Page 252 of The Sweetest Return

Dre’s old apartment building sat a few blocks off campus, close enough that we used to pretend the walk back after games counted as cooling down. The building looked better now. New windows. Fresh paint on the trim. Better lights near the entrance. But the front steps were the same, and the curb where he used to park still pulled the memory right out of me.

My steps slowed.

Dre noticed. “You remember?”

I looked at him. “Of course I remember.”

Years ago, in front of this building, beside his black Hellcat, Dre had officially asked me to be his girl.

I could still see him.

Young Dre in gray sweats and an AWU tee stretched across his chest, gold chain at his neck, diamond in his ear, standing beside that car like the street belonged to him. I had been in a pink top and jeans, gold hoops in my ears, sneakers with pink at the sole, nails done because I had always believed a bad day could be helped by a fresh set.

He had looked at me with that cocky little smile, trying to act casual and failing because his eyes gave him away.

“So what we doing, Mani?” he had asked.

“About what?”

“About us.”

“Is there an us?”

He stared at me like I had personally offended him.

“You playing with me?”

“A little.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Then ask me right.”

He stepped closer, all young confidence with nerves underneath it. “I’m asking you to be my girl. Official. Mine. Whatever word makes you stop acting like you don’t already know.”

I tried to make him suffer. For maybe three seconds.

Then I smiled.

Big and happy in a way I still remembered in my cheeks.

“Okay,” I’d said.

“Okay?”

“Yes, Andre. I’ll be your girl.”

The grin that broke across his face should have warned me.

Before I could step back, he caught me around my thighs and lifted me against him like I weighed nothing. I squealed and wrapped myself around him, laughing while he held me in front of his apartment building with the Hellcat gleaming behind us.

“It’s you and me, Mani,” he said, face tucked close to mine. “Forever.”

My arms tightened around his neck.

Then he lowered his mouth near the place over my heart, where my little infinity tattoo was hidden beneath my shirt like a secret I had gotten before I knew what it would one day mean.

“To Infinity,” he whispered.