Page 100 of When I Thug You Like That

Dre looked to me and smirked.

“It’s already covered, Ma,” I told her. “Tip too.”

“Jay. You ain’t even give me a ch…”

“It’s cool,” I assured her.

“I mean, if you wanna pay me again…”

“Back up, nigga.” I playfully pushed Dre. “You ready, Chuston?”

“Yeah.”

“Y’all have a successful rest of y’all day, fellas,” I said, putting my hand on the small of Jai’ana’s back to guide her outside.

“You know,” Jai’ana went to speak as we made it onto the sidewalk, “I had a feeling you was going to do that.”

“And I had a feeling you was gonna try to fight me on it, which is why I paid before I came out here to get you.”

She elbowed me in the gut. “You think you so slick.”

“Kinda. Y’all hungry?”

“Yes,” Chuston answered before she could.

I looked over at him. “My man. What you wanna eat?”

“Ummmm.” He looked up to the sky and tapped his chin.

Jai’ana laughed. “Give him a minute.”

“I got all day.”

While we waited for Chuston to give us an answer, Jai’ana’s phone rang.

“It’s Taina,” she announced before answering. “Hey, boo.”

She listened for a few seconds, and whatever Taina was saying on the other line made her blush and take a step away from me like she didn’t want me to hear what was being said.

“Y’all got something to say about me, say it to my face,” I joked.

Jai’ana couldn’t form a straight face to save her life, letting me know that Taina was in fact talking about me.

“We’re outside now. Okay… that’s fine. We’ll see you in a minute.”

She ended the call, smirking at me.

“Nobody was talkin’ about you.”

“Cap.”

“Anyway, Chus, you can stop thinkin’ now. Your mom is close by. She’s gonna come pick you up.”

“Damn, there go my lunch partner,” I said. “I just knew whatever he decided on was gon’ be good. He was doing some serious thinking.”

“Right,” Jai’ana agreed.

We walked over to her car and stood in front of it for a few minutes until Taina arrived, stepping out of the same car as Jai’ana’s but in black.