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She wasn’t just standing there, she and Mal appeared to be having a conversation. The look on his face made it clear it wasn’t friendly. Mal looked at Mitch, who shook his head as he drank his beer. The woman’s friend had her attention on the stage, since the first karaoke performer had started.
“What the ever-lovin’ fuck? Is that the same skank from the bathroom?” Macy started to charge off, but I held her back. She looked at me as if I had grown a second head.
“Can you not go over there guns blazin’?”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I’m a big girl.”
She smiled. “All right then, Sally Badass.”
I wished I felt as confident as I sounded. My heart rate increased, and my stomach filled with anxious flutters. Not just over the idea of dealing with that woman, but also the questions in regards to Malcolm. He was talking to her. Did he know her? Had they hooked up at some point? Why hadn’t he sent her away?
The woman’s friend hit her arm when she spotted us. Macy walked over to Mitch. He wrapped his arm around her waist when she stood between his legs. The woman turned and had a smirk on her face. I walked around the table, avoiding going past her. The house music started up again while they waited on the next karaoke participant.
Mal slid over as I approached so that I would take the seat between him and the woman. He gave me a look that was either relief or a plea for help.
I turned to look her directly in the eye when I spoke, and hoped that the nerves wouldn’t be revealed in my voice. “Not sure what your issue is, and I don’t really care. I’m out trying to have a good time with my man and my friends. I suggest you take your thirsty ass elsewhere, because you won’t be getting a drink here.”
Macy choked on her laugh. “You said ‘thirsty.’ I am rubbing off on you.”
Mitch tried but failed to contain his own laughter. “He told you to go on ‘bout your business.”
I felt better hearing that Malcolm had told the woman to leave. Why was she so persistent in trying to pursue a man that was clearly taken?
“Sasha, girl, let it go,” her friend said, trying to pull her away. “It’s his loss, anyway.”
The woman, Sasha, gave me the same glare she’d given me at the bathroom. “You right. He ain’t nothing but a punk, anyway.”
Mitch tightened his hold on Macy. He knew as well as I did, she was ready to rip Sasha a new one. Malcolm shook his head laughing, but didn’t say anything about her comment.
“Ready to dance?”
He nodded. Then he took my hand and led me away from the table, leaving the woman and her friend behind like an afterthought.
The song was some fast club remix, but Mal wrapped his arms around my waist and held me close as if we were having a slow dance. My hands rested against his chest. As a barrier or as preparation to escape? I didn’t want to think the worst, but old habits were hard to break, and the what-ifs on why that woman had been so pushy ran rampant through my head.
“How much trouble am I in?” Mal asked.
“Do you have a reason to think you’re in trouble?”
His arms tightened around me. “I told her I was with someone.”
“Have you slept with her?”
“For real? As hard as I worked to get to this point, you think I’d do that?”
“I meant before. Before me. Us.”
“No. She kept insisting she knew me, but I didn’t remember her at first. Remember when G came to town?”
I nodded.
“I played wingman for him, ‘cuz he was after her friend. The three of them did whatever at my old spot. I crashed at Macy’s.”
I recalled the night. Macy’d complained about him showing up the day we’d gone to the zoo.
According to Mitch, Mal had tried to send Sasha on her way, but for some reason, she wouldn’t let it go. I wanted to believe he’d not slept with her, but what woman in her right mind would boldly attempt to go after a man who was clearly out with someone else? That, coupled with the adrenaline spike still coursing through my veins, made me unable to let it go. Even though part of me was screaming to do just that.
