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She lifted her hand to her face, flickering her index finger. “There’s this thing that happens in your eyes when you look at me sometimes.”
My eyes shot wide open. “A flip in my eyes?”
Damn…
I’d hoped I wasn’t one of those suckas who wore their heart on their sleeves, allowing women to take advantage of them. I didn’tthinkthat was me. But with Ashira, there was no telling. Now, I felt as insecure as a motherfucker.
“What does that even mean, man?” I grunted, rolling my shoulder.
Ashira was still facing the water, her right shoulder to me. “Tonight…right now, it’s telling me that if I’d just say the word, you’d fuck me right here on the beach.”
My head snapped back, and I was speechless. She giggled, but in a way that made me feel she meant what she’d said.
“Ashira,I—”
“Yeah, yeah. I know you have a little girlfriend. I’m no homewrecker.” Then her face tightened, and I squinted as she tapped her chin. “Though in this case, it’s different. You’re my home, Jas. Prism built.” She shook her head. “Maybe we blew our chance at romance. Hell, maybe we allowed our sexual chemistry to drive us down an avenue not meant for us, which is why things between us have been so off. Either way, it wasn’t until this year that I realized how much of a staple in my life you are.” She sucked in a breath like she’d been hit with a newer revelation. “I’ve been my own damn homewrecker!”
I have no idea why, but that had me cracking up. Ashira did, too. She slapped my arm and fell into me, laughing. Yup. Shortie was tipsy. But the prism reference never got old. It did shit to me when she’d acknowledge me in that way.
“You’re a nut, man!” I laughed.
“Yeah,” Ashira sighed. “Well, I’m already responsible for one of the significant women leaving your life; I think I need to give Ms. Josie space to thrive. We don’t need the prism to shade and tilt from you losing your lover, too. I know how much Ava meant to your business. Have you even found a replacement? I’m sure it’s going to take years to resume the confidence you had in her.” She sucked her teeth. “Damn. You know I feel bad for that.”
“Don’t.” I pulled in a deep breath, peeping the sun go down. “I kept Ava on to make you jealous.”
“Excuse me?” Ashira looked like she didn’t know if she should go off or laugh. Her face, and even her body, struggled between the two. “Jealous?” I nodded. “Motherfucker!” she swore in a harsh whisper. “It worked!”
“I know.”
She shoved me. “Jas!”
And that’s when I chuckled. It was a huge inconvenience to lose Ava. She was a soldier. But I knew Ashira hated her from day one, and if Ashira was being honest about not feeling she had control over her own life, my truth was Ava was the only control I had over Ashira’s. Keeping Ava on board well after our original apprenticeship contractual agreement was the only way I could fuck with Ashira.
“Wanna hear something funny?” She nudged me in the arm. “Same with Sergio.”
Muthafucka!
My head whipped to fully see her face. Ashira laughed as she shot bullets at me with her gun-hands.
“Oh, shit,” was all I could say.
I hated that motherfucker. He was why I’d never stepped foot inKucheza, her dance club I helped name. The name means “dancing” in Swahili.
“You fucked with that man’s life all these years, Ashira?” I wasn’t laughing.
That shit rightfully knocked the goofy ass smile from her face.
Ashira walked on her toes toward me. Her tits looked bigger in the low-cut dress she wore. I’d been looking away all night.
“You don’t need to use violence as it concerns me. I abhor that shit.”
“Then fire his ass.”
She was patient with her pace when she lifted from her toes to get into my face. “I’ll consider doing it if you could be straightforward with me for the first time in your life.”
“About what?”
“Do you still want to fuck me?”
