like...I like her, like her. As in...I could see myself falling in love with her.”

That finally caught her attention. Lowering the graphite pencil, she slid her gaze over to me.

“Y’all fucked?!”

“What? No! How did you get that from what I said?”

“It’s only been five-to-ten business days, D’Vaughn. The exchanging of bodily fluids and distribution of orgasms has a way of making time seem inconsequential.” Tilting her head, she quirked an eyebrow. “So what is it, because I know something happened?”

“Not everyone is a horndog, ma’am. All we’ve done is kiss.” She opened her mouth, but I shook my head. “But that isn’t the point. I’m not falling for her because of a few kisses, even if they were so freaking amazing.”

“Uh-huh. Then why?”

I flopped back against the couch, sighing dreamily at the memory. “She said that she wants to fall in love with me and that I need to let it happen.”

The pencil stopped moving and Cinta swung her gaze over to me.

“Okay, that is sweet as hell.”

“I know, right!” I gushed, cheesing like a fool.

“What did you say when she said that?”

Slapping a hand against my chest, I leaned forward and coughed a few times. “Huh? Uh...that’s not important.”

Sliding the sketchbook back onto the table, Cinta turned to me and folded her legs in front of her, clasping her hands in her lap as she stared at me.

“Well, that was definitely a lie. Let’s try again, shall we? Without all of the fanfare this time, if you don’t mind.”

I stared straight ahead, nibbling on my bottom lip as I tried to think of a way to get out of this. Cinta cleared her throat dramatically.

“I’ll ask again, what did you say when Kris said you needed to let her fall in love with you?”

Cringing, I ducked my head. “Well, at first I misunderstood her and I kind of told her that I wouldn’t stand in her way if she decided to go cruising for women as long as she was discreet.”

Cinta looked as if she’d swallowed a fishbone. “Okay. And after she cleared it up? What’d you say once you knew what she was talking about?”

I sighed. “Before I answer this, I just want to point out that she said she was looking for love on the first night, before anyone was paired up.”

“Mmhm. What’d you say?”

“I told her that I wasn’t a Lego and that she couldn’t just put me in a spot because she felt like it.”

A deep, mournful sound like a whale crying out in the dead of night burst from Cinta’s mouth, startling me and making me jump. I stared at her in shock. Reaching behind her, Cinta grabbed one of the cushions off of the couch and smacked me across the head with it. I howled with laughter and fell back.

“I can’t believe you’re over here crying about not being picked when this woman is literally picking you at every stage! You told her to go troll for pussy while you turned the other cheek and she turned around and explained herself further. Then you told her that she was a desperate hoe who’d take any ole body as a wife, and all she did was come for you harder! Baby. Vaughn. My love. My boo. Where are your wires going? Why aren’t they syncing to the correct sources? How are you missing this when it’s right in front of your face?”

“I’m not—”

“You are!” she interrupted. “Kris is telling you how she feels and you’re pulling out a thesaurus and searching for alternate meanings. Stop that! Give her a chance and take her words at face value. You can’t tell me that you believe you deserve love and affection when you keep pushing it away like this.”

Eyes wide, I shook my head. “That’s not—I’m not.” I snapped my mouth shut. Is that what I was doing? Was I pushing Kris away?

Cinta grabbed my hand and squeezed.

“I’m not telling you to jump headfirst into a real relationship with Kris, I’m just suggesting that you get out of your head. Take things for what they are, not what they have the potential to be or what they might be like if x equaled y squared. This isn’t algebra and you don’t have to solve for x. You can just live and let love do its thing.”

I heard her loud and clear, receiving her input and putting real thought into it.