Page 40 of A Hood Wife And A Rich Goon 2

Lotus sighed. Suddenly, she’d lost her appetite thinking about Evren. It didn’t help that Eazy was stirring up some shit she’d rather stay buried.

“I don’t know. The first time he showed up at my apartment. This was after we first hooked up. He got a little physical⁠—”

“Physical like how?” Eazy’s nostrils flared.

“He hit me,” she admitted, watching his fist ball. “But I pulled my gun on him, and he left. I haven’t seen him since then, but he was calling. A lot. I blocked him, and he would call from another number.”

“Is this why you got your number changed not long ago?” Eazy concluded.

“Yes,” she whispered, and Eazy gritted his teeth.

“You don’t owe me your past, Lo, because I never put that shit on you with me and Niva, but you owe me the fucking truth about here and now.”

“Eazy—”

“I need to take a walk before I say some shit I can’t take back.” He got up, picked up his trash, and left Lotus seated alone.

She wanted to go after him, but she didn’t know what to say. Eazy wasn’t the type to argue. He said some shit and let you sit with it. Tonight was a prime example.

CHAPTER 8

OLD ENEMIES, NEW FRIENDS

“That’s your ‘I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it’ face.” Niva’s voice pierced Eazy’s ear.

Seated on a bench on the quieter edge of the market near vendor row, he gripped a fresh cup of whiskey he hadn’t touched. Still spiraling off his conversation with Lotus, he finished a much needed blunt not long ago. He didn’t like that keeping shit from each other nonsense. Wasn’t no point in being a relationship to him if you couldn’t keep it a buck. He might have ghosted her in the beginning a couple of times, but it wasn’t to hurt her. He honestly thought he wasn’t the best thing for her at the time. Now, it was hard trying to picture life without Lotus in it. The thought of it made his chest tight.

“Then why you talking?” Eazy didn’t bother looking at her as he tipped his cup to his lips.

Niva actually laughed, taking it upon herself to sit beside him. Eazy didn’t budge, but being this close to her did stir something inside him he wasn’t expecting. She still smelled the same and sounded the same. There was a time he couldn’t stop touching her or wanting to be up under her. It was natural for them. Now, awkwardness lived between them.

“My bad. I thought everything was good in your world.”

“Never said it wasn’t.” Eazy stared into his cup.

“Then why you sitting over here with that face like somebody did something to you?” Niva looked at him.

Eazy didn’t answer. He didn’t want to give her any kind of power over him and Lotus, so it was best he just shut the fuck up. He noticed she was riding solo, though.

“Oracle around here lurking? Or did you show up with my sister and her husband?”

“Which answer would bother you the most?” Niva mocked.

“I don’t really care either way?”

“Look, Essence and I were friends. Not just because I was with her brother either. We were cool. There were times I’d vent and talk shit. I’d tell her shit before I told you.”

“And it wasn’t shit for you to lie and leave her behind either.” Eazy sipped his whiskey, and Niva sighed.

“How long you plan to hold that against me, E? Aren’t you even glad a bitch is alive?” she asked, watching his head swerve in her direction.

For the first time, he looked at her, taking in every inch of her face. She was still pretty, sexy, cute. Natural features accompanied by a platinum blonde pixie cut that he wasn’t used to. She’d switched up her styles in the past, but this was different. She’d taken on a whole new personality with it. One he didn’t recognize. For a moment, he remembered when everything he knew or wanted began and ended with this woman in front of him.

“You remember when we used to just disappear?” she asked, changing the subject and looking to the sky. “Hop in the car, roll the windows down, and smoke while cruising down the highway with no destination.”

Eazy half smiled, reminiscing with her. He still liked to do that shit on a late, breezy night. In the distance, Lotus searched for him and thought he’d disappeared until her eyes landed on him seated with his ex. Nothing seemed inappropriate. Just talking, but there was intimacy and history, which somehow made it worse since she knew he was mad at her. Had she just opened the door for the next woman to step in? Not just any woman, one that already knew him.

“You always did get quiet when somebody hurt your feelings,” Niva observed.