ARMAND
“Dang, how y’all keep beating me? Y’all cheating, ain’t you?” I said.
Layla and Lil’ Leland both started protesting at the same time, Layla finishing with, “Nuh-uh! You just not good at basketball like us!”
“Oh, really? How am I on this game, then?” I posed. “Y’all played as me!”
“Yeah, ‘cause we tryna show you how to play better!” Lil’ Leland informed me.
“So y’all really think I can’t play good?” I asked, fighting not to laugh. “They don’t let just anybody play in the NBA, you know.”
“Our daddy plays. Do your daddy play, too?” Layla asked.
I was trying to figure out how to answer that without getting in my feelings. I usually stayed out of the vicinity of a discussion regarding my sperm donor. He was a piece of shit who hit my mom and never cared enough to be my father. The easy answer would be a simple no, he didn’t play in the league, but I couldn’t even say that. My brain was capable, but my mouth wasn’t getting the message, so I was thankful when Leland entered the room and broke up our little gaming session.
“All right, munchkins, your mom just pulled up. Time to join the guests in the living room.”
The kids hopped up and ran out of the game room leaving me alone with their dad.
“Hey, thanks for playing with them,” he said to me as we both exited the room.
“It’s all good. They’re cool,” I stated.
“And obsessed with you. I heard Lil’ Leland on his headset the other night while he was on the game bragging about his brother being Armand Daniels.”
“Word?” I said with a slight frown. “He don’t be bragging about you?”
“He does, but he seems more hyped about you.”
“Maybe it’s a brother thing. I always wanted a brother,” I admitted, unsure of why it felt so easy to talk to this nigga when I still didn’t like him.
“Well, now you got three…and a sister.”
I stopped in my tracks, watching as he turned and walked into the living room. I stood there for so long that I almost missed my mom’s entrance but made it into the room in time to scream surprise with everyone else when she entered with my cousin Zabrina. My mom was so pretty…and happy as she hugged Leland and her other kids, my…siblings?
Damn.
I just never saw them like that, as my brothers and sister, but that’s what they were. I had three brothers and a sister.
When my mom spotted me, she pulled me into the tightest hug as people laughed and talked around us, saying directly into my ear, “Thank you for coming, Boogie. I love you.”
Once she released me, I kissed her cheek and said, “Love you, too, Ma. Happy birthday.”
She left me to greet more of the roomful of guests and I let my attention drift until it collided with her—Ella, looking edible in this tight red jumpsuit thing, her hair in braids, and standing next to her with his arm around her waist was that big buff motherfucker she brought to dinner before.
ELLA
He looked good. Angry, maybe even homicidal, but good in black slacks, a white dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, and a Cuban link chain around his neck. His locs hung free, and his hazel eyes weren’t hazel. I’d noticed that they changed colors with his mood. Tonight, they were dark, almost black. I could see that from across the room.
He was pissed off.
Completely pissed off.
I dropped my eyes as I dug in my clutch for my phone.
“Armand Daniels is heading this way,” Carlos muttered, making me jerk my head up.
He was indeed on his way toward me, threading a path through the crowd of people.
“Princess, when did you get here?”
I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of my father’s voice. As he pulled me into a hug, I attempted to calm my racing heart.
“Daddy! I didn’t know you were coming!” I said into his chest.
Releasing me, he gave me a peck on the forehead. “I wasn’t sure we’d make it. Glad we did.”
“Jo’s here? The kids?”
“Jo is. The kids are with Ms. Sherry back home.” He glanced around the room and added, “I don’t know where Jo went.”
“I’m sure I’ll run into her. Where are y’all staying?” I asked.
“We got a room at the Trudeau. Don’t worry, we ain’t gonna crash with you. I’d love to visit with you a little, but this is a turnaround trip. We’re leaving in the morning.”
“Oh, okay.”
He slapped hands with Carlos as he greeted him, and while they fell into a conversation, I took the opportunity to scan the room for Armand. When I located him, he was slipping out the patio doors.
“I’ll be back,” I said to no one in particular, heading toward the patio doors myself.
ARMAND
I smelled her first.
Even in the cool night air, her scent found me, making me close my eyes and inhale deeply. Despite the newly familiar aroma of her filling my nose, I couldn’t calm myself. I couldn’t get it together.
“Why you here with that dude?” No “sir” because fuck that. “I thought we weren’t supposed to mess with other people,” I growled without turning to look at her.
“We aren’t and I’m not,” she said, her voice calm. I could tell she’d moved closer to me.
“But you brought a fucking date? That ain’t some shit you thought you needed to tell me since we got this…this arrangement going on?”
“Armand, will you turn around and look at me?” Her voice was soft, lacking the authority it usually held.
“You fucking him?”
“I already said I wasn’t. He’s my friend, my best friend, and he’s gay.”
“That nigga ain’t gay.”
“He’s my friend. I think I’d know.”
I grunted.
“Will you please turn around?”
She said please. That made me turn around.
Her eyes searched mine, her face uncharacteristically expressive as she said, “I’m sorry. I can see how it must’ve looked for me to show up here with Carlos.”
“Carlos,” I scoffed.
“Yes, Carlos. He popped up in town today to surprise me because…well, he was concerned about me and wanted to see me. I asked if he wanted to come here with me. If I’d known you were coming to the party, I would’ve told you.”
I stared at her, at those eyes that always seemed to look through me to see what I needed when I needed it. Then I let my gaze travel down to her mouth.
Her mouth.
Shit, the thought of it alone had my dick standing at attention, so I grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her closer, taking her mouth in a rough kiss that she leaned into, grasping my upper arms.
I ended the kiss as a thought entered my mind. “Where is Carlos staying tonight?”
“With me.”
“So am I, then.”
Reaching up to lay a soft hand on my cheek, she said, “Okay.”
“There you are. Your stepmom is looking for you, El,” this Carlos motherfucker said, creeping up on us.
El?
“Oh, okay. Carlos, you remember Armand? Armand, this is my friend Carlos.”
To keep from putting my foot in Carlos’s ass, I said, “I’ll see you at your place later,” and headed back inside the house.
ELLA
“Are you going to tell me what the hell that was?” Carlos inquired as he drove us back to my place. The party was still going strong when I decided to leave before Armand literally exploded.
“What are you talking about?” I asked as I read Armand’s response to my heading home text.
Armand: I’m headed your way.
“Okay, so you wanna play games tonight? Let me be real specific with you then, BFF. Why did I catch you outside your uncle’s house with Armand Daniels’ tongue down your throat, and why did he look like he was a millisecond from pouncing on me every time I had the displeasure of looking at him?”
“He’s spending the night at my place tonight,” was how I chose to answer him.
“I knew it! I knew it! You are fucking his crazy ass, aren’t you?”
“He’s not crazy.”
“Ella Juanita McClain! Are you in love?!”
“No, of course not. I…like him. A lot.”
“Wait, wait…you’re doing your BDSM thing with him? He’s letting you do it?!”
“I don’t kiss and tell, and you know it.”
“Well, whatever is going on is about to drive him to murder. I’ma stay locked up in my little guest room tonight.”
“Yeah, you probably should,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing.”