Man, that’s like the twelfth game in a row I whupped your ass in,” Lewis said to Freddy.
After his little tiff with Monica, Lewis had stopped at the store, bought a twelve-pack of beer, and headed over to Freddy’s house. They sat in front of the TV, downstairs in his apartment, playing Mortal Kombat.
“I’m killin you,” Lewis said. “You gonna play, or am I gonna have to spank you a hundred to zero?”
“It’s almost midnight,” Freddy said. “Ain’t your girl gonna be looking for you?”
Lewis took a swig of his beer. “Man, we had it out. She wants me to go to some business ball thing to celebrate all the folks who making more money than we are.”
“What business ball thing?”
“It’s this annual thing she wants me to go to with her.”
“When?”
“Thursday.”
“Where’s it at?”
“Why all the questions?” Lewis said. “You want to take my place or something?”
“Naw. I was just curious.”
“It’s at the Hilton downtown I think she said.”
“Oh,” Freddy said, fidgeting with his controller. “So you ain’t gonna go?”
“You know I don’t want to. But this supposed to be such a big deal, so I told her I would.”
Freddy grabbed his beer while he stared at Lewis playing the game. “Everything all right with you two?”
“Same old, same old,” Lewis said, working the controller, not taking his eyes away from the screen. “You know how it goes.”
“You ever think of leaving Monica?”
Lewis mashed the pause button on his controller, then turned to Freddy. “What?”
“I mean, you the one who saying that things are never going right between you two.”
“I didn’t say never. I said sometimes they ain’t going right. Are things always perfect between you and Kia?”
“No.”
“You getting rid of her anytime soon?”
“Naw,” Freddy said. “But you don’t like going to her work things, you don’t want to hear about her job. Sounds like you might be happier without her. And you never know, you might find somebody who you got more in common with.”
Lewis put down his game controller, got up from his chair, and sat beside Freddy on the sofa. He looked his friend directly in the face and said, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“What?”
“You tell me what.”
Freddy said nothing. Lewis continued to look into Freddy’s eyes, and then he smiled a little. The smiled widened, he laughed, and said, “You fuckin’ with me, right? You fuckin’ with me.”
Freddy started to smile, forced a phony laugh for Lewis. “Yeah, that’s right. I’m fuckin’ with you.”
“I thought so,” Lewis said, going back over to his seat.
The smile quickly left Freddy’s face as he watched Lewis sit back down and take two swallows from his beer.
“Stop playing games,” Lewis said. “Grab that controller so I can whup your ass some more.”