Page 19 of Only a Gemini Will Do

“Yeah. Don’t leave a damn thing out either,” Neesh agreed.

I huffed out a long sigh. “Okay, okay. Y’all remember that hurricane that blew through here back in July and canceled our Miami trip?”They both nodded, so I continued. “Well, when I got home from the airport that day, I found a man in my apartment.”

Both of their eyes ballooned, but only Brit spoke up. “Inside your apartment, like he broke in?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t home when he broke in, though. He locked Butta in the bathroom and was sitting on my couch when I walked in. My phone was dead, and the power was out, so I couldn’t call anyone.”

“You could’ve screamed.”

“Yeah. I could’ve, but I was frozen solid.”

“And how did we go from frozen to felon fucking? Did I miss that part of the story?” Kaneesha inquired.

“No. But he’s not violent, y’all,” I clarified.

“So, he broke into your apartment, but he’s not violent? Make it make sense,” Brit said.

“He went to jail for drugs. He was getting transferred from one prison to another when the hurricane made landfall, andthe bus flipped off the road. He survived and got the fuck out of there. He broke into my apartment to get shelter from the storm, and then I came home and found him,” I explained.

Kaneesha tilted her head to the side. “Still didn’t hear anything about the part where you let a stranger impregnate you.”

Brit’s hands shot up. “Right! You’re stressing me the fuck out, friend.”

“Not like it matters now, but I ain’t know he was a felon untilafterI’d slept with him. I turned on the news the next morning after the power came back on, and I saw his mugshot. Before then, I thought he’d just gotten into an accident and was in survival mode.”

Kaneesha tossed back the rest of the wine in her glass. “This has gotta be the craziest shit I’ve ever heard.”

“Hold up. Mugshot? I think I remember hearing something about this,” Brit added. “What’s his name?”

“Kareem,” I answered.

“Kareem, what?”

“Dorsey.”

She quickly began tapping against her phone screen. “He got a twin brother named Kadeem?”

“Yeah.”

“This him?” Brit probed, turning her phone toward me so that I could see Kareem’s mugshot.

I dipped my chin. “Yeah. That’s him.”

Brit bit down on her fist. “Sheesh, friend. You should’ve led with the pic. It literally explains all your fucked up choices.”

“Lemme see!” Neesh insisted, waving down Brit to see the picture. “Not you letting a fine ass felon murder the pussy during a hurricane and keeping his secret baby. What in the Tubi movie is going on with yo’ life, girl? At least now we know why you gave the pussy up all willingly and shit.”

My chest deflated with a hard sigh. “Multiple times because it wasthatgood. For real, the dick was dicking, y’all. I swear if I could bottle it up and sell it, I’d be a fucking kajillionaire.”

Brit huffed. “I swear, good D is so damn dangerous.”

Kaneesha waved her hand in testimony. “Say it a lil louder for the people in the back, sis. Just have you doing dumb shit for no reason.”

“But back to the topic. Holy fucking shit, Sawyer. I remember seeing this shit on the news! There was a prison bus accident, and a few inmates were on the loose, right?”

I nodded again. “Yup. That’s the one.”

“To my knowledge, they called off the manhunt after a couple of months and chalked it up to them dying in the storm, right?”