Page 30 of Anything Goes

“If you say so.” She shrugged.

“Whatever. Just get your ass in the car and get out of here. You know I can’t leave until you do.”

“I don’t know. You might go back in there.”

“Nah, I’m good for the night. I’m about to go home, get in the shower and go to bed.”

She sighed. “Damn, I wish I could lay with you.”

“Don’t worry. If the conversation goes the way that I hope, we’ll have plenty of time for you to lay next to me.”

Smiling, she closed her car door.

I took her happy expression as a sign that our little talk would be the starting point of our future together, which was something that I’d been looking forward to for months.

Now, I just had to be patient and wait for that moment. How I was going to manage to do that, I had no idea.

11

Alauni

I rolled over, irritated that it was after midnight and my phone was ringing. I was tired as hell and Layne had been tossing and turning in my bed for most of the night.

Snatching my cell from my nightstand, I took a deep breath and answered it. “Latrell, what do you want?”

“How are my babies doing?”

“You only have one baby here, and she’s asleep. You should try to do the same.”

“I can’t. I’m too busy thinking about you.”

I rolled my eyes.

I really didn’t have time for this shit tonight. “Are you drunk?”

“No.”

That was a lie. If he wasn’t drunk, he was definitely on his way. I knew all of the signs. It started with him calling me on some,I’m still in love with you and we can work through things,bullshit. Then, it turned into him just running off at the mouth about any stupid thing that he could think of. In the past, it turned into anger and jealousy, but we’d somewhat made it beyond that now.

“Okay, Latrell, whatever you say.”

“I’m for real. I’ve only had three beers.”

“Three beers? Really? You’re still singing that same song?”

Laughing, he said, “Why do you always think that I’m lying?”

“Because we’ve been down this road so many times. I thought that you were done drinking?”

“I’m done drinking the hard shit. I haven’t had any of that in weeks.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I’m for real.”

Sitting up, I adjusted my camisole top. My left boob was seconds away from popping out. If I was still breastfeeding, Layne would have attached herself to it in her damn sleep.

I’m so glad those days are over.