Page 42 of Heavy Is The Crown

Pam shook her head. “Just ‘cause you ain’t met the right one yet don’t mean you won’t.”

Krys waved them off. She wasn’t in the mood for this.

Ray, never one to let shit go, leaned in, her tone more serious. “For real, though. You really don’t want kids?”

That one hit a little differently.

Krys stared at her glass for a moment before responding. “I never said that.”

Pam’s brows lifted slightly. “So, you do?”

Krys shrugged, swirling the liquid in her glass. “I just don’t wanna do it by myself.”

That part was the truth. She wasn’t about to be some man’s baby mama, raising a kid alone, playing phone tag just to get some damn diapers. If she did it, she was doing it right. A partner. A family. A foundation.

Nobody had ever made her feel like that was possible.

Pam and Ray exchanged looks, something unspoken passing between them.

Pam softened. “You know…you don’t have to be so tough all the time, Krys.”

Krys glanced up, arching a brow. “I’m not.”

Pam gave her that motherly look, the one that said she saw right through her.

Krys inhaled deeply, then exhaled just as slow.

They meant well. She knew that. But they didn’t get it. They didn’t know what it was like to walk in her shoes. To be Krys.

She wasn’t built to be someone’s second choice. She wasn’t built to play small to make a man feel bigger. And if that meant she had to move through life alone…So be it.

Ray sighed, shaking her head. “I just don’t wanna see you wake up one day regretting that you never tried.”

Krys sat back, expression unreadable. Fine.

If they needed to see her with someone, she’d give them something. She picked up her tea again, taking a slow sip, dragging out the suspense.

“Well,” she started, keeping her voice casual, “I guess y’all can stop acting like I’m lonely, because I actually do have a real man now.”

Ray blinked, stunned. Pam turned fully around from the stove.

“Wait, what?” Ray asked.

Pam raised a brow. “Since when? And how does Musa feel about that?”

Krys kept it cool. Kept her face neutral. Let them eat it up.

“A couple weeks now,” she said, setting the glass down. “It’s new. And Musa is warming up to him.”

Ray sat forward, grinning. “And you wasn’t gon’ tell us?”

Pam folded her arms, studying her. “That’s funny. We ain’t heard nothing about no man.”

Krys shrugged, effortlessly. “Y’all ain’t ask.”

Pam narrowed her eyes slightly.

Krys was lying through her teeth. But they didn’t need to know that. Let them wonder. Let them go back to the family group chat and whisper about how Krys had a new man now and she wasn’t going to die an old maid.

---