Page 26 of Lease to Love

A second of silence. “But I gave him a ride home.”

My pencil stopped. “You what?”

“I was already going that way!” Maya whined in her weak-ass defense.

I put the pencil down. “Maya, you gave a grown-ass man who still gets his laundry done by his mother a ride home?”

“He lives near my house!”

“That is not a good reason.”

“I was being nice.”

I reached for the cup of water sitting on the coffee table and took a sip. “You were being stupid.”

“Those things are not mutually exclusive.”

I nearly choked. “Fair.”

I picked my pencil back up.

Maya sighed dramatically. “I don't know why I keep doing this.”

“Because you believe in love.”

“I do.”

I added a little pocket to the dress. “You believe everybody has a soulmate.”

“I do.”

“You believe there’s a good man out there waiting for you.”

“I do.”

The pencil stopped moving again. “You believe men are fundamentally good.”

There was a pause on the phone.

“I’m starting to question that one.”

I smiled. “Welcome to the dark side.”

I set my sketchbook to the side and stretched my legs out, staring at the ceiling for a second before sitting up again.

Maya laughed in my ear. “I ain’t say all that! I said I was questioning whether men were fundamentally good. You are anti-love.”

“I’m not anti-love! I’m just… taking an extended sabbatical.”

“Mmhmm. Thanks to a human trash bag named Ayo.”

“Ugh, don’t even say his name. It just sounds like somebody farting in my ear.”

Maya laughed so hard I had to pull the phone away from my ear.

I laughed too, but something uncomfortable stirred underneath it.

I pushed the feeling down and reached for another page.