Page 105 of Buy Back My Love

The little smile that pulled at Van’s mouth irritated me immediately.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“No, what?”

Van looked at me. “You asking a lot of questions about a woman you don’t care about.”

I rolled my eyes. “I never said I cared. I asked a question.”

“Mhm.”

“Don’t mhm me.”

Van laughed and turned back toward the street. “So how single life treating you?”

I thought about it for a second. “Weird.”

“Just weird?”

“I been with that man since I was fourteen, Van. What you want me to say?” I rested my arms against the railing. “Some days I’m mad. Some days I miss him. Then he call me fifteen times or show up somewhere acting crazy, and I’m mad all over again.”

“That sounds exhausting.”

Van looked at me for a second. “Are you?”

“Am I what?”

“Gon’ go back.”

I looked out over the railing. “I don’t know. I miss him sometimes, but then I think about everything he did. He named his son after our baby, Van. I know he always wanted a junior, but damn. That’s the kind of betrayal you don’t just get over.” I shook my head. “And now he got another baby on the way. I ain’t built to be nobody step-mama or side chick while he go back and forth between two houses. That ain’t me.”

Van nodded. “Sound like you might not know how you feel about him yet, but you know what you ain’t willing to live with.”

I looked at him. “Yeah.”

“That’s enough for right now.”

I studied him for a second, and he caught me looking.

“What?” Van asked.

“Nothing. You just be sounding real sensible sometimes.”

He smiled. “Sometimes?”

“Don’t ruin it.”

That made him laugh, and when he looked back at me, his eyes took their time this time.

“You look good tonight.”

“Don’t start.”

“I’m just saying.”

“Well, stop.”