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Deedot and B-Sure looked my way. Antoine did, too. “You, Sin?” Deedot asked.
“At a fuckin’ play.” Deedot seemed shocked, and I understood why. “C’mon, my G.”
I chuckled. “Shit was proper, too.”
The room laughed.
“Yeah.” Chelsea nodded again. “I was so stoked he allowed me to treat himandto a play?”
“You were winning, winning!” Witherspoon gassed her.
“Okay?!” Chelsea high-fived her. “And I got me a new fren!”
Witherspoon snapped her fingers. “A fren, fren!”
Those two were cute. I was amazed at how fast they clicked. Chelsea was a good girl with great energy, a lot sweeter than her big sis, Tanya. But Tanya was cool with me, too. She wasn’t as carefree and friendly, but always showed love and respect, even when I had to beat Antoine’s ass for crashing a brand new whip I’d bought Samona years ago when driving while drunk.
“Wait.” Witherspoon looked confused. “You treated Jas?”
The big ass smile on Chels’ face was priceless. Why was this a big deal? I sat in a chair against the wall.
“Yup. Wasn’t equivalent to two degrees, but it was a great time. And we met Shi-Shi—well, I met Shi-Shi. She and Jas are work acquaintances.”
Witherspoon’s nervous eyes were on me again.
Deedot turned away from the table to look at me. “Oh, word?”
“You be knowin’ people likethat,that, from work, Sin?” B-Sure asked.
Processing that question, I caught a flashback of the new bedroom set I walked in to the other night. Witherspoon bought it after we broke my old one fucking. My set was cheap, something I picked out myself, not needing much for comfort.Shit. Anything was better than the cots I’d been used to. I was never self-conscious about my personal space because I didn’t have any woman in there but Consuela to clean. But never did I imagine having a woman of Witherspoon’s caliber on there and breaking the damn frame.
My stupid ass shrugged at B-Sure’s question. I was halfway hard as a fucking brick at this point. I stood to leave the room before I embarrassed myself.
Why the fuck did you come through, Witherspoon?
My eyes roved the table for any possible clues or cues. We were playing spades and only going to three hundred and fifty, so that everyone would have a chance to play a game or two. Jas and I had a score of three-twenty, and Antoine and Tanya had three-eleven. It was the last hand. Jas and I placed our bid of six, since he saw three books and I saw three myself. We also knew that if we went for six, they had to go for seven to win. It all came down to the last book as both teams had six books sitting in front of us. So, whichever team won this last book would win the game.
The only cards left to be played were the big and little jokers, the ace of spades, and the queen of spades, which I was holding. My card math was sharp. Tanya was to my right and led with the ace of spade. I played my queen then looked at Antoine, who wore a defeated expression, causing me to check in over at my partner, Jas.
When I sawthatbig joker stuck to Jas’ forehead, I dropped my face towards my chest.Damn... This round was even more stressful than the last. The crowded living room opened in shouts, applause, and other expressive gestures. As much as I wanted to do my usual silly manner of gloat-filled celebrating, I had to pee.
“Them construction people damn good at Spades.” Jas’ little cousin, Jonathan, jeered. “That’s what y’all be doing instead of actually building them muthafuckin’ houses, I see!”
He slapped hands with Juggy. “Unforeseeable delays, my ass!”
I shook my head at Juggy feeding into that fallacy as I stood. Catching eyes with Tanya, I asked, “Where’s the restroom? My bladder is crying.”
The swiftness in which her eyes swept me from head to toe with a twisted mouth shocked the hell out of me. My gut told me this had nothing to do with her and her husband, Antoine, losing the Spades game to Jas and me. When I arrived today, she hardly spoke and gave very little eye contact.
“Down the hall, to the left.” She sauntered off in the opposite direction.
Stunned, I quickly decided to move on. After using the bathroom, I found my way into the kitchen where it was less crowded and a place I could return the trillions of text messages from my phone and check the alerts, too. Of course, much of it was work and the studio. There were a number of alerts from social media, too, which likely meant my latest dance video had gone viral againorAustin had caught a headline. I hated that people tagged me in shit associated with him. There was no time for me to grieve the relationship, although according to my therapist, I hadn’t opted to take the time.
Whatever…
I kept scrolling through professional athletes and rappers trying to holler via the DMs.
Meek! Again? Ilk!
