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I rolled my eyes. I had no time for feelings. I didn’t care about being liked, but I did care if the Blackwell babes lost respect for me because they thought I’d double-crossed them. I also really cared about my show.
“Oh please. It’s not sexist if it’s directed at a man. Women deserve sexual liberation and guys like you do not. You can’t be trusted with it. You misuse it.”
Malakai rolled his tongue in his mouth, his eyes glinting with irritation. “Ah. So we’re back to you acting like you know me again. Cool. I missed that. That was a good time.”
I laughed humorlessly and scooted forward on the sofa. “Oh. Oh, I see. So you can presume shit about me, but I can’t about you? That’s the same entitled crap that probably led you to date multiple girls at the same time and not expect any emotional investment. Don’t act like you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s manipulative.”
Malakai released a slanted, dry smile. “Remind me why we kissed again? Was it love at first sight or was it to piss off Zack? And listen, I rate it, I get it, but what I don’t get is you acting like we’re so different. And you kissing me proves that. Everybody saw that you’re exactly what you preach against. It’s like I said before. You’re a hypocrite, Kiki.”
I froze. “Okay, wow.”
Aminah’s eyes widened as her head whipped between Malakai and I, her hair swishing in my face in the process. Something flitted across Malakai’s strained face and he flattened his lips. It looked like it might have been a small dose of regret. He cleared his throat.
“Look... let’s just calm down. I didn’t mean to—”
I held up a hand. I had stopped floating a while ago, but now I crashed to the ground. I had been so stupid.
“Oh, I’mcalm.Who’s not calm? Don’t try and do that...gyaldemwhispererthing to me. It won’t work. And don’t try and backtrack because you just exposed the real you. Now it makes sense. You didn’t agree to kiss me to help me. Why on earth would a guy like you do that?”
Malakai’s smile was now a sardonic curve. “Guy like me?”
I ignored him. “You did it to call public bullshit on what I said on my show. You wanted to show me up. Expose me. You played me.”
Malakai sat back. He nodded slowly and his demeanor shifted with a shrug of his shoulder. “What if I did?”
Hot fury turned the words in my mouth into ash. A heavy silence dropped between us. I shook my head in disbelief. It was almost a relief to know that it was just a seduction ploy to make me look dizzy. The part of me that wanted to believe that what had just happened between us couldn’t have been fake only worked to convince myself that it had to be. This was exactly what guys like Malakai did. When you fell into the trap, they’d tell you that you should have been watching where you were going.
Aminah cleared her throat. “Wow. That was hot.”
“What?” Both my and Malakai’s voices were incredulous, our eyes snapping into each other’s almost as quickly as we tore them away.
Aminah shook her head sloppily. “I mean don’t get me wrong, I am vexed. I wanna cuss Malakai out.” She threw him an irritated look. “But it was compelling.Juicy.Better than my favorite reality show,Romance & R&B.”
Malakai stared at her. “What is happening right now?”
I picked up my bag. “I’m leaving.”
Aminah placed a hand on my arm, steadying me. “Seriously. I would watch this. Or listen to it.”
I nodded sarcastically. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s do a radio show where I let Malakai break down all the benevolent ways being a Fuckboi actuallyhelpswomen.”
Aminah gasped and her eyes widened. “Kiki Banjo, you beautiful, talented superstar. This is why I manage you! Opening up the lines of gyaldem-mandem communication. Fuck, I’m a genius. I mean, technically you came up with the idea but I definitely led you to it. Wow, even when I’m not trying, I’monit. Why am I studying marketing and business when I could justteachit?”
Aminah’s hands were suspended in the air as she pantomimed the frames in a screen in which she could apparently see her future as some sort of public relations fixer. I nodded, pulled Aminah’s hands down, and hopefully, with them, her excitement for the idea.
“Alright. Calm down, Olivia Nope. There is no way I’m doing this. Can we go? I’d rather listen to Camila Cabello singing Beyoncé songs acoustically on loop than be around him for one more second.”
Aminah gasped. “Alright, I know emotions are high but, please. Don’t put evil like that into the universe. Our tongues are powerful. We’re Nigerian. We know this.”
I reeled myself back in. Anger had pushed me too far. “No, sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight. My brain is just all out of whack because the girls think I played them for nineties Morris Chestnot.”
Malakai sat up. “You think I look like Morris Chestnut?”
I shot him a withering look. “Has the inflated size of your head made your ears shrink or something? I saidnot.”
Malakai’s hitched right shoulder and half smile simmered my blood.
“You used him as a reference. You’re clearly thinking of me in the tangential direction of a nineties heartthrob. I’ll take it.”
