Page 96 of Buy Back My Love

“You good?”

I knew exactly what he meant. He wasn’t talking about right now. He meant the text I left hanging, the pumpkin patch, JB, all that mess.

“I’m good,” I told him.

Anika was staring at him like she was inspecting a used car, her eyes moving from him to me with that little half-smile she got whenever she thought she was figuring something out.

Van caught her looking and gave her a polite nod before turning back to me.

“All right. Have a good night, y’all.”

“You too,” Nina said before I could even open my mouth.

Van gave me one last look, then went right back to his table and sat down across from the woman he came with. I watched him for a second longer than I needed to. He had checked on me. I answered. That was it.

Meanwhile, that pretty light-skinned girl was sitting across from him looking like she belonged there. An annoying little knot tightened in the middle of my chest.

“Well,” Anika said, leaning across the table and whispering loud as hell. “He got some manners. And he fine. What’s his name again?”

“Leave it alone, Nika.”

I grabbed my cup and finished the rest of my drink in one long swallow.

Right about then, the DJ switched songs, and the opening of “Put It On Da Floor Again” by Latto came through the speakers.

“Ooh, this my song!” Anika said, already pushing her chair back. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the table. “Come on.”

“Nika, I ain’t trying to…”

“Girl, get up!”

The daiquiris were finally doing their job, so it ain’t take much more than another tug before I gave up and let her pull me into the open space near our table.

Anika was already rapping along, acting a fool like she had been waiting all night for this exact song. I started off laughing at her, but once the beat got going and Nina started screaming behind us, that liquor kicked all the way in.

“Ayeeee!” Nina yelled.

I turned around and started throwing my ass, one hand braced against my thigh while Anika hyped me up from behind.

“THAT’S MY SISTER!”

Wren was hollering. Nina was damn near beating on the table. I came back up laughing, and when I turned around, Anika already had her phone in my face.

“Y’all see my sis?!” she yelled into her Live. “She home! She outside! Ain’t she fine?!”

“Get that camera out my face!”

“Nope!”

I knocked her hand away, but that only made her turn the camera on herself and keep acting a fool.

After that, the DJ kept the same kind of music going, and the drunker I got, the less I cared. I was rapping, dancing, throwing my ass when the right song came on, having a good time with my girls.

But every now and then, my eyes still found Van’s table, and every time, he was already watching me. At first he’d turn away like he hadn’t been staring, but after a while, he quit pretending.

The next time I caught him while I was dancing, he just smiled. I smiled back before turning around and getting right back to it.

I wasn’t finna lie to myself. I liked knowing he was watching me, especially with that pretty woman sitting across from him. Was it a little petty? Probably, but after the week I’d had and the drinks in me, I wasn’t too worried about it.