Page 94 of The Sweetest Return

“That is disrespectful to potatoes.”

“You eat raw onions on purpose. Your opinion doesn’t matter.”

We ate for a few minutes. Food had always been one of the ways we gave ourselves time.

Eventually, I set my burger down.

“Pops told me something tonight.”

Her brows rose. “What?”

“He told me to get my girl back.”

Imani froze with a fry halfway to her mouth.

I smiled. “Yeah. That was about my reaction too.”

She lowered the fry. “What did you say?”

“Nothing. He walked away like old Black men do after dropping some shit on you they don’t intend to discuss.”

She laughed, though nerves moved through it.

I held her gaze.

“I been thinking about what he said.”

“And?”

“After what we just said to each other, I don’t want to walk out of here and act like the apology was the whole point.”

Her fingers stilled around her fry.

“It matters,” I said. “It needed to happen. But I don’t want to make the apology the ending if both of us can feel this thing trying to start.”

Her eyes stayed on mine.

Fear was there.

Want too.

“What are you asking me for, Dre?”

“You.”

Her chest lifted with a deep breath.

“When this weekend is over. When nobody’s clapping for me, nobody’s checking a seating chart, and nobody with a clipboard is hunting us down. I want you then too.”

I watched her take a deep breath.

“I want to date you, Mani. For real. I want to call you after Crown Weekend and still have somewhere for us to go. Dinner on a regular night. A walk that doesn’t have alumni watching. Time that belongs to us because we chose it, not because AWU put us in the same room.”

Her mouth curved a little.

“I want the grown version of this,” I said. “The honest version. You tell me when something scares you. I tell you when I’m hurt instead of getting quiet and calling it strength. We move toward each other on purpose.”

Her smile faded into something softer.