AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But that kiss… the kiss had me thinking things I really,reallyshouldn’t.
Yet another sign I was getting a little too comfortable around here.
“What was all that about though, with you and Blue?” I asked, trying to switch the subject from this dangerous one.
She sighed. “My new spot only has space for maybe four bikes and one of the vehicles. Six if I leave behind one of the cars, which I’m kinda considering, since I only drive when it’s raining anyway. But I don’t want to leaveanyof my babies. I might be in an all-white mood one day, black on black the next. And then pink. I never know.” She laughed. “So I don’t want to pick.”
I chuckled. “You know you’re going to have to though, right.”
“Yeah,” she huffed, shaking her head as she started walking again. “I’ve already decided I’ll just rotate them out. I’m not selling this place any time soon anyway.”
I frowned. “Okay, so what’s the argument about?”
“Nothing.” Tati laughed. “I told you; it’s just a Tuesday.”
As if to highlight her point, when we rounded the corner, Blue was still there, carrying boxes out to the truck parked out front. Keira approached us with questions for Tati about what was left, which gave me the perfect opportunity to put some space between me and her.
“Ay, come help me with this,” Blue called out to me from the living room, already positioned at one end of the couch.
I went straight into action, helping him lift the heavy furniture and carry it out to the truck where we slid it into the spot that had been left open for it. Afterwards, I started back into the house, but he stopped me, pulling me aside to ask a question I’d been dreading, but expecting.
“So what’s going on with you and Tati?” he said, arms crossed as he waited for an answer.
One I… didn’t really have, to be honest. “Does it… seem like something is going on between us?” I countered, making him chuckle.
“Don’t do that shit, bruh.” He sighed. “That’s my sister, and you know better than anybody what she went throughtwo weeksago. You can be real with me, right? ’Cause otherwise—”
“It’s not about being real or not,” I interrupted, shaking my head. “There just ain’t shit for me to say. Could there be something? Probably. But like you said, she’s… in a tenuous space right now, and I’m not trying to complicate that.Besidesthe fact that I’m not really astay-in-one-placekinda nigga, so—”
“So you’re leaving?” he cut in to ask and I pushed out a breath before I nodded.
“I’ll keep my word. I’ll help you get at whoever is responsible for the shit with your father,” I assured. “But after that… I gotta keep moving.”
He bobbed his head. “What the fuck are you running from? Alicia and her people?”
“Nah, I’m good with them, I think. I’m not running from anything external, but if I stay still too long… I don’t know. It might get too quiet up here,” I told him, tapping my temple with a single finger.
He seemed to understand – and accept – that explanation, but still made it clear. “I’m gonna hate to see you go, especially in the wake of what Kev’s bitch ass turned out to be. We don’t let just anybody into this fold, and… shit. I need real niggas to balance the bullshit, you know?”
I chuckled. “Definitely a shortage these days, but you’ve got a solid roster.”
“Not if I keep losing people cause they’re scared to be somebody’s damn boyfriend.”
“Well damn.” I laughed, putting a hand to my chest. “That’s how it is?”
“It is.” He shrugged. “It’s how I see it.”
“Do you have this man-to-man conversation with everybody Tati gets involved with?”
“Nah,” he denied. “I never did with Kev; ’cause I never saw shit for him. Never saw shit for any of the niggas she entertained.”
“So why the fuck are you pressingme?”
“’Cause I see some shit, obviously,” he countered, looking at me like I was stupid for even wondering. “I hear what you’re saying, but I also see the energy she has with you. I see how she looks at you, and how you look at her; you motherfuckers ain’t fooling anybody,” he said.
“You a fucking matchmaker or something, nigga? Whatisthis?”
“It’s me doing my part for my goddamn sister,” he answered. “Look, this shit is y’all’s business, and I’m not trying to insert myself. When I was with Talia, I had to talk to Tati, and later, her pops. Now, with Nessa, her brother-in-law got at me on her behalf, and I had to talk with her other siblings too. This is what we do when we’re taking care of our own.”
