Page 62 of Anything Goes

That was a good question.

“I hope not.”

“Wow, it’s that bad, huh?”

“Just give me a hug first. I promise we’re going to get right into it.”

She gave me a skeptical glance and then eased forward to wrap her arms around me. Honestly, I wanted to hold her for as long as I could and avoid any further conversation. She felt good, and she smelled even better.

Patting me on the back, she said, “Okay, enough of that. Tell me what’s going on.”

Holding her hand, I pulled her towards the couch and motioned for her to sit down next to me. “I was hoping that we would never have to have this conversation, but I haven’t been left with much of a choice.”

“Oh my God, you have a wife, don’t you?”

“What?”

“You have a wife and kids. I knew it!” she shouted. “Niggas like you are always attached. Where is she? How long have you been hiding her ass? And when—”

“Alauni, calm down,” I said, placing my hands on her shoulders. “I don’t have a wife, and I don’t have any kids.”

“Yeah, sure, tell me anything.”

“I swear, I don’t.”

“Well, if that’s not it, then what the hell is going on?”

“I’m trying to tell you, but you won’t stop jumping to conclusions long enough for me to even get it out.” I wanted to laugh at Alauni’s over the top reaction, but now wasn’t the time.

Fanning herself, she said, “Whatever it is, just tell me. But if it’s some bullshit about another chick, you’re going to see a different side of me. I’m warning you now.”

I cleared my throat, hoping that this situation wouldn’t fall into the category that she was speaking of. “So…um…what I need to tell you, it involves something that went down in my past.”

“How far in your past?”

“It was during the time that I was on the police force.”

“That wasn’t that long ago, but okay…what happened?”

I took a deep breath, and then blurted out my words as fast as possible. “Some time ago, I got involved with this chick named Maxine, things went south pretty quickly, I ended it and she didn’t handle it well.”

Frowning, Alauni just stared at me for a moment.

I couldn’t tell if she was mad, or if something I said confused her. But as soon as she opened her mouth, I learned that it was the latter. “Law, the way you just ran through all of that was weird and confusing as hell. I feel like you’re trying to avoid saying something.”

I scooted further to the edge of the couch. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

My omission wasn’t intentional. I just wasn’t sure if giving Alauni all of the details was a good idea.

“So, how serious were you with her?” she asked.

“We weren’t in a relationship, but we were spending a lot of time together and—”

“Were you fucking her?”

My eyes widened, but I didn’t hesitate to answer the question. “Yeah, I was.”

“Did you lead her on in any way?”