Page 22 of Weddings on the West: Vol. I Brick & Destiny

“Sounds like a plan to me,” she said, a smile on her face as I pulled out of the parking lot.

Two hours later, we walked around the park downtown trying different desserts. We had eaten everything from street tacos to chicken on a stick at the food truck festival we stumbled onto and were still going like two bad ass kids with unlimited funds.

“So,” I asked through a mouthful of her cookie pizza. “You got a man I need to know about?”

“No,” she answered quickly. “I fear this wedding wouldn’t go over too well if I had a boyfriend.”

“You never had a man?” I asked, brows raised in disbelief. I knew she was a little square, but there was no way that she had been by herself this whole time. She was cool as fuck, and cute… with her basic ass. She would probably make some Urkle ass nigga a good girlfriend.

“No… I mean, yes. I’ve dated, but only one real relationship. If you can even call him that.” Her face went sour.

“Aight then, spill it,” I said, nudging her playfully, stealing another bite from her styrofoam container.

“I mean, I had one boyfriend… twice,” she huffed with an eye roll.

“Now, explain,” I said, giving her the last of my churro funnel cake that she seemed to enjoy more than hers. We had discussed all the basic shit like favorites and family trees—now I was trying to get to some real shit.

“There was this guy. We dated from like junior high school to his freshman year of college. He went out of state and immediately cheated. We broke up, reconnected in our twenties… and the nigga cheated again, then left me for the girl he cheated with.”

“Nigga?!” I damn near hit the ground, hand clutched to my chest. “I thought your square ass didn’t cuss?”

“Nigga is a noun, not a curse word, nigga,” she said with a straight face.

“Aight, aight. Can I ask you a question, though?”

“What’s up?”

“If the nigga cheated, why the fuck would you take his lame ass back, Peep?”

“I was dumb,” she whined. “I was young and dumb. I thought he was the one. He made me feel so… special.”

“How so?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Looking back at it now, I guess it was all just game. That man would literally look at me and talk to me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered to him… then go do the exact same thing with someone else.” She looked sad as fuck, and it made that anger ignite in me again.

“Damn.” I frowned. “Is that fuck nigga still around?”

“He’s still in the city. Married to his big booty wife with three snotty-nosed kids,” she said with a snarl.

“Bet.” I nodded, reminding myself to track down the nigga’s name sooner or later. As far as I was concerned, Peep was one of us, and fucking with one of us wasn’t tolerated even if it was before I knew she existed.

“So, tell me about your girlfriends,” she said. We stopped to throw our trash away and I gave her an amused smirk.

“Girlfriends? Nah, I got a roster of chicks that handle my needs. You want me to go through the list?”

“Ugh, no.” She damn near gagged. “I hope you’re at least being safe.”

“Always. I get tested once a month and make anyone I deal with show me clean results every time. I don’t put my mouth on nobody, and I use condoms.”

“That don’t get old to you? Living like that? You don’t ever want to find one person so you don’t have to do all that?” The disgusted look she tried to cover up made me feel like shit. I had never been a nigga to explain or defend myself, especially to a woman, but the expression on her face had me stumbling over my words.

“I mean, I uh—I tried it twice and it ain’t really work out for me, so I curated a system. Don’t get too familiar. Don’t stay in one place for too long. It prevents so much stress and unnecessary bullshit.”

“Hmph… okay. Well, tell me about the two times,” she said with big, animated eyes.

“I mean, the most recent one was a player on the roster. I thought maybe we could take it further, made her my only one. The moment I gave her that lil’ bit of power, ol’ girl lost her muhfuckin’ mind. She started thinking she could dictate my moves and who I spoke to. I was actually faithful to her looney ass, and she stayed doin’ the most. One day, she really bugged out and put her hands on me in front of my people. Ma hit her in the mouth with a light fixture and knocked all her fronts out. I ain’t seen her since.”

“A… light fixture?” Destiny asked as she held her hands up like she was trying to imagine the action. No amount of description could do it justice, so I didn’t even bother.