Page 98 of The Need to Know

Cesar whistled. It was barely audible against the music. “Trust me, it’s never a bad time to hang up the jersey.”

“Sheesh,” I joked, cracking a smile his way. “Go out now when I’m MVP?”

Cesar shook his head. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but Monday night she was talking about goin’ on dates and shit. You ready for that?”

We’d both been honest from the beginning. She set the tone, she could date and I could do me until we knew what we were doing together. “She can do whatever she wants.”

“Yeah, but are you ready for that?”

Truth? I didn’t like hearing her say that Monday night. Didn’t like the idea. I’d turned down Bria, but would Nastasia shoot down a date? Not knowing left me perplexed. Why I cared stumped me, and I didn’t like it. Didn’t like being this fogged up. It had been thirty days, and here we were in this void.

Something had to give.

In that photo booth, I’d been in a trance it seemed. I wasn’t sure what possessed me to do it, but I just knew when Nas found out what I left on her neck she’d be heated.

The thought brought a smile to my face.

Cesar was standing beside me, gauging my silence and reading me. Like only a brother could, he knew me too well. He grabbed my shoulder and shook it as he faced the main floor again. “You’re playin’ with fire, Eaze.”

There was no denying that. Trouble was, I didn’t mind getting burned.

“Y’all did what?” Paisley was in shock Saturday morning as we sat in her apartment rehashing my night. She was wearing a large T-shirt that obviously wasn’t hers, and by the sounds escaping her bedroom, I knew we weren’t alone.

There was no time to focus on that. The spotlight was on me. And for good reason. Ezekiel and I had finally blurred that fine line and I didn’t know what to think. He’d texted me as soon as he woke up, a friendly greeting as he checked up on me, but I hadn’t responded.

When I got in to shower last night I was in total shock to discover a hickey on my neck. I should’ve seen the red blotch coming after vivid memories of Ezekiel’s mouth on me carried me all the way home on the drive back from his condo.

Touching it as I sat with Paisley, I didn’t know what to do.

“We had a moment in the photo booth, that’s what,” I said.

“How was it?” Paisley was full-on nosey before she gave me her real opinion.

I grabbed my purse, going and digging out my copy of the strip of photos I’d stashed in my wallet. My eyes immediately went to Ezekiel’s hands in the pictures. Hands that made me feel way too good.

A large part of me was ready to experience the real thing, no matter the consequences. And that was reckless.

Paisley leaned over. “Is that the evidence? Let me see.” She held up her hand. “Is anything hanging out?”

I managed to loosen up and laugh as I handed over the strip of photos. “No, but it’s erotic enough.”

Paisley’s eyes lit up as she peered at my pictures. “Damn.” She handed them back and scratched at her head, unable to shake the images either. “Yikes.”

“Tell me about it,” I agreed.

In the distance, the door to her bedroom opened but no one came out. Paisley paid this no mind as she sat focusing on me.

She had been quiet the whole month I’d been talking to Ezekiel, giving little comments here and there, but I could tell she was bursting at the seams now to spill her internal thoughts.

“Okay, what’s your general consensus on this?” I dared to ask.

Pity swept across my best friend’s face along with a look of firmness that let me know she was going to give it to me raw for my own good.

“I think tonight you should go on a blind date with Gray,” she announced. “This ‘thing’ with Ezekiel was a bad idea from the start. Slowing down and getting to know each other just to decide on a one-night stand versus a friendship? Girl, uh-uh. You should’ve known from the beginning that was a recipe for disaster. All this time getting to know Eazy is just gonna make you want to be with him, and once y’all finally do have sex and he ups and does him, you’re going to be walking around feeling stupid.”

It was harsh, but I couldn’t deny the truth in her words. Getting to know Ezekiel had been a bad idea. Spending all this time with him had been a bad idea. I felt too comfortable and at home with him, and knowing he didn’t do commitment should’ve been a red flag enough to just get the one-night stand over with or walk away completely.

But I hadn’t done that, and here I was.