Page 15 of You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
“Yeah, too open. I’m not ready to have sex with someone who’s actually trying to see me. Can you imagine me freaking out in the middle, just fucking bawling for no reason?”
“Yikes. That’s not cute.”
“Thank you! So I’ma just keep it tucked in for now.”
Two stalls opened next to each other, and they went in as Joy kept talking, her voice carrying over the divider. “Personally, I think that you should keep seeing Milan. Fuck him on the side while practicing the whole emotional shit with Nasir.”
Feyi paused in the middle of folding up some tissue. “You know, if that wasn’t such a terribly messy idea, it would be fucking brilliant. Goddammit. Why did they have to know each other?”
Joy flushed and went to wash her hands. “Cockblockers. Men ruin everything, I swear.”
Feyi joined her, and they touched up their makeup in the mirror, passing each other a tube of lip gloss. They were heading back to the guys when Joy grabbed Feyi’s arm and hissed in her ear. “Don’t look, but I swear that’s Milan over there.”
Feyi turned her head, and Joy pinched her.
“I said don’t look!”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know if it’s him without looking?”
“Oh. Good point. Okay, look, but make it subtle. I know that’s hard for you Nigerians but try.”
Feyi shoved her gently and glanced over. She was right—it was Milan, standing there in a white tee, all tall and copper with his diamonds in his ears.
“I’m gonna go over and say hi,” Feyi said, surprising even herself.
Joy gave her a look but didn’t argue. “You want me to come with you?”
“Nah, I’m good. I’ll come find y’all in a sec.”
“Aight.” Joy gave her a light smack on the ass. “Don’t trip and fall on his dick now.”
“Girl, we are in public!”
“Like that ever stopped either one of us.” Joy laughed, and the sound disappeared into the crowd with her.
Feyi exhaled and cracked her knuckles, pulling the music of Moses’s voice around her like armor as she walked over to Milan, hoping that he wouldn’t flinch at the sight of her face. She hadn’t done anything wrong; there was no reason why everything shouldn’t be fine. Feyi pushed her way through people, and when she was a few feet away, Milan looked up and saw her. There was a short moment in which her heart sped up, but then his face broke out into a wide smile and he held out his arms for a hug. Feyi buried a sigh of relief as she stepped into him.
“Good to see you, girl,” he said, squeezing her tight.
“You too,” she said. Milan’s body was familiar, his beard soft and brief against her cheek.
“Nasir told me y’all might be coming together.”
Feyi felt blood rush to her face. She hadn’t told Milan about her date with his friend yet. “Oh, he did?”
She tried to keep her voice casual and steady, but Milan saw through it anyway and put his hand on her shoulder. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’m not tripping.”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be cool with it,” Feyi admitted.
They were leaning their heads together to be heard over the sound of the show. Milan’s eyes flickered, and he threw back the rest of his drink, then shrugged.
“My ex and I are trying to work things out,” he said.
Feyi couldn’t hide her shock. He’d never even mentioned an ex before, let alone one recent enough to revisit. “Oh, word?”
Milan winced at the look on her face. “Yeah, I know. I should have told you about her earlier, but the breakup was ugly. Like, real ugly. I just didn’t wanna get into all that.”
Feyi held up her hands, pressing her feelings down. It didn’t matter now. “Hey, it’s cool. You didn’t have to fill me in on your whole backstory.” She let a memory call up a little smile on her face, the two of them that first time in the bathroom, the red light. “It’s not like we did much talking anyway.”