Page 71 of The Plus One

“A couples’ massage.”

“Ehh. How bout a couples massage in Jamaica.”

“You can’t throw money at everything.”

“I know.” He sat beside me. “But I want to give them something better to remember.”

That shut me up. Ace knew Sierra and Stephen because of Kel. But he also knew they mattered to me, so that meant they mattered to him too. “Why Jamaica?”

“Stephen said they wanted to go last year but couldn’t.”

“You remembered that?”

“I listen to people."

See. This was the shit that was going to have me falling in love with his ass. I touched his lip that was starting to swell. “You need some ice.”

“I’m good.”

“You finna look crazy tomorrow.”

“I’ll still look good.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed some ice from the freezer. After wrapping it in a towel, I pressed it against his lip. “Damn.”

“Don’t get scary now. You wasn’t scared when you was swinging.”

“Your ass heavy-handed.”

“You should’ve thought about that before turning the reception into fight night.”

“I’m not apologizing for that.”

“I didn’t ask you to.” I moved the ice to his lip. “I just need you to learn how to stop after the first punch.”

“The first one ain’t get my point across.”

“Ace.”

“Fine. The second one.”

I shook my head. “You’re impossible.”

“And yet you called me your man.”

My hand stopped. “When?”

“You said watching your nigga fight made you wet.”

My mouth dropped open. “I said that out loud?”

His grin lasted about two seconds before he grabbed his lip. “Shit.”

“That’s what you get.”

“Don’t change the subject. I’m your nigga now?”

“You got hit too many times. You hearing shit.”