Page 66 of The Need to Know

“Is it a bad time?” Ezekiel wanted to know.

“No, no, you’re fine. I-I just wasn’t expecting this,” I explained as I turned and pressed a hand to my forehead. I needed to get Corey out of my house and away from me like he’d been doing.

“Nas?” Corey spoke loudly, letting it be known to whoever I was speaking to on the phone that I was with a man.

“Is that him?” Ezekiel’s tone went from light and playful, to firm and alert.

“Yes,” I whispered softly.

I wasn’t afraid, but definitely uncomfortable. I turned and found Corey right behind me, annoyed at the fact that I wasn’t jumping for joy at his presence.

“Yo, who you talking to, is it me?” Corey soon shook his head. “Nah, can’t be me, ’cause I’m right here and my phone’s in my pocket. So who is it, Nas?”

“I can be there in ten minutes,” Ezekiel let me know.

“Please don’t.” The last thing I needed was drama and a fight breaking off. Watching violence in movies was already cringey, seeing men go at it in real life was scary.

“Do you want him there?” Ezekiel asked.

My eyes were on Corey as he folded his arm, giving me an incredulous look. “No.”

“Tell him to leave, Nastasia,” Ezekiel demanded gently and calmly.

I did want Corey gone, because I had no idea what we’d get into with him here. I trusted myself not to fall for his charm, but at the same time, I just didn’t want him near me. He’d hurt me before and I’d lost myself as a result, and I was never going back to that place.

Holding the phone away from my face and standing firm, I politely told Corey, “Please, can you go? I’m busy.”

Corey snorted. “Hell nah, I’m stayin’ right here. We gotta talk. Didn’t you get my flowers?”

I put the phone to my ear, about to make an excuse to hang up. “I⁠—”

“That was a courtesy request,” was all Ezekiel said before hanging up.

I didn’t know what Ezekiel meant, and I wasn’t about to call him back. One way, or another, I had to get Corey out of my house.

I looked around for Scorsese and found him nowhere in sight.

Great, no backup.

“Corey—”

He held his hands up in a placating motion. “Please, just hear me out. I know we been down this road before, trust me, I know, but I just thought we could talk. It’s been too long and I miss you.”

They say men never knew a good woman until she was gone. I guessed they were right.

This past breakup of ours was our longest time apart. In that time and space, I’d grown stronger, learned to properly love myself and my worth, and I was never going back. To be loved as an afterthought was a pain I never wished to relive again. To be loved when convenient was a reality I would never accept again. To be loved on an unmatched level was beneath me.

I gave Corey all of me, while he only gave me thirty percent of him.

Never again.

“It’s cute to be missed, but we have nothing to say.” I went to go by him, to go and get the door, but he was quick to grab my arm.

“Nas, come on, it’s me, baby,” Corey pleaded with a sad look in his eye. Too many times did those sappy eyes get me. “If it’s not you for me, then it’s no one.”

I got my arm free and lifted my chin up. “Not even your son? What’s his name, ‘CJ’?”

Corey narrowed his eyes, pointing at me weakly. “That’s low.”