“Hey, Ryder.” I opened my arms to hug my godson as he and Royalty walked through my door.
He hugged me tight. “Tee Rain, I’m going to a special space camp for two weeks in the summer.”
“Really? Does your mama know?” I joked as I winked at Royalty. My friend was notoriously overprotective of her son, who looked like his mother, high cheekbones, same skin tone, and button nose.
“Yeah, and can you tell her to take a pill or something?” He was ten going on fifty, which meant his mouth often got him in trouble, at least with his mother. I spoiled him while Royalty reluctantly allowed me to do so.
Royalty admonished, “Yes, ma’am…not yeah, son, and I already agreed to let you go. Don’t push it.”
He wrinkled his cute nose. “Aww Mama, Tee Rain don’t care about that.”
I really didn’t care if people, even children, said ‘ma’am’ to me or not, but I knew Royalty believed it was a sign of the utmost respect, so I added, “Listen to your mother. She’s teaching you to always use your manners, even with me.”
He gave me the side eye and I lowered my gaze hoping he got the point to hold his tongue and correct himself. Royalty was known to give him a swift smack on the back of his head, his arm, or a pinch when he didn’t listen. “Yes, ma’am.”
I rubbed his black spongy hair that his mother kept trimmed twice a month. “You want something to eat?”
He shook his head as he walked toward my bedroom. “We stopped for nachos and sno balls at Pandora’s before we came here.”
I looked at Royalty. “And you didn’t think to bring me something?”
She waved her hand dismissively as she placed her Louis V bag on my island that separated the kitchen from the living area. “I don’t know what the hell vegans eat.”
“I’ve been a vegan for the last few years. You know I drink sno balls, or better yet, you call me for everything under the sun, so you could have called and asked if I wanted something.” She collapsed on my sofa, exhausted, and Ryder went in my bedroom to play his Xbox, which I kept here because his mother kept taking it away for his sometimes-flippant mouth.
Royalty called after him. “Put those headphones on. No one wants to hear all that.”
I flopped down next to her, grinning from ear to ear. “You do know we could have had this conversation by phone instead of you coming over here on a Friday after work.”
“No indeed. I had to see your glowing face. I’m still reeling from the fact that you were missing in action one whole day because you were with Tre having sex. I assumed you’d finally given your boy some when you texted me with a devil emoji that you were busy.” She then yelled, “You gave it up to freaking Tre LaSalle!”
“Shh! I know Ryder has on earphones, but your voice does carry.” I smiled at my friend’s reaction because she knew more than anyone what he had meant to me all those years ago and what it took for me to have sex.
Royalty tossed her perfectly coiffed long weave. “That boy don’t hear nothing but Call of Duty. He already asked if he could spend the night with his Tee Rain. But since you have a man now, I’m thinking he’s coming home with me.”
I protested, “Ry could’ve stayed if I didn’t have to be to work early tomorrow. Besides, I’ve had a man for months.”
She laughed loudly. “Not a man you fucking. Once you open that bag, it’s not getting closed. He’ll be calling you before the weekend is out…shit, he might want to see you tonight.”
“Shh…damn, Royalty, that’s my godson in there.”
“And my son, who’s already mannish and probably going to be like his father despite my best intentions.”
Royalty had her son right after she graduated from college and managed to finish law school toting him on her hip. She only mentioned his father when she described aspects of her son she didn’t like. Her son was the result of a brief fling, and she’d never told the father he had a son because she didn’t believe he would’ve stepped up to help her. She figured she could do well enough on her own. And she did. She and Ryder lived in a lovely four-bedroom renovated home in Mid-City a few minutes from my apartment. I’d been there helping her raise him as if he were my own—picking him up from school when she or her mother couldn’t, attending all his school functions and little league games. They were more than my friends, they were my fam.
“That may be true, but I don’t want him hearing about me sexually.”
“I’m telling you he ain’t thinking about us.” I frowned and she sighed. “Fine. I’ll speak lower. Just tell me what happened.”
I relaxed, ready to tell her the whole story. “I sold two paintings—”
“Inspired by Tre…continue.”
I glowered, but her expression remained open and expectant. “I sold two paintings that might have been inspired by him and other things in my life. Oh yeah, I made almost four thousand yesterday.”
“Good, now back to Tre.”
“I’ve never made that amount in a day and that’s all you have to say?”
“If you made that much and didn’t fuck Tre in the same day, then I would want to know more about the sales. I’m sorry if the fact that my best friend had sex for the first time with her first crush who happens to be the hot mayor of our city is more important to me than the paintings you sold. You see my point?”
“Yeah. Well, I felt confident and bold and I texted him. He told me to meet him at CC’s on Esplanade. I did and the sexual vibe between us was so strong it was damn near frightening. I propositioned him. You would have been proud. I scratched his palm and everything. We may have flirted ten minutes tops before we were headed here.”
She clapped her hands in delight. “I knew you had it in you. You needed the right man.”
“He had his security drive my car because he wanted me to ride with him. I got scared once I realized what I committed myself to do. I talked a big game, but I didn’t know if I could deliver. This man had probably been with many experienced women who’d initiated sex with him. Tre didn’t know I was a virgin and had never done something like I did with him.” I leaned closer. “Royalty, he sensed my change of heart and told me that we didn’t have to do anything. That if all I wanted to do was talk, he was fine with that and that he had every intention of seeing me again.”
“Then how did you end up having sex?”
“When we arrived at my apartment, he kissed me, and it was so good, even better than I’d remembered or fantasized. I didn’t want the night to end, and I asked him to come up so we could talk more. And one thing led to another.” I wanted to keep the more intimate details to myself.
“Did he figure out you were a virgin, or did you tell him?”
“He figured it out because I couldn’t hide that it hurt.”
“And he didn’t run the other way? Men can be intimidated once they realize you’re their first, especially at your age. How did he handle it?”
I smiled in remembrance. “Royalty, he was so good to me. He first chastised me, saying he would have taken his time and not been so forceful so I could have enjoyed all of it.”
She grinned wickedly. “Forceful? What kind of nasty shit were you doing?”
I ducked my head, feeling slightly flushed just thinking about my night with Tre. “I…um…I rode him at one point.”
Royalty closed her legs. “Ooh…for the first time? That had to hurt, especially if he didn’t know. I know how men can get when women are on top. I’m surprised you’re walking.”
“I did have trouble walking, but that was like our third time. Tre was on top the first couple of times, and though it hurt, he was so well worth the wait.”
“Three times in one night? Oh, Raini. I love it, making up for lost years. And what happens now?”
“Now, he wants me to break up with Wyatt. Tre won’t see me again until I do.”
She raised one perfectly arched brow. “Umm…is he doing the same on his end? I know he thinks he owns you now since you gave it up to him and only him, but he can’t make those demands on you while he keeps seeing other women.”
I pulled my knees up to hug them and rocked gently. “He wants us to be exclusive. I’m like Tre LaSalle’s girlfriend once I end things with Wyatt.”
Royalty’s mouth opened in surprise before she grinned. “You must have the best goody good he’s ever had. The mayor wants you to be his girlfriend after one date?”
I tossed my ponytail playfully. “Technically, we haven’t even had a date.”
Royalty laughed. “True. Wow. He’s taking the whole I’m-her-first seriously. Are you sure he doesn’t remember you at all from high school?”
I rested my head against my knees. “No…at least I don’t think so. I did think for a moment he remembered because he seemed bothered when I said I went to high school in Baton Rouge.”
“Why didn’t you tell him? Maybe you look familiar and if you told him you went to high school together it would have triggered his memory.”
“I got scared that even if I did and he still didn’t remember me, how embarrassed I would be, so I didn’t. He already hurt me back then. I didn’t want to ruin the vibe between us by mentioning the past. It’d already bothered me that walking with him to his car and kissing in it didn’t seem to jog his memory.”
Royalty patted the space in between us. “If he’s your boyfriend, then at some point you have to tell him the truth about everything. And once he meets me, he will probably put two and two together and remember anyway.” Royalty had always been the more popular of us two, and she was right. Tre would most likely remember her.
“That’s why I haven’t ended things with Wyatt yet. He’s my excuse for avoiding Tre.”
“What? Why? I know you want to see Tre again.”
“Tre is mayor of New Orleans. I don’t belong with someone like him. If he was still just an attorney, I could be with him. You and I both know that my past can hurt his career. I honestly thought when I texted him that we would flirt more, maybe even go out on one date. I didn’t think further than that. When he was here, we felt so right together…like we were meant to be together. And I agreed to what he wanted without much thought.” My eyes watered.
“Then tell him the whole truth and together decide what should happen. Either way you should end things with Wyatt.”
“Yeah, well it’s not that simple. But you’re right about Wyatt. I didn’t tell you he FaceTimed me while Tre was here to see if I got the flowers he sent to apologize for an argument, and he never does that. I almost passed out when I heard the doorbell ring. Luckily it was the flowers and not him. I don’t want to hurt him, but I know I have no choice, regardless of whatever happens with Tre.”
“You can’t let Tre go. You’ve waited for that man for years whether you meant to or not. And now he wants to be with you. You can’t walk away from a once-in-a-lifetime love.”
My best friend wiped the lone tear off my cheek. “I’m afraid. I started to tell him the truth about my father but then I already told him some fucked-up shit, didn’t want to tell him the rest of the fucked-up shit.”
She nodded. “Well…spend a little time with him and when you feel ready, tell him. But don’t give up on being with him yet. I’ve never seen you like this. You look happy even with these tears. Even back then the night of the dance, the way he looked at you, the way he took your hand, I could see he was sprung.” She held her hand up. “I know he acted an ass the next time you saw him, and one day you can find out why. All I know is that night, the way that he could barely pull his eyes away from you when I saw you standing outside the hotel, that was love or at least the beginning stages. And if you open to him, he might remember…if he hasn’t already. I don’t know him, but he has a good rep for being a decent man and father. It’s why he ultimately won the election. My guess is he could handle whatever you tell him.”
My cell rang and I got up to pick it up off the table. “Speak of the devil.”
“It’s a Friday night. He wants to see you.” She jumped up and headed to my bedroom. “Time to beat my son in one round.”
“He’s probably playing Madden now. There are no rounds.”
She waved her hand. “Then I should have no problem beating him.”
I answered the phone. “Hello.”
“Have you dropped old dude?”
I smiled. “What happened to how you doing? How was the rest of your week?”
“I’m a busy man. I get right to the point. Your evasiveness tells me you haven’t.”
Inspired by the sound of his voice, I moved to my easel “I haven’t.”
“Why?”
“Maybe you and I are moving too fast. You really don’t know me and—”
“I know what I want and it’s you.”
I placed my buds in my ear and started sketching. “I thought you weren’t going to call until I let you know I broke up with him.”
“It’s been four days and I miss you. Come see me tonight.”
I smiled, thrilled that he missed me. “So, you’re willing to see me even though I haven’t met your conditions? How do I know that you’ve met mine?”
“It’s Friday night and I’m inviting you to my home. I don’t invite women I don’t care about to my home. I’ll text you my address. You hungry?”
“How do you know I don’t already have plans?”
“Are you hungry? I can have a vegan meal prepared.”
I looked at the clock. “It’s almost seven. Do you even know what a vegan meal is?”
“I’ll see you in an hour.” He clicked off before I could say anything else.
Royalty yelled from the other room. “You better hurry.”
“Stop listening to my phone calls!”