Page 67 of Buy Back My Love

“How you know that when you just admitted you never had pumpkin?”

“Because I got common sense.”

“That ain’t common sense.”

“It is in the Black community.”

Van laughed so loud that Snoop looked back at him like he wanted in on the joke. “You just made pie racial.”

“I ain’t make shit racial. I’m telling you what I know.”

“They damn near cousins anyway.”

That stopped me again. “Don’t disrespect sweet potatoes like that. They don’t claim pumpkin.”

Van was still laughing when I walked ahead of him. “You know what? Aight. I’m finna prove it to you.”

“You can’t prove something that ain’t true.”

“Yes, I can.”

“How?”

“I’m gonna make you one.”

I looked over at him. “You bake?”

“I can make a pumpkin pie.”

“That ain’t what I asked you. I asked if you bake.”

“I can make a pumpkin pie,” he repeated, which told me everything I needed to know.

“Exactly.”

“Man, whatever.” He nudged Snoop away from somebody’s trash can and caught back up with me. “We’ll make it together.”

“Who is we?”

“Me and you.”

“I don’t know how to make no pumpkin pie.”

“That’s the point.”

By then we were turning back onto our street. “So where we getting this pumpkin from?”

Van looked over at me like I had walked straight into whatever he had been setting up. “Pumpkin patch.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You already had this planned.”

“I just thought of it.”

“Liar.”

“I’m serious. Come with me Saturday. We’ll pick one out and make the pie.”

I laughed. “People really do that? Like go get a whole pumpkin and make the pie from scratch?”