Page 75 of Certified to Handle You 3

I let out a low laugh and reached for the door. “Pluto, I’m already walkin’ out. I might as well take you by there instead of you callin’ one of them drivers. It ain’t even that deep.”

“It’s never that deep until y’all make it deep.”

“That sound like somethin’ you need to take up with yo’ husband,” I said while openin’ the door for her.

She walked past me, smellin’ like perfume and whatever expensive shit she had on, then she looked back over her shoulder. “You his cousin. Y’all all come out the same factory.”

I laughed for real that time. “Nah, don’t put me in that nigga business. I’m the helpful one tonight.”

Pluto hummed like she ain’t believe a word I said, but she still walked with me toward the driveway.

I had my shit on too, but not too dressed up like I was goin’ to some big event, but clean enough for dinner after. I kept it simple with a black shirt, black pants, a watch, fresh cut, and cologne sittin’ close to my skin. If Pluto noticed, she ain’t say nothin’, but I saw her eyes move over me before she got to the passenger side.

I opened her door, and she paused before gettin’ in. “You better not be lyin’ to me, Renza.”

“Ain’t nobody lyin’ to you, woman,” I said.

She smiled a lil’ and shook her head. “Uh huh. You look suspicious.”

I shook my head and smirked. “Get in the car, Virgo.”

She slid in, still watchin’ me like she was tryna catch the lie before we even pulled off. I closed her door, walked around to my side and got in. Once I started the car, I pulled out the driveway and headed toward the jeweler with Pluto sittin’ next to me, quiet for the first few minutes.

The sun was startin’ to settle lower, and Trill-Land had that gold look over it that made everything feel richer than it already was.

Pluto turned her head toward me. “So Virgo season almost over for us.”

I glanced at her and smiled a lil’. “It ain’t over till you have yo’ day.”

“Yep,” she said. “But tomorrow is all you.”

I kept my eyes on the road. “I ain’t doin’ nothin’ crazy.”

“You’ve been saying that for weeks now, Renza.”

“’Cause I mean it.”

She looked at me for a few seconds, and I already knew that look.

Pluto had a way of watchin’ you like she wasn’t tryna press, but somehow she still ended up in the middle of whatever you was tryna hide. She did it to Pressure all the time. That nigga could come in the house with blood on his shoe and a lie ready to tell and Pluto would look at him long enough to make him tell on himself without raisin’ her voice. I ain’t like bein’ on the other side of that shit, but with her, it never felt like she was tryna embarrass you. It felt like she cared enough to notice.

“You been alright?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Renza… are you sure?”

I exhaled through my nose and kept drivin’. “I’m straight, Pluto. Forreal.”

“I kinda knew you were going to say that,” she said soft. “That doesn’t mean I believe it.”

I ain’t answer right away ‘cause I ain’t know what she wanted me to say. I had been keepin’ myself together the best way I knew how. I went home. I handled my business. I stopped runnin’ around every night. I ain’t been outside in two weeks ‘cause outside ain’t been hittin’ the same, and I ain’t feel like standin’ in sections pretendin’ loud music could fix what was wrong with me. I had been doin’ what I was supposed to do. At least that was what I kept tellin’ myself.

Pluto looked out the window for a second, then back at me. “Have you talked to Sha’Nelle?”

Her name hit the car harder than I expected.

I ain’t heard nobody say it to me in weeks. Everybody had been movin’ around it, even when they knew it was sittin’ right there. Pressure ain’t bring her up, and Kay’Lo kept his mouth shut ‘cause that nigga already knew how I was. Toni probably said her name somewhere in that house every day, but not around me. And Pluto, for whatever reason, had waited until we was in this car on the way to what she thought was her birthday errand to ask me the one question everybody else kept swallowin’.