Page 2 of Ex- Factor

“So anyway,” West said, raising his hands like he didn’t still have that good-boy charm sitting soft in his voice, “I’m at the urinal, minding my business, and dude just walks up behind me.”

I stiffened, cutting my eyes at him because he was being messy. “So you wouldn’t tell me what happened with Donte and you when I asked, but now you wanna share it in front of everybody?”

West shrugged, unapologetic. “You don’t know Silas. He asked me. He would’ve bothered me until I did.”

“That is true,” Silas said. I was sitting on the arm of my sofa, but I was damn near on his shoulder because he had sat so close to me. I didn’t move. But I was too aware of how close he was —and I wanted to be closer.

“I kept it cool,” West said, looking at Silas, then back at me. “Dude came in hot, ice-grilling me, saying stuff like ‘You know who she belongs to,’ and ‘Don't get too comfortable.’ My dick was still out. I was so, ironically, uncomfortable.”

The whole room cracked up, except me. I was chewing my lip.

“What’d you say?” Angel asked from the floor. She and her husband Cassius were so nice. I could see myself being friends with them. The Naomi girl was a little brash, but she was cool too. She and her husband had left early. Ekon was in my bed, knocked out. We were waiting for the game to start.

“I said, ‘Sir, I’m just trying to piss in peace.’” West took a sip from his glass. “He stepped in close, real close. Sizing me up and shit. He told me Eshe wasn’t over him and never would be, so I didn’t stand a chance.”

I felt the room tilting. Or maybe it was just my stomach. I hated how familiar this all sounded. Donte was always threatening people, and I had dealt with his jealousy by ignoring it.

“What ’d you say?” Cassius asked, with his brow raised.

West nodded. “Nothing. I had to literally count backward from ten because I wanted to beat his ass. But I controlled myself. Not for him—for me. Because I like my job and I don’t want my face on the news.

The fuck I look like being under the headline ‘Public Defender Needs Public Defender’?

I left the bathroom, told Eshe what happened, left, and ran into my dream girl.

” He grinned at Aja, and her whole face lit up. I hated them both; they were so cute.

“You know what,” I said, “I wish y’all didn’t have this happy-ass origin story built off the back of my heartache. I ain’t even mad though. Here’s to heartache turning into forever, for somebody else.”

I held up my glass for Silas to clink. I wanted to change the subject.

I looked at him. Full-on. “So Angel’s your baby momma and Cassius is your friend?”

Silas nodded. “Yup.”

“How y’all navigate that?” I asked, tilting my head and looking in Cassius's direction. “Knowing your boy was with your wife?”

Cassius snorted and nearly choked on his drink. “I’m going to let him answer.”

I looked back to Silas; he just shook his head. “I never had sex with Angel.”

My brow furrowed. “Artificial insemination?”

“No.”

“Okay, I’m even more confused then,” I said, brows pulling tight. “How’s Ekon your son and Angel your baby momma?”

He stretched his legs out and his arm came to rest around my waist. I didn’t move it because he would have just put it back.

He was pushy in that way. He had been following me all night, sitting too close, but I could tell he was harmless.

He smiled this devilish grin at me that made the butterflies in my stomach soar.

“Once,” he said, pausing for dramatic effect, “I almost made her cum from a kiss.”

Everybody exploded with laughter. Except Angel; she was responsible for the pillow that flew towards his head. Cassius clutched his chest like he was dying.

“I wish you would stop bringing that up,” Angel muttered.

“That doesn’t make any sense. How does a baby come from a kiss?” I asked.

Silas leaned back into the couch.

“I’ve been in their relationship since the beginning,” he said. “I watched Cassius make a lot of mistakes. Honestly, there were times I encouraged them. Told him to enjoy his freedom, not to settle down too fast. I didn’t really understand what he had in front of him. The power Angel possessed.”

He glanced at Angel briefly.

She blew him a kiss and he smiled. They had a close relationship, but it wasn’t giving sexual.

“I don’t think Angel liked me much at first,” he continued. “I wouldn’t have blamed her. I didn’t give her much reason to. But she was never cruel, never disrespectful, even when she had every right to be. If she would have told Cassius to tell me to fuck off, he would have—but she didn’t.”

He paused to take a sip of brown liquor, then rested the glass on his knee.

“I fell in love with Ekon when I first saw him. I felt like he was mine too. Angel let me be there.”

He sniffed like he was lowkey emotional before continuing. “When her ex came back and things got dangerous, I saved her and Cassius. So now she ’s mine too. I know there’s some myth or something that says that’s how it works.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes like he was dead ass serious. “Yes it does.”

I raised my hand. “Okay, it does.”

He continued with a nod. “But seriously, she helped change me. Made me a better man at the same time she was fixing Cassius. She might not be mine in the traditional sense, but she’s mine in the ways that matter.

Her and Ekon. That’s my family. So when I say she’s my son’s mother, that’s what I mean. Not because of biology.”

“I get that,” I said. “You have a beautiful son.” Who was I to tell people how to live their lives? Found families mattered too. If I could have play-play cousins, he could have a play-play son and baby moms.

Silas’s face cracked into this big, goofy grin, lit up like a lightbulb. Then, loud as hell and proud about it, he turned to the room and yelled, “I told y’all she was my wife!” He was clearly tipsy.

I blinked. “How does that make me your wife?”

He didn’t even pause. “Because when I’ve dated other women, none of them ever got it.

They couldn’t understand why Angel was important in my life, or why I prioritize Ekon like I do.

They’d say they were cool with it, but after a while, the questions would start.

The attitude. The side-eyes. The resentment.

The jealousy. I didn’t even want to be with them for real, but with them nagging me, it made a relationship even less desirable. ”

I raised a brow. “Jealous of what? Angel has a whole husband. Her husband clearly doesn’t have an issue. Why would they?”

Like a choir, everybody in the room sang, “Exactly.”

I looked around at them.

“Y’all are… interesting.”