Page 84 of The Need to Know

It was true. I could go out with this “Gray” guy should I want to.

I nibbled on my lip, unsure. “We just had breakfast with his parents.”

Paisley blinked. “Come again?”

“He spent the night and⁠—”

“What the fuck, Nas!” Paisley whacked me hard, and I had to massage the wound. “Why are we just now getting to this?”

I looked outside at the sunny day in progress. Cars were filling up the lot from our view of our portion of the strip mall’s parking area.

“I was worried about you, actually,” I said. “I called Zeke up and Corey came over and barged in during our phone call. Ezekiel didn’t like that and came over.”

“A man,” Paisley noted.

I nodded. “Definitely. We got some Pad Thai and watched a movie and fell asleep. Nothing happened.”

“And now you’re meeting his parents,” Paisley pointed out.

“That wasn’t on purpose, I’m sure,” I said. “I know it’ll never work because we both want different things, but it feels so right. I feel safe with him and that’s so scary, Pay.”

“He is a member of the male species.”

I relaxed, almost laughing. “Yeah, an almost perfect member.”

Paisley sighed. “I like Eazy, he’s cool and respectful, but he’s up-front about not being that guy.”

“I know.”

“So be careful.”

“I will be.” I knew Ezekiel wasn’t right for me, no matter how much I liked being around him.

Paisley stood and glanced at her phone. “I think we both deserve some time off.” She put her phone away and faced me. “Next weekend is the Belmont Fair. What do you think about taking the week after off for a much-needed vacation?”

Taking the first week of August off? We’d been running Shéc nonstop for almost three years. A vacation would be nice. And after the successful month we’d had, we could afford it.

I didn’t know what I’d do with time off, but I supposed I could always find out.

I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway.

Leslie invited me over Monday evening to kick back and relax. Not wanting to be the third wheel, I grabbed Nastasia and brought her with me.

She sat on the passenger side of my Acura in a nice orange sweatsuit set from Shéc. Thankfully, she didn’t seem nervous at all on meeting with Cesar and his girl.

“How long have they been together?” Nastasia asked me.

“Not too long, but they got history,” I said.

“So we’re third- and fourth-wheeling?”

“Pretty much,” I admitted.

Nastasia shook her head. “I was gonna watch Vanilla Sky, but I guess it can wait.”

We were getting closer to the address Cesar had texted me, but just then it was tempting to turn around. “Aw, you about to watch my fave? I subscribed to your blog so I’ll be on the lookout for your post.”

“I seen your little e-mail,” Nastasia said. “I’ma trash the movie.”