Chapter 10

Reggie got up early in the morning and cooked eggs, bacon and biscuits for breakfast. When I got up, he was sitting at the kitchen table.

“G’morning Reggie.”

“Good morning,” he told me as I walked over to pour myself some coffee. Then I fixed myself a plate with eggs, one biscuit and a few strips of bacon and sat down across from him.

“So what you have on tap for today?”

“Nothing, actually.”

“Can we do something?”

“Like what?”

“Just something simple like going to have lunch. I wanna kick it with you today.”

“My goodness, Reggie. You cooked breakfast for me. Now you’re taking me to lunch?”

“Yep.”

“I feel special.”

“You should.”

“Why is that?”

“You should feel special to have a man love you this much.”

“I do.”

My cell phone rang in the middle of our conversation. I saw Derrick’s name on the display and answered right away.

“Hey, Derrick.”

“Hey, gorgeous.”

I blushed as I dabbed my fork around in the scrambled eggs on my plate. When I looked up, Reggie was staring at me as if he wanted to know what Derrick said to me to make me smile like that.

“You want to do lunch today?”

“Oh no, I can’t. I’m having lunch with Reggie today.”

“Oh…okay.”

“And she ain’t canceling either,” Reggie blurted out.

My only hope was that Derrick didn’t hear him.

“Wait a minute…was that Reggie?”

So much for hoping.

“Yeah. Reggie’s here.”

“Why is he there so early in the morning? Did he spend the night with you?” By Derrick’s tone, I could tell he was irritated.

“Yeah. He did.”

Derrick went silent. Then he asked me, “Why does he stay at your place? Why can’t he stay at his own place?”

That’s when I grew heated. I got up from the table and walked in the living room so Reggie wouldn’t hear what I was about to tell him.

I said, “Derrick, Reggie is my best friend. You know that.”

“And who am I, Tiffany? Am I your man?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you have to respect that, Tiffany, the same way I respect you.”

“I do respect that.”

“Then why is this man spending the night with you?”

“Why are you calling him this man? He’s not some random guy I met on the street, Derrick.”

“I know that. You’ve made it very clear to me who Reggie is to you. Okay? I get it. I just want to know why he’s at my baby’s house first thing in the morning.”

He calmed me down a little with that. Then I lowered my tone.

“He stayed with me because I wanted him to. We do this all the time. I’m not gonna change now.” I took a deep breath to relax myself a little more. Don’t get me wrong. I liked Derrick a lot. He’s fly, classy and good-looking but he could never be what Reggie is to me, even if our relationship worked out.

“Derrick I like you, okay. But you have to understand that Reggie is my best friend and I love him as such. Now you know as well as I do that he doesn’t like you. And I guess you don’t like him either but you are in a relationship with me, not him.”

“I don’t want to feel like I’m competing for your love. I just want to know that this beautiful, talented woman I’m falling in love with has the same feelings for me. I’m not in this to get hurt. I’ve been hurt before and I don’t want to go down that road again. You feel me?”

“Yeah. I got it and for the record, I’m not in this to hurt you.”

“Then have lunch with me today, baby. Be with me. Spend time with me. I need that from you.”

Derrick had me backed into a corner. Now I didn’t know what to do. If I told him no, he would take that to mean I was choosing Reggie over him. If I told Reggie I couldn’t go with him, he would fly off the handle, thinking that Derrick was more important to me than he was. I had to let somebody down. I couldn’t take them both to lunch with me and have a repeat of The Olive Garden drama.

“Okay, Derrick. We can do that.”

“I’ll pick you up at about noon. Is that good?”

“Yeah. That’s fine.”

“Okay. See you in a lil’ while.”

“Okay.”

Now I was really screwed. What would I tell Reggie? My heart was racing as I headed towards the kitchen. And Reggie was looking at me all weird like he already knew what I had done.

“Um…Reggie, we can’t do lunch today.”

He frowned. “You’re kidding me, right? Tell me you’re joking, Tiffany.” He was getting louder with me.

“Reggie chill, okay. We can always do something later.”

“You chose him over me,” Reggie yelled.

I looked away from him. He was furious.

“You chose him over me, Tiffany?”

“Reggie, don’t be like this.” I couldn’t stand to even look at Reggie when he was this angry. He looked so upset like he could just snap and do anything without regard for the law. Then he walked out of the kitchen into the living room. I followed him and watched him put on his shirt.

“Reggie, wait. Don’t leave.”

“Don’t touch me, Tiffany!”

I touched him anyway, until I got my arms around him. “Reggie, please don’t go.”

“Take your hands off of me.”

“Reggie…please just listen to me. Please.”

“Get off of me, Tiffany,” he yelled loudly, making a beeline for the door.

“Okay, okay,” I said, quickly running around him, barricading the front door.

“Move,” Reggie demanded, but I was defiant and stood there and reached for his hand. He deflected my reach and I cringed…thought for sure he was going to hit me.

After that, I let him go. Sometimes I wish Reggie wasn’t so hot headed. If he would have seen the whole thing from my perspective, he would’ve known why I did what I did. But he couldn’t see it. He didn’t want to share me with anyone.