Page 64 of The Marriage Rebound

“Separate,” I responded, shooting a quick glance at Denise. She sucked her teeth, but made no comment.

Tanisha laughed quietly while shaking her head. “Um,” she started, but got distracted when her phone buzzed. The biggest grin spread across her face when she looked at her screen.

“Ooh, must be Rod. He back in town?” Denise asked. “Or not. What the hell? You got trouble in paradise too?” she asked when Tanisha’s face shifted from the large grin to one of annoyed disgust.

Nish and I glanced at each other before she sighed, darkened the screen of her phone, placed it on the table, then folded her arms next to it. It wasn’t my business to tell, and I hadn’t, but it seemed like she was ready to catch Denise up.

“Not Rod, he’s been blocked since we broke up.”

Denise’s eyes went wide. “When did that happen?” She sat back in her chair. “Wait, I saw that little look y’all had. Sasha, you knew?”

The waitress returned and dropped off our checks. “Don’t get pissy,” Nish said after the woman walked off. “I just called Sasha to vent one day. Not a big deal. It was over and done and I moved on after.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she said as she pulled her wallet from her purse. “Y’all can have your lil’ side conversations, or whatever.”

Nish sighed again. “It’s not that serious.”

“It really ain’t,” I cosigned. “You know Nish don’t be puttin’ her business out there like that.”

“Uh-huh. Fine, y’all broke up and it needed to be a national secret. But if it wasn’t him putting the shit-eatin’ grin on your face, who was it?” Denise stared directly at Nish when she asked the question, which was full of attitude. “Or is that more of you ‘not putting your business out there’?” She put air quotes around the last part.

I guess she was feeling left out to have not known about the breakup, and it would only be worse if she knew Nish had gone out with me and Courtney that night. Even though it wasn’t about excluding her, she wouldn’t see it that way.

“Girl, chill out,” I said as I handed the waitress the three check pouches.

Nish waved her hand. “Nah, she’s good.” Nish looked at me, sighed, and shook her head. “Fuck it. It’s Tina.”

I laughed out of shock and confusion. I remembered they were a little flirty at Tina’s going-away dinner, but I thought it’d stopped there. However, I’d stopped really paying attention once Courtney and I sort of got into it.

“Who the hell is . . . wait, innit that Courtney’s teammate? How did you manage to . . . what the hell am I missin’ here?”

I put my hands up as she shot me a look. “I didn’t know nothin’ ’bout this either. But they grown so. They grown.” I looked at Nish and gave her a slight nod.

“Thank you, ladies, have a great rest of your day,” the waitress said when she returned with our cards. We all thanked her.

Denise quickly snatched hers up, scribbled her signature, then grabbed her purse. “Okay, I’ll talk to y’all later.” She was walking off before we could even stop her or say bye.

“Damn, was she really that pressed?” Nish asked.

I slid my credit card back into my wallet. “I mean, I get it. FOMO is a helluva thing.”

“What FOMO?”

“She probably thinks we been doin’ shit without her. Especially with the Tina news.” I shot her a look and she just smiled.

We both gathered our stuff and headed out. “It’s nothing. We’ve just been texting. You g’on give me grief?”

The crisp December air made me shiver and I pulled my coat tighter around me. “Why would I? I’m only married to Courtney, I don’t have claim on the whole team. And Tina’s cool people. She’s like everyone’s kid sister.”

She smiled again and I knew that look. I remembered that look and the feeling that came with it when Courtney and I were first dating. They were good feelings. Great feelings. Ones I wanted back. Without all the negative shit crowding them out.

“Hey,” she said, pulling me out of my wandering thoughts. “Are you serious about coming back?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I need somethin’ though.”

She dug through her purse then pulled out a business card and handed it to me. “PoLaTeez? What is this?”

“It’s a pole dancing studio that a home girl of mine manages. She’s been trying to recruit me to come teach, but I don’t know if I’m ready to deal with housewives tryin’ to get sexy, but bitch, you are a housewife so. I can make a call, set something up.”