“Why do I believe you?”
“You should.”
He gripped me by my ass and yanked me closer and I moved in to press my mouth to his for a slow kiss, the first one we’d shared since the night we’d slept together.
“You want to be my boyfriend so damn bad,” I teased.
“Want to be?” He chuckled. “Fuck out of here. I’m yo’ man and you know that shit, Selle.” His hands drifted from my ass to my bare sides, due to the crop top I wore. “Go text that nigga you busy for the night with your real man.”
I snickered and kissed him again before slipping out of his grasp. I went to my bedroom to get my phone and paused to look over my reflection and touch up my hair. I pushed it all back in a hair clip but grabbed little pieces on both sides to frame my face, checked my teeth, and made sure my body looked great in my crop top and athletic shorts before heading back out.
When I got to the living room, Stone was standing near my couch holding my college graduation picture and staring at it.
“Snooping?” I checked.
“Nah. But I needed some stuff and didn’t want to just start digging,” he said. “This your brother?” He gestured to the picture.
“Yep. That’s the one and only Rene.”
“Rene,” he repeated. “Y’all close?”
“Yeah. We are actually.” I walked over to the kitchen and collected the flowers he’d gotten me. “What about you?”
“Nah. I don’t know his ass.”
An unflattering laugh forced its way out of me as I grabbed a vase from above my refrigerator.
“Do you have siblings, Stone?” I clarified.
“Yeah. I’ve got five of them annoying ass niggas.”
“Y’all close?” I repeated his question.
“I think so.” He shrugged. “They’re a little annoying but I love them and I’d die for them if it came down to it.”
“You’re one of the older ones, huh?”
“What makes you think that?”
“I’m sure Rene says the same thing about me.” I yanked a drawer open to grab scissors and went to work cutting the bottoms of the flowers.
“Second oldest,” Stone said.
“How many boys and how many girls?”
“All boys.”
I whistled. “Damn.”
“Yeah. I know.” Stone scoffed, set the picture down, and plucked up another. “You close with your parents?”
“Not really,” I confessed. “I mean, I love them and I know they love me but we’re not super close. They had me and Rene young. Our mom worked at a grocery store, three to eleven at night, so with bedtime and school, we never saw her. Our dadwas a serial cheater. He was the breadwinner and he provided but wasn’t abusive or anything. He just wasn’t around often so…”
“And they’re divorced now, right?”
“Thankfully.”
Stone set the frame down. “I feel you.”