Chapter Seven
Karlie tried to reach Jamaal several times, but he didn’t answer. Finally, she left a voice mail. “Jamaal, please call me. I read your text, and we need to talk.” She swiped her phone to end the call. Next, she called Brian. “How did it go?” she asked.
“It wasn’t as bad as I expected, although my dad blew a fuse,” he said.
“My father wasn’t thrilled either. But, I’m in if you are.” Karlie quivered with a mixture of fear and anticipation.
“Yes, I’m in,” he said. “I’m not backing out of this.”
Karlie breathed a sigh of relief, but some straggling doubt reared its head. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing?”
“Only one way to find out,” he chuckled.
Karlie took exception at the glib reply. She wondered if Brian had thought things through. Their decisions today affected their tomorrow. She was plagued with nights of worry.
“How can you be so nonchalant about this? This is our life we’re interrupting, all for a grand scheme that may not work.”
“Correction, this is our life we’re living. And it will work. We must speak it into being. Positivity is half the battle.”
His confidence was reassuring. Karlie blew out a huge gulp of air. She knew she was wavering, but a part of her was also curious to see how this would all play out. “I’m tripping out about this, but I’m also looking forward to it. You know what I mean?”
“Sure do.”
“I’ve been praying for God’s direction and for Him to lead us. I know God won’t steer us wrong.”
“Well, make sure you bring Him along,” Brian said.
In spite of herself, Karlie laughed at his somewhat irreverent tone. “You know you can only avoid God for so long, don’t you?” She’d been trying to get Brian into church ever since her conversion, but he avoided church as if it were the plague.
True to form, he changed topics. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “I need to make some preparations and plan our excursions. My dad wants a detailed list of our where and when.”
“Good idea,” Karlie said. “E-mail it to me when you’re done.” She shivered with glee. “Summer can’t come soon enough.”
Karlie confronted Jamaal as soon as he exited Jerome S. Coles Sports Center. It was a fifteen-minute walk to his studio apartment in Carlyle Court or a three-minute ride on the 6 or R train. It didn’t matter to her. Either way, she wasn’t leaving his side until they had thrashed things out.
“I called you all night. Why didn’t you answer the phone?” Karlie asked.
He wore his basketball garb with a towel slung over his shoulder. Jamaal was funky and dripping wet. Sweat poured down his body, but Karlie couldn’t have cared less.
Jamaal dropped his gym bag to the floor. He wiped his forehead, his face, and his neck—and everything else he could to keep from answering her question.
She clenched her teeth to keep from screaming at him, already knowing he would answer her only when he was good and ready. “Are you going to explain that text you sent me last night?”
“You can read,” Jamaal said. “You saw what it said.” He hefted his gym bag over his shoulder and walked away from her.
Dressed in thigh-high three-inched heeled boots, Karlie had hoped he would’ve hopped on the train. Ignoring her protesting feet, she rushed after Jamaal and strove to keep up with his longer strides.
After almost tripping on a crack in the sidewalk, Karlie grabbed his arm and applied pressure. They stood by the crosswalk of Eighth Street and Broadway. Jamaal stopped, but he refused to make eye contact. Mutinous, she maintained her stance. They were tackling this conversation, even if it took her all night.
“I’m not letting you go, Jamaal Weathers,” she insisted. “I love you. You love me. We’re a team.”
His nostrils flared. “Oh yeah? If we’re a team, how can you be okay with leaving me and going off with Brian on some escapade? What am I supposed to do when you’re gone? I thought it was a fluke that would pass, but I see you’re serious about this”—he formed quotation marks with his hands—“adventure.” He peered down at her with an imperially arched eyebrow.
In all the years she’d known Jamaal, he’d never been so condescending toward her. Karlie shook her head. “What’s with you? You’re not yourself.”
“I’m fine,” Jamaal wheezed. “It’s just . . .”
Karlie gestured with her hands. “Go on.”
A passerby pushed past her, and Karlie hobbled to maintain her balance. Jamaal reached out a hand to steady her.
“Okay, I’ll speak plain,” he said, pulling her out of the pedestrians’ paths. “It bothers me that I can’t even spend the night with you or vice versa, but you’ve got no problem sleeping with Brian in a tent or wherever it is you’ll be.”
Karlie rocked backed on her heels. Her mouth popped open. Jamaal was jealous. Of Brian? “It’s not the same, and you know it. Brian and I aren’t dating, so there’s no need to worry about anything.” She shook her head. “The three of us have always been close. We’ve all hung out numerous times before, so I don’t get why this is any different.”
He jutted his jaw. “It is different. Brian’s mostly your friend. I tolerate him most of the time, but I think he’s flaky.” He stooped to stare into her eyes. “Have you taken a good look at him? Don’t think that just because I’m a guy I don’t notice how the girls are crazy about Brian. And if I have to spell it out for you, then you’re even more gullible and naïve than I thought.”
Stung, Karlie stepped back. Jamaal was being insulting, and she wasn’t having it. She liked that he was opinionated and had a mind of his own, but she was nobody’s doormat. Karlie stormed off, leaving him standing there.
She strutted back to Mercer Street with the practiced precision of an experienced New Yorker.
“I don’t know who he thinks he’s talking to, but he’s not talking to me like that. Imagine the nerve of him calling me gullible and naïve. There’s nobody more gullible than he is. He’s the one worried about his friends and what they think because he’s not having sex. He’s the one without a backbone to stand up for his principles,” she mumbled, walking hastily.
Karlie waited at the crosswalk by Waverly Place when she heard a clap of thunder. A huge downpour followed. She pouted. “Perfect. Hours of straightening my hair down the drain in less than five seconds.” She wrapped her jersey tight around her waist and stomped toward her hotel suite, which was ten blocks away.
Brian’s apartment was on MacDougal Street. Karlie bit her lip and debated. From her current location, his place was the quickest choice. Normally she wouldn’t hesitate to seek shelter at his place, but Jamaal’s comments had her rattled. Another huge boom echoed in the sky.
Decision made.
She raced toward Bleecker Street and made a sharp right on MacDougal. She felt like a bedraggled rat as she shivered from the cold rain. Racing into his building, Karlie waved at the doorman and jumped on the elevator to his floor.
Karlie pounded on his door. “Please be here.”
The door swung open.
With a towel draped around a six-pack and well-defined hips, Brian took a moment to examine her from head to toe.
Then his arm snaked out and pulled her in flush against his chest. He used his other arm to slam the door shut. Karlie exhaled as she came in contact with muscles that flexed upon impact. Awareness hit her being. Who was she kidding? Brian was every inch a man, and one who was definitely pleased to see her.