Page 19 of In Harmony

“Good.”

We shook hands, and then he gave me a half-hug and a manly thump on the back.

“Thanks, bro,” he said thickly, holding on a little longer than necessary. I let him.

I met Benny three years ago. Or found him, rather, out here by the fence. He was huddled against the semi tire, sobbing over his father—killed in Afghanistan when Benny was five. He wanted to cry somewhere away from the house. “

Where Mama wouldn’t see and worry,” he’d said. He told me it was his job to take care of her now. I told him I took care of my Pops the same way. We’d been friends ever since.

Benny let go of me and left the sentimental moment to blow away in the cold air.

“How was school this week?” I asked as we dug into the cake.

“Aight,” Benny said. “Science test.”

“And?”

“Eh.”

“You’re too smart for ‘eh’. Work harder. You staying out of trouble?”

“Yeah. Are you?”

I glanced down at him with raised eyebrows. “Always.”

He laughed. “Yeah, right. Who’s your new girl this week?”

“Don’t have one.”

“Bullshit. You’re the king of booty calls.”

“Your ma know you talk like that?”

“No.”

“My ass.”

He shrugged. “She don’t care.”

From what I knew of Yolanda Hodges, she cared plenty. She cared too, about what kind of example I was setting for her son. But I’d let him mess around with my phone one night and he saw an age-inappropriate text from one of the girls I sometimes hooked up with. To take the edge off.

Naturally, Benny asked a thousand questions. I didn’t bullshit him then, and I wasn’t about to start now.

“Listen,” I said, trying to form a few smart words, my jaw working like a rusted hinge. “You got to treat all girls right. No matter what. No matter when.”

“I will.”

“I’m not fucking around. The girls that I—”

“Bang? Screw? Nail?”

I glanced down at him. He grinned up at me.

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “Those girls. We have an understanding. It’s okay that I don’t stick around and take them out or call them all the time. They’re not my girlfriends and they don’t expect to be. Sometimes girls like to…”

“Bang? Screw? Nail?”

I chuckled. “Yeah. They do. Nothing wrong with it so long as everyone’s down, okay?”