Page 101 of Buy Back My Love

“Oh, you got me fucked up, Lee.”

My phone started ringing before I could decide whether to call her. Hannah’s name was on the screen. I almost declined it, still too pissed off to deal with another conversation, but I answered.

“What?”

“Where did you go, JB? What is going on with you? You just walked out and...” Hannah stopped talking suddenly, and I heard her suck in a sharp breath through the phone. “Ah, fuck.”

I straightened up. “Hannah?”

“JB, I’m cramping.”

Everything I had been thinking about Lee dropped out of my head. “How bad?”

“Bad.”

“You bleeding?”

“I don’t know. Just come back. Please.”

“I’m coming.”

I looked at Lee’s door one more time, shoved my phone in my pocket, and headed back down the steps. Whatever me and Lee had to deal with was gonna have to wait. Right now, I needed to get back to Hannah.

Lee

By the next weekend, I was in New Orleans trying my best not to think about JB. Anika’s bachelorette weekend had come right on time. Me and Nina drove down Friday, and by Saturday evening I had already decided two days away from Mobile wasn’t nearly enough.

Friday night had been dinner, drinks, and Melissa dragging us from one place to the next because apparently being maid of honor came with a whole itinerary. Now we were back at the Airbnb getting ready for night two, and the place looked like a tornado had hit it. Makeup covered the counters, flat irons and curling wands were plugged in everywhere, and Melissa had clothes spread across half the living room like she was still deciding what to wear.

“Act Up” by City Girls played from the speaker in the corner while somebody yelled from the hallway about a missing fringe jacket.

Everybody had committed to Anika’s Last Rodeo theme. Denim, fringe, western belts, cowboy hats, and boots cute enough for pictures but comfortable enough that hopefully nobody would be crying about their feet twenty minutes after we hit Bourbon.

Anika, of course, got the bride version. She had on a cream western set with white boots and a matching cowboy hat, complete with a little veil hanging off the back.

Melissa checked the time on her phone for about the fifth time in ten minutes. “If y’all make us late again tonight, I’m leaving somebody.”

Princess didn’t even look away from the mirror while she fixed one of her lashes. “You ain’t leaving nobody. You gon’ need us to carry you back later.”

Princess had been Anika’s best friend since high school, so she talked to her and Melissa like family anyway. Serena, Anika’s old college roommate, was standing near the bed debating between two jackets she had already switched twice.

“I’m telling y’all now,” Serena said, “if my feet start hurting, we sitting down.”

Nina looked at her boots. “Your feet hurt and we ain’t even left.”

“Exactly. I’m planning ahead.”

Alize, Anika’s work bestie, was in the kitchen pouring shots and mostly staying out of everybody’s mess. Nina wasn’t even in the wedding, but somehow she had planted herself right in the middle of everything like she belonged there.

I was sitting on the couch zipping up one of my boots when Melissa finally stopped pacing.

She looked over at me. “You know what I still can’t believe?”

I glanced up. “What?”

“You and JB.” Melissa gave me a look. “I never thought I’d see the day y’all broke up.”

“Me either.”