Page 88 of Certified to Handle You 3

Toni laughed. “Bitch, please.”

“I’m serious. What if I don’t find him?”

“Then that’s somethin’ you gotta think about before you spend the money,” Toni said. “You can’t control whether you run into Renza once you get there, but you can make sure you ain’t stranded if you don’t. Find you somewhere nice to stay and make sure you keep enough money to take care of yourself. That way, if it take you a minute to find him or you don’t find him at all, you ain’t out there fucked up.”

I looked back at the pictures of Amiri and let myself think about that. If I treated the whole trip like it only mattered if I found Renza, I was settin’ myself up to lose my mind the second shit ain’t happen the way I wanted. I could go ‘cause I wanted him and still make sure I had a plan for myself.

Amiri was beautiful enough that if everything went wrong, I could sit my ass on a beach, cry if I needed to and come back to Greystone knowin’ I tried.

“That’s what I’m gon’ do,” I said. “I’m gon’ find somewhere I would actually wanna stay even if I don’t see him.”

“Exactly. And don’t be pickin’ no raggedy shit just ’cause you tryna save every dollar. Keep in mind you by yourself somewhere you ain’t never been.”

“I know. Help me look.”

“Send me what you find.”

I started searchin’ hotels while Toni did the same on her end, and before long we had moved from me bein’ ready to jump on the first flight I saw to actually puttin’ together somethin’ that made sense.

We looked at different parts of Amiri and checked which areas had enough around ‘em that I wouldn’t be stuck dependin’ on one hotel for everything. I wanted somewhere nice enough that I could enjoy myself if Renza never crossed my path, but I wasn’t finna spend all my savings on some room just ‘cause it had a pretty view.

Every time I found somethin’, I sent it to Toni.

“Nah, I don’t like that one,” Toni said after lookin’ at one of the hotels I sent her. “The room cute, but look how far it is from everything else you was just lookin’ at.”

“You right. I ain’t pay attention to that.”

“And this other one look better anyway. You got places around you, and you ain’t gotta spend a damn fortune just to stay there.”

I went back to the second hotel and looked through the pictures again. “This one got a beach too. This also seem like an area Renza would be in. I know that nigga well enough to know this got his name all over it.”

Toni laughed, and said, “Exactly. I think so too.”

We kept lookin’ through everything we could find about the island. I checked how I could get around, what was near the hotels and how much I needed to set aside for food and everything else once I got there. Toni helped me compare the places I saved, and whenever I started gettin’ ahead of myself, she pulled me back to whatever we was supposed to be lookin’ at.

By the time the sun started goin’ down outside my window, my bed was covered with the notebook I had grabbed, my charger and the purse I dumped out earlier while lookin’ for one of my cards. I had prices written down and enough tabs open on my phone that I was startin’ to confuse myself.

Couture called somewhere in the middle of all this shit, and I watched his name come across my screen before the call disappeared. A text followed a few minutes later, but I ain’t open it. I knew he was still tryna understand why everything changed so fast for him, but there wasn’t nothin’ left for me to decide when it came to us. I had already made that decision, and right now every part of me was focused on where I was goin’ next.

After another hour of lookin’ around, I went back to the hotel Toni and I liked the most. The price was higher than I wanted, but it left me enough money to handle myself once I got there and get back home if everything went wrong.

Before I booked it, I picked my phone up from the bed. “Toni, I need you to tell me one more time before I spend this money. Renza is really in Amiri? Is you sure, sure?”

“Yes,” Toni said, and there wasn’t no hesitation in her voice this time. “Kay’Lo been talkin’ to him. That nigga is in Amiri. I don’t know his hotel, and I don’t know what part of the island he stayin’ on, but I know that’s where he at.”

“Okay,” I said, noddin’.

“You sure you wanna do this?” Toni asked, and I could tell by her voice that she was worried.

I looked at the hotel page before answerin’. “Yes. I have to.”

Toni was quiet for a moment before she said, “Okay then, bitch.”

I filled out the rest of the hotel information and checked everything twice before I booked it. When the confirmation came through, I stared at the amount that had left my account and rubbed my forehead.

“I booked the hotel.”

“Now, you got somewhere to sleep now,” Toni said. “And somewhere decent too.”