Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 124320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
“You miss him?” I ask softly.
“He cheated on me.” She bites her bottom lip and takes another swig of wine. “Yeah, I miss his trifling ass.”
“I’m sorry, Mo. How’d you find out?”
“Oh, he was decent enough to tell me himself because he wanted out. Sat me down and said he’d met someone at work. She was younger, skinnier and lighter than me, but, of course, none of those things mattered to him. Their minds had met on an intellectual plane.”
She shoots me an icily ironic look. “Bitch did graduate from Penn. Made me sick. Miss I Got Everything And Your Man. He better not be eating her ass. He never ate booty or did any freaky, adventurous shit with me.”
Mona’s funny as hell even when she’s hurting, so an involuntary smile quirks my lips. One she ruefully returns.
She sits up again, cross-legged, and flings her long dreadlocks over one shoulder. “I could have cheated. Think I didn’t have offers? Opportunities? I did, but I would never do that to another person.”
I sit up, leaving my legs in the air resting against the back of the couch, but propping my elbows on the edge. “I kissed Ezra.”
As soon as the confession hits the air, I want to take it back. Damn wine, loosening my lips and lowering my guard.
“Kimba,” Mona groans, dropping her head to her hands. “You said you had this under control. That you were just friends. Just gonna talk.”
“Yeah, but that was before he told me—”
“I don’t care what he told you.” Mona stands a little unsteadily, the fog clearing from her eyes. “That’s somebody else’s man. A good woman. A friend of mine. The mother of his child.”
“But Mo—”
“Don’t but Mo me. They’ve been together almost ten years. You can’t just waltz into their lives from on high for a month and tear that family apart.”
“I’m not tearing anything apart. I—”
“How could you, Kimba?”
“She’s fucking someone else,” I blurt. Were I completely sober, I doubt I would have said that.
“She’s what?” Mona’s eyes widen and her mouth hangs open. “Aiko?”
“I shouldn’t have said anything.” I groan, not drunk enough for a hangover, but just drunk enough to make a fool of myself and put everyone’s business in the streets.
“But ya did, so go on. Explain.”
“You and Ezra are friends. He’ll tell you when the time is right.”
“The time is right now, honey. You opened this can of worms. Don’t try to go shoving them back in now.”
I sigh and pluck at the frothy, shimmery layers of my skirt. “She asked for an open relationship. Ezra didn’t want it, said things weren’t getting better, and they’ve decided to break it off.”
“Aiko asked for an open relationship?” Mona’s face is skeptical. “Homegirl gets jealous, green as a butter bean over Ezra. I can’t imagine her being okay with him…are you sure?”
“Well, that’s what he told me. He says he wanted to make a clean break because they’ve been having trouble for a while.”
I sit up enough to glance at her over my shoulder. “Is that true?”
“I mean, I know they were seeing a counselor, but I assumed it was just them being smart, proactive. Keeping the lines of communication open.”
“Oh, they’re open all right,” I say dryly. “According to him, they’re over.”
“So Ezra told you this and you two kissed?”
I clear my throat. “Twice.”
“And did you do more than kiss?”
I love Mona, but I’m not getting into the details of Ezra’s fingers inside me, his mouth hot and suckling at my breast. In my mind’s eye, there’s an aerial shot of Ezra and me on that trampoline, breathing hard, turned into each other, unable to look away in the moonlight, intimacy curling deliciously between our bodies.
“Just kissed, but he wants more.” I meet her eyes across the room. “So do I.”
“Look, I’m not that chick who tells a grown-ass woman where to get the dick or how to run her life,” she says, “but I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t say this. They are a family. Aiko is not just some girl he found on Tinder and then decided it’s quits. He hasn’t been with anyone but her for ten years, and they have a son together. Things happened fast and things just happened. It ain’t over ’til it’s over, and if anyone gets hurt when things go south, it’ll be you.”
And I cannot afford to be hurt, not with everything already on my plate.
The kitchen door opens and heavy footsteps approach the living room. I’m on high alert, but Mona looks pretty calm about it.
“Well, here we go,” she says resignedly.
“It’s just me,” Ezra yells from the doorway.
The sight of him standing at the entrance to Mona’s living room sends shock spearing through me. He looks goooooood. His broad shoulders fill the doorway, and the dark jeans and YLA T-shirt show off the lean muscles in his arms and legs. His hair has grown just a little, long enough to curl the slightest bit, and my fingers pulse with the need to scrape across his scalp and burrow into the soft pelt of it. A little scruff shadows his sharply drawn jawline. He’s sun-bronzed, contrasting with the white flash of his smile.