Page 15 of Ready or Not (The Nape #I)

“Let me get this right,” Naomi’s voice cracked slightly as she raised an incredulous eyebrow. “You just left… after everything that you told us happened last night?”

Propping my phone against my bedroom’s large brown dresser, I chewed on my bottom lip. “Yeah…”

“This bitch—” Naomi sighed, dragging her palm down her face dramatically. “I—” she sighed. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Allie, Lizzy,” I looked at my other friends on the FaceTime call as I slipped into my dark blue sportswear for pilates. “Am I wrong for leaving?”

Before Alexandra or Elizabeth could reply, Naomi screamed. “Yes!”

“But–”

“You assumed and then left!” She jabbed a finger at the screen like she could physically smack some sense into me through our FaceTime call. “You didn’t even have a talk with him. You didn’t get any kind of closure, nor did you even try to understand what the hell was going on!”

Alexandra leaned closer on her end, tucking a strand of her jet black hair behind her ear. “You know I never side with Naomi buuuuuuut it’s a little dramatic to just leave without saying anything instead of waiting for an explanation?—”

“What explanation justifies that?” Elizabeth interrupted, her sharp tone cutting across Alexandra’s calm reasoning. Her perfectly arched brow furrowed as she stared into the camera. “You wake up to clothes folded neatly? No thanks. I’d be out too.”

Naomi sucked her teeth. “Liz, you’ve never had a one-night stand, nor have you ever woken up to anything less than sunshine and daisies ‘cause your boyfriend gives you the world. Your opinion doesn’t count here.”

“It does if I know that girl code 101 is that if you find your clothes like that, ” Elizabeth shot back.

“It’s clear as day that you needa gooooo.

Your stay has been overextended, sis. You gotta bounce.

No questions asked. No need to stick around for the awkward conversation.

Plus, he’s a Dominican man from the Bronx…

that’s a red flag right there,” she finished, crossing her arms triumphantly.

“Oh lord,” Alexandra groaned. “Not this again…”

Naomi groaned, throwing both hands in the air. “Oh my God, Liz, not this Bronx slander again! One time—literally one time—a Bronx guy ghosted you, and now they’re all villains?”

“Yes,” Elizabeth nodded. “I stand ten toes on what I said.”

Naomi grimaced, throwing her head back dramatically before snapping forward again to glare at the screen.

“So he can’t be considerate?!” She jabbed her finger once more. “Thoughtful?!”

“You know what?” Alexandra pursed her red lips. “Tony did have a thing for folding y’all's clothes which I found weird buuuut… that was his thing. Remember that time he folded all your laundry while waiting for you to get ready?”

Naomi clapped her hands together in disbelief, leaning closer to the screen.

“Exactly! Thank you, Allie! That’s what I’m saying.

What if he was just being NICE? Like, 'Hey, let me make sure she doesn’t wake up in a pile of random-ass clothes'. Besides, what kind of man nowadays goes out of their way to fold clothes for a woman he doesn’t like?

Most men would have your ass out as soon as he nutted.

Or he’ll have your shit in a plastic bag. "

“Wait…” I tilted my head, pointing at Naomi. “Aren’t you the same person who loves to enforce ‘the clothes’ rule? It’s the whole reason why I left in the first place.”

“Context matters!” she huffed, throwing her hands up.

“The rule applies to ain’t shit men who couldn’t remember your name during sex or those who don’t bother to wash AND dry your clothes after inviting your ass over!

This man let you stay the night and cuddled with you.

He told you he wanted to talk to you in the morning. ”

“He kind of said ‘later?—”

“Semantics, semantics,” she rolled her eyes. “Anyways, there's a difference between folded clothes because they’re shoving you out the door and folded clothes because maybe they’re, I don’t know, trying to acknowledge you as a human being with basic decency.”

“Okay, but?—”

“Nah,” she shook her head. “Don’t ‘okay but’ me. You’re telling me you didn’t even wait for an explanation of what the hell happened this morning? Not even a text? Why didn’t you call me so I could've told your ass to wait until he got back?”

I hesitated, chewing on my lip again because I could’ve called her, but I chickened out. That pause was enough for Naomi to throw her hands up again, looking like she was about to reach through the screen and throttle me.

“Ooooop,” Elizabeth leaned back in her chair with a smirk, pointing knowingly at Naomi. "There it is. Naomi patented the ‘ I’m so done with you’ face. She’s about two seconds from blowing up your phone with voice notes ranting for the next hour."

“Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable,” Naomi shook her head in mock defeat. “You better not have blocked his number, too.”

“I didn’t block him,” I muttered defensively, crossing my arms over my printed bathrobe. “I just… I didn’t get his number.”

Alexandra squinted at the screen like she was trying to decipher whether or not I actually had any brain cells left. “You what?”

“I—”

“So, let me get this straight—again—just for clarity,” she said slowly, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she rubbed her temples.

“You ran out of there without saying anything, didn’t even get his number so you could call him for clarity now that there’s a chance you might be wrong, and you’re on the phone with us expecting us to…

what? Tell you that was the right move?”

“It felt like the right move at the time,” I shot back, my voice higher than intended. “It?—”

“You’re really making me side with Mimi when she’s the one we need to put in time-out half the time,” Alexandra cut in, shaking her head.

“Hey!” Naomi scowled. “I’m the only voice of reason around here!”

Elizabeth snorted loud enough to rattle her speaker. “Oh, please. The last time you gave Allie’s little sister relationship advice, she ended up keying her man’s car and crying in a Wendy’s parking lot.”

“I did what I had to do,” Naomi shot back, narrowing her eyes at Elizabeth through the screen. “And besides, she said she felt liberated! Her words, not mine.”

“Back on topic because y’all not about to piss me off and remind me about Charlie’s breakdown,” Alexandra waved both hands in a calming gesture, her voice smooth and level as always.

“All of this is beside the point. The real issue here is communication—or lack thereof. I mean, seriously, girl, you didn’t say a word? ”

“No,” I muttered defensively, though the heat creeping up my neck betrayed me. “I just left once I saw the clothes…”

“Nah, bruh. Your bitch ass ran,” Naomi deadpanned. “You slipped out of there faster than Liz cancelling plans when it rains.”

“Mimi!” Elizabeth threw her hands up in mock offense, though the smirk tugging at her lips betrayed her amusement. “Chill out!”

“Yeah, Mimi,” Alexandra gave her a quick glare. “I know you’re right and all, but you’re doing the most.”

“Look,” I said, trying to muster some sort of defense. “I panicked, okay? The whole morning felt...weird. Like get-out-before-you-regret-it-and-have-an-awkward-conversation weird. The clothes were a clear statement.”

Alexandra leaned forward again, narrowing her eyes like she was dissecting me under a microscope. “Was it genuinely strange? Or were you simply overanalyzing things like you’re used to doing? Or maaaybe, were you just dodging confrontation again?”

Her words hit like a precision strike, and I found myself momentarily speechless, staring at their faces on my screen as if I had been caught red-handed without even knowing I was holding something incriminating. My silence said it all, and Naomi let out a dramatic groan, slapping her forehead.

“Classic avoidance tactic,” she groaned. “You don’t want to deal with the possibility that it might’ve been…complicated!”

Elizabeth smirked. “Or that you might’ve actually liked him.”

I shook my head, though the gesture felt weak even to me. “It wasn’t like that. I do like him and I was gonna tell him…”

“Then what was it?” Naomi challenged, the tilt of her chin betraying just how much she was holding back.

“Enlighten the group. Because from where we're sitting, it sounds a lot like you got scared and avoided conflict once again. You constantly avoided conflict when it came to you and Andrew, letting him do the shit he pulled without ever standing up for yourself until we forced you to face it. And now here you are, different guy, same pattern. This is no different, Sol.”

Her words hit harder than I'd anticipated.

The Andrew card.

That was low.

My stomach twisted, and I let out a sharp breath, feeling the hot prickle of defensiveness spike in my chest.

“That’s not fair,” I said quietly, gripping the edge of my desk as if grounding myself would stop the upheaval in my head. “This isn’t like Andrew.”

“I don’t want to say it but…” Alexandra sighed, "…it kind of feels like Andrew all over again. Not that you’re the same person you were back then—you’ve grown a lot—but some habits are harder to break than others."

“It’s not the same,” I mumbled, though my voice was weak enough to make me question if I believed myself.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, stayed silent and sipped on her iced coffee.

“Oh, it’s not?” Naomi leaned forward, resting her chin in her hand.

“Because it looks pretty damn similar from over here. You’ve got this pattern—you shut down and walk away instead of facing what you’re feeling.

You did it last night when you saw Andrew with homegirl from high school.

Instead of confronting him for lying to you about wanting to get back together, you acted like you didn’t care and chose to hang out by the bar until Des showed up. ”

“That’s not the case?—”

“Then what did happen, Sol? Huh?” she pressed, leaning so close to her phone camera that her face took up the entire screen.