Page 71 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

“Girl, I’ve been watching you mope around here for weeks with a perpetually downturned smile, sad as a plant without the sun. Why in the world would I be ashamed of helping your girlfriend publicly grovel when it was clear that whatever was wrong with you was her fault?”

Shay stared at me, waiting for a response that I didn’t have. There were several parts of her statement that I needed to address, most importantly, the assumption that Poppa was my girlfriend. But oddly, that was the one part that I didn’t want to correct. I liked Shay assuming that me and Poppa were a couple. I liked hearing her referred to as my girlfriend even when I knew it was untrue. My foolish heart struck again.

Dropping my defensive stance, I nodded my head and blew out a breath.

“You have a point,” I conceded. “I guess I should be thanking you.”

Tilting her head to the side, Shay eyed me. Then she leaned forward, her palms flat on the desk as she held my gaze.

“Hey. If it’s not what you want, know that it’s okay to say no.”

Eyes wide, I blinked at her. Unperturbed, she continued.

“Even if you wanted it before, but now you’ve changed your mind, you can say no. Nothing is set in stone.”

My lip trembled as a wave of gratitude slammed into me out of nowhere.

“I appreciate you so much for this, Shay. Thank you so much for looking out for me.” My voice was a little thick with unshed emotion, but I couldn’t help it.

This went beyond standard client satisfaction. Shay wasn’t giving me this talk simply because she wanted to retain my business at her gym; she was doing this because she genuinely cared about me. All of the worrying I’d done over the past few weeks, the hand-wringing as I thought that I would have no one left who loved me if I completely cut off the Thomases, was all for naught. Here was another example of the community I’d built in this city.

“Listen, if there are people in your ear, forget about them. Forget this whole display. None of that shit matters if you don’t want her.”

“But I do want her.” Folding my arms atop the counter and dropping my head onto my folded arms, I sighed heavily. “That’s actually the problem.”

Standing to her full height, Shay peeked over my shoulder in the direction I’d come from. I twisted around to see what I could see and found myself ensnared in Poppa’s intense gaze. That look—the undeniable love—beaming from those warm brown eyes struck me dead in the chest.

It was difficult to question things when she looked at me like that.

“Gahdamn,” Shay muttered after letting off a low whistle.

I snapped my head back to her, watching her eyebrows shoot toward the ceiling as she pinned me with a look.

“Baby, I’m not seeing the problem. She clearly wants you too.”

My chest inflated as I inhaled a deep breath. I pushed the air out through my nose.

“It does look like it, huh?” I chuckled softly.

At least this was further proof that I wasn’t seeing things. I wasn’t trying to make something out of nothing just so that my feelings didn’t feel unrequited. It was one thing for her family to say they could see something between us, but it was a whole other thing for someone who didn’t know us as Cyn & Jucee to say the same.

That should’ve made me feel better.

It didn’t.

Tapping my nails on the counter, I smiled at Shay.

“I’m gonna go hop in the shower. Thanks for everything, Shay.”

She gave me a soft smile, dipping her chin in acknowledgement. “Don’t forget what I said.”

She’d said many things, but I knew exactly which things in particular she meant.

“Yes, ma’am,” I teased before finally making my way to the back of the gym and into the locker room.

I wish I could say that I took my time and made Poppa wait, but I did nothing of the sort. Pineappling my braids, I shoved the huge bun into a satin-lined shower cap and took my toiletries into a shower stall. Once I stepped into the spray of the shower head, it didn’t take long for my brain to start racing. I was pretty positive that I knew why Poppa had shown up, but that didn’t change me nor my anxiety about her being there. What was she going to say to me and what would happen afterward? I mean, I was pretty certain that I knew why she was there, right? We hadn’t spoken, truly, in a couple of weeks, which was unheard of in the entirety of our friendship. It was obvious she wanted to change that, but a small part of me wondered if she was only here because not only had we not spoken, but we hadn’t been having sex either.

Please stop acting like you’re the only bitch Poppa can fuck.