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He did.
Somehow, in a dimly-lit, packed club full of black people, my most recent ex found me and approached our table with an Instagram model-looking chick—tiny waist and impossibly huge boobs and butt—trailing closely behind him and a wide smile on his smug face.
“Angie!” he said too enthusiastically considering the hell he put me through while we dated. “How’ve you been?”
“She’s been great, you piece of—”
I cut Nicky off with, “I’ve been good. You?”
“I’ve been terrific. Life is good, you know?” He grabbed the woman’s hand and pulled her next to him. “Angie, Nicky, Renee, this is Diamond. Baby, this is Angela Strickland, my ex. I told you about her. And these are her sisters.”
She blinked a few times and smiled. Her long, black eyelashes kept bumping against her platinum bangs. “Wait…4C Angie?!” she shrieked.
“Uh...yes,” I said. “You watch my videos?”
“Yes! I’m all natural under this wig! I swear by your jojoba-coconut oil recipe! OMG, I can’t wait to tell my sister I met you! Baby, you didn’t tell me your ex was 4C Angie. She’s a celebrity!”
I smiled at the woman, and said, “Well, I don’t know about all that, but thank you.”
Nicky gave Khalil a smirk and then shifted her gaze to Diamond. “Oh, my sister is so modest. She’s the bomb, isn’t she?”
Diamond nodded enthusiastically. “Oh! Can I get an autograph?”
Before I could respond, Khalil was pulling Diamond away from us, and saying, “Well, you ladies take care.” They left without giving us a chance to utter another word.
“I guess his stupid butt forgot he used to date a star,” Renee said.
“A YouTube star. There’s a difference, you know,” I replied.
Renee had opened her mouth to respond when a group of girls approached the table and asked to take pictures with me. Diamond’s little outburst had made it impossible to keep the low profile I’d enjoyed since entering the club and sliding into the dark corner our table occupied. I smiled and graciously obliged them, and we managed to enjoy the rest of our evening out.
*****
“I love you so much, baby,” I whispered in Khalil’s ear as he held me tightly, rubbing his hands up and down my back.
He kissed me, moved his mouth to my ear, and murmured, “I love you, too, Angie.”
And that’s when my ass woke up.
Had he just smiled, or nodded, or said something like, “Is that right?” I would’ve believed what was happening was real, but the moment he reciprocated, I knew I was dreaming since no man other than my father—not Khalil Whitehead, or the only other man I’d declared my love to, Benny Stewart—had ever told me he loved me. As a matter of fact, they used my feelings for them against me. Used me, made a fool of me. And they were the dual reasons I lived alone, happily alone. I made a promise to myself three years ago that I was done with men and loving men. It was a promise I intended to keep.
I swung my legs over the side of my bed, sitting up and staring out my bedroom window at the stark scene outside. It was early March, and winter was still holding on by filling the air with frigidity. The trees still looked barren, and besides a few isolated sprigs of grass poking through the brown ground, one wouldn’t believe spring was about to make her appearance. I stretched my arms over my head and was contemplating making some coffee when Nicky stumbled through my closed bedroom door without knocking, and moaned, “I need coffee…”
I stood up and gave her a smirk. “I bet you do. You were partying last night like your ass was getting shipped off today or something.”
I slid past her, making my way to the kitchen, and she followed me, saying, “If your birthday had gone the way mine did, you would’ve gotten drunk, too.”
As I stood at the counter scooping coffee grounds into the filter of my coffee maker, I asked, “What happened? I mean, you don’t have a job to hate. You don’t have a permanent boyfriend to argue with, you don’t have bills because you still live at home, so what could’ve possibly gone wrong?”
She plopped down in a chair at my kitchen table in her bra and panties, rested her elbows on the table, and held her face in her hands while blowing out a breath. “Daddy gave me a five hundred-dollar check for my birthday.”
I rolled my eyes as I poured water into the coffee maker. “And I take it that wasn’t enough for your spoiled ass?”
“Not really, but then things got worse. He told me he was cutting me off!”
As the smell of coffee began to permeate the air in my tiny kitchen, I took a seat across from my sister with a furrowed brow. Now this was truly a shock, but something that was way overdue. “Nicky, you had to see this coming. You’ve been in school FOREVER. You have like ten degrees now. It’s time for you to get a job and move out of Mama’s and Daddy’s house.”
She sighed and shook her head. “You and Daddy on the same bullshit. Look, I have one bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees. What’s wrong with valuing education?”
