Page 69 of Definitely Not a Thing

“The clearance section,” I answered, rolling my eyes.

“Yeah, we can tell,” one of the friends chimed in, setting off giggles between them. “The dress?”

“Wait – is this… are y’all trying to…bully me?” I leaned in, whispering that last part in disbelief. “I really thought that was some TV shit, but y’all areactuallyabout that life?Wow.”

“What? Okay bitch you’re weird,” the third friend yapped.

I put a hand to my chest. “Y’all came over here to press me aboutmynigga andI’mweird? Okay,” I said, looking around. “Where is the camera, actually? Did Calvin tell y’all to do this?”

“What?! Nobody told us to come talk to your ass!”

“Sure,” I winked, still looking around for a camera, a boom mic, something. “I’m sorry to ruin the prank, but this is just… way too corny to not be scripted.”

One of them sucked her teeth. “Let’s just get away from this weird ass girl,” one of the friends said, and they immediately saw their asses away from me.

Good.

Cause literally…what?

Of course I knew nobody planned that – they were just bitches.

Bitches who were either too stupid to realize what had just happened, or they would play the interaction in their head over and over, trying to figure out where their attempt to bully or intimidate me had gone wrong.

Either way, I won.

As they walked off, I caught eyes with Calvin. He gave me raised eyebrows that I interpreted as an unspoken check-in, so I nodded, offering a smile in return.

I wasn’t really bothered by that encounter – I was exhilarated, actually.

I motioned Calvin back to his conversation, and saw my way to the open bar for a cute lemon drop, then found myself an empty seat.

To drink my cute lemon drop and mind my business.

Until… I heard Calvin’s name.

Even though my ears perked up, I made a point of not looking in the direction the conversation was coming from immediately, turning on a level of nosiness Kae would’ve been proud of.

“I know man, that shit is wild – he must be fucking somebody in the front office too, cause ain’t no way that got rid of a wholecoachto accommodate this nigga.”

“Right? And niggas talking about some damnstats. He got a MVP three damn years ago, and not again since then – he ain’tthatgood.”

That was the comment that made me feign something happening with my earring so I could glance behind me – I needed to see who was talking.

I know that ain’t who I think it is.

My eyes narrowed, looking a little harder.

And it was, indeed, who I thought it was.

Two of the men who’d interrupted the conversation with Sierra and Rori to speak to Calvin.

The very ones who’d been grinning from ear to ear to get in his face – if I remembered correctly, they were histeammates.

Damn.

This is some real hater ass shit.

“What?”