Adair let out a breath. “Hey, Nar.”
“Nigga, what the fuck do you want?”
“I ain’t call to argue.”
“You sure? That’s usually your favorite hobby. Gettin’ a bitch upset then actin’ like you ain’t start shit wit ya bitch ass!”
“I’m serious. I just…I wanted to talk.”
There was a pause. Then a sigh. “About what?”
“Sabine.”
Another pause. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. I mean…she’s killin’ shit. You know that.”
“I do…my bestie is shittin’ on the people who did her wrong. Niggas and desperate ass bitches who don’t know what the fuckhusband and wifemean.”
“I hear you…” he sighed, deserving every angry word. “I’m so proud of her. I’m proud of her accomplishing all the shit she wanted to do for years. I’m happy she doin’ so good but…I’m…I’m not.”
Narri didn’t say anything, but he could hear the shift in her breathing. He pressed on.
“I fucked up,” he said plainly. “You know that. Everybody do but it wasn’t just the cheating. It wasn’t just the lies. It was how I stopped showing up. Stopped seeing her. I thought making money, building my career, giving her and Ade everything they desired was enough. But she needed me to be present…and I wasn’t.”
“You’re just now figuring that out?”
“No,” he admitted. “I been knew. I just didn’t know how to fix it.”
“You can’t fix it,” she said, her voice suddenly softer. “You broke her, Adair and I don’t just mean the marriage. I mean…she needed you the night Ariyah died, and you weren’t there. That’s not a crack. That’s a fracture.”
“I know.” His chest caved a little.
“I was on that call,” Narri continued. “Me and Par. We heard her scream. Heard her beg for help. Do you know what it felt like hearing my best friend in that much pain and knowing her husband, her protector, was with another woman? They had to snatch her son away from her because nobody was there for her!”
He closed his eyes. “I know you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” she whispered. “But I hated what you did. Because it changed her. Sabine used to believe in forever. In building something solid. You took that from her.”
“I want to give it back.”
Narri didn’t laugh. Didn’t scoff. She just waited.
“I know I can’t undo the past but I want to try again. Not start over like nothing happened but start fresh. Honest this time. I wanna take her back to the beginning. To that first night we met. The party. Her two left feet.”
“Don’t be comin’ at my friend,” Narri chuckled under her breath. “But Lord knows my girl can’t dance a lick.”
“But she was so fuckin’ beautiful and I saw her. Really saw her. Before the babies. Before all the grief. I want to take her back there.”
“And you’re telling me this because…?”
“Because I need help. You’re the only one who knows how her brain works. You know what she’d wear. What song she’d want. What drink she ordered. Hell, you probably still got the picture from that night.”
“I do,” Narri said. “It’s in my cloud.”
“So will you help me? Please?”
Silence stretched on the line. Adair waited, his chest aching.