Page 92 of Certified To Handle You 2

I looked at her. “You still can’t smoke.”

“Hell no,” she replied, pushin’ the blunt back toward me. “That shit just strong.”

“That’s what people who can’t smoke always say.”

She cut her eyes at me while tryin’ not to smile.

I laughed under my breath and hit the blunt before leanin’ back again. Reni had been callin’ me every now and then since everything happened between us, but we hadn’t spent much real time together. A few weeks ago, she got sick and asked me to bring her some herbs. I went by her condo, dropped ‘em off and stayed long enough to make sure she was straight, but that was about it.

The history was still there, but the relationship wasn’t.

Tonight felt different ‘cause neither one of us was tryna talk about the past or fix some shit. We was just sittin’ next to each other in the same place where a lot of our shit started, drinkin’ and lettin’ the night move without askin’ it for more than that.

As more liquor settled into me, I stopped thinkin’ about whether sittin’ this close to Reni meant anything. Her hand rested on my thigh once while she leaned across me to reach for the bottle, and I ain’t move it. Later, my arm ended up stretched behind her along the back of the sofa, and she leaned into my side like the space had always belonged to her.

I knew what I was doin’. I also knew what I wasn’t doin’ no more.

I wasn’t sittin’ around waitin’ for Sha’Nelle to decide if she wanted me while actin’ like my whole life had to stop. Three weeks had passed without one word between us. I ain’t owe nobody no explanation for bein’ outside, drinkin’ with an ex or lettin’ the night turn into whatever the fuck it was gon’ turn into.

Reni looked over at me while I poured another drink, and I caught her eyes stayin’ on my face longer than they needed to.

“What?” I asked her.

“Nothin’,” she answered before takin’ the glass from my hand.

“You lookin’ dead at me, but it’s nothin’?”

She took a sip and turned toward me. “I ain’t seen you in a while. I can look.”

I stared back at her, then nodded once. “A’ight.”

She smiled behind the rim of her glass and looked away, but I caught the message in that shit.

Mecca got up not long after that to go speak to somebody she knew near another section, and Blaqson walked with her ‘cause he said he needed to hit the bathroom anyway. Once they left, Reni shifted closer to me without actin’ like she had done it on purpose.

“You been good?” she asked, keepin’ her voice low enough that I had to lean toward her.

“I’m straight. You?”

“I been good,” she replied. “Work been gettin’ on my nerves, but other than that, I can’t complain.”

I nodded and took another drink while she watched me. There was more she wanted to say, but Reni had always been the type to work her way toward shit instead of comin’ straight out with it.

After a minute, she looked toward where Mecca had disappeared. “I rode with Mecca tonight.”

I turned my head and looked at Reni.

That ain’t have nothin’ to do with what we had been talkin’ about, and both of us knew it. She took another sip from her glass and kept her eyes ahead like she had only thrown the information out there for no reason.

I rubbed my thumb along the side of my cup before askin’, “You ridin’ back with her too?”

She turned toward me slow. Her eyes moved over my face before lockin’ with mine.

“Is that what you want?” she asked.

I looked her up and down, takin’ in the dress, her legs and the way she had leaned close enough for her perfume to sit between us. Then I brought my eyes back to hers.

“I asked you a question.”