Page 70 of Surrogate For My Best Friend’s Man 2

“Too damn much.” I laughed

“She knows why y’all broke up?”

“Shit if she didn't, she does now.”

That changed his tone. “Shante told her?”

“Had to, grandma was standing there when I said the babies were Deuce and Kim’s.”

“Damn.” He replied.

“Yeah.” I turned onto my street.

“That whole situation is messy as hell.” Troy said.

“Beyond messy.” I let him know.

“Alisha still don’t know?” Troy asked.

“As far as I know, nah.”

“That’s wild.”

I didn’t respond, that was the one part that had started bothering me differently. I didn’t give a fuck about protecting Deuce. And after today, I wasn’t too interested in protecting Shante from the consequences of her decisions either. But Alisha was walking around blind. Everybody around her knew pieces of her own damn marriage except her, that wasn’t sitting right with me.

Troy interrupted my thoughts. “So what are you gonna do about the house?”

I pulled into my driveway and looked at it. “Live in it, what else?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Nah, I know what you mean.” I shut the truck off. “Nothing.”

“You ain’t told Shante?”

“Nope.”

“And you don’t plan to?”

“Nope.”

“Damn, that was supposed to be her push gift.”

“Was.” I looked up at the house. I’d spent months getting everything right. I had been picky as hell about that bitch from the neighborhood to the backyard. I even made sure the primary bedroom was on the opposite side of the other rooms because Shante complained about hearing every damn sound in our apartment. Now she didn’t even know the house existed and I planned to keep it that way.

“Look, I’m about to go in the crib.” I said while getting out of my truck.

“Aight.”

“And stop laughing at my shit.”

“Nigga, Shante ran your bitch off in Target in front of Grandma Lorraine, I’m laughing at this shit all week.”

“Fuck you.” I hung up and headed inside. As soon as I opened the door, that new house smell hit me. I tossed my keys on the counter and went straight to the kitchen. I needed a drink. I opened the refrigerator, grabbed a bottle of water instead, and leaned against the counter.

My phone buzzed again. This time, I didn’t have to look, my gut told me exactly who it was. I picked it up.

Shante: You didn’t have to embarrass me like that.