Page 36 of Save Room for Us

“You know why the hell I said it like that.”

I reversed a bit, then pulled off from the curb before saying, “I think… well, I know he likes me. But I told him I wanted to just be friends right now.”

“Why? What the fuck?”

I knew she was frowning, brows dipped without having even looked her way.

“Because I could be going to jail. I have a lot of issues as far as relationships go. I’m pretty boring too, because all I do is work and take care of Sophie. The funnest thing about me is when I play Monopoly on my iPad.”

Analicia snorted.

“You are not boring, Stazi. Asif ain’t looking for a bitch to hit the club with every night.”

“He should be. I told him as much too.”

“Well, I hope you understand that he’s a grown ass man and he ain’t listening to shit you’re talking about.”

“He’s grown, but I’m growner, if you catch my drift.”

“Cedric is older than you, and he acts worse than Brisa when he doesn’t get his way.”

“You sound like your man.” I giggled.

“Am I lying?”

No, she wasn’t.

Sophie finally drifted off just as I entered my third game of Monopoly. I’d been here with her, wanting her to go down for a nap so she wouldn’t take it too late and then keep me up all night. A few times that’d happened, and I had to go into the warehouse, leaving my mother with a wild toddler late at night. I hated doing that to her and felt like a bum every time I did, so I made a point to bore Sophie into an early slumber today.

Just as I placed her in her bed within my old bedroom, my phone rang. Darting to it so it wouldn’t wake her, I saw it was Asif. Like always, my heart drummed in my chest before I remembered he was my boss and was probably asking me to come in.

“Hey, is everything good?”

“It’s a perfect, sunny ass day. What you doing?” His tone was casual, not all stern and business like the way it was when he was about to ask me to come in for an emergency.

“I was gonna take the opportunity to run some errands, while Sophie slept and I didn’t have to work. But if you need something…”

“I need something but not work related.” I didn’t know what to say in response as my face heated up. “I’ll come scoop you, and we can run ya errands and shit, love.”

“That’s okay. I can do it myself.”

“I’m sure you can. I would hope you could, you being a grandma and all.”

I burst into laughter but quickly covered my mouth before padding out of the bedroom and going into the living room.

“Grandma? Is that how you plan to woo me? By calling me an old lady?”

“I mean, you be acting like you old enough to be my grandma when I got ’bout threebrotherseven older than you. But you the sexiest, prettiest fucking grandma a nigga don’ ever seen, ya heard me?”

I chuckled some more, unable to drop my grin even once it ceased.

“Well, thank you.”

“Anyway, I wanna drive you around while you handle yo’ shit.”

“Don’t you have some business to tend to? Being top dog and all?”

“I do, and it’s helping you run ya errands. You home? I’m ’bout to pull up on you in a little bit.”

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