Page 46 of Bending The Rules

I mean… I guess I understood where Imara was coming from, with not wanting to get married again, butgoddamn. Why didIhave to be pulled into their shit, or even mentioned at all? Logically, I knew that the proposal wasn’t the actual problem – the revelation afterward was. But the proposal was the catalyst, and in my father’s mind, if I hadn’t given my blessing, they wouldn’t be having a problem.

A problem that was turning intomyproblem.

I blew out a sigh as I turned on the ignition in my car. I pulled out my dying cell phone to plug it into my car charger for the trip across town to pick up Bri, and then back home. I noticed then that I had an unread text.

“Hey! Nikita, Rich, and EJ want to get together Saturday. Shots and bowling. You in? – Baby Girl.”

I smiled, then typed out my response, glad that at the very least, it seemed like we might be able to make this “friends” thing happen.

“Yeah. Bri will be with Cat this weekend, so I’m down.”

“Yess! College bestie date!?- Baby Girl.”

I put the phone down in the console, then pulled out of the driveway.

At leastsomethingwas going right.

Nine

“What onearthmakes him think he can screw me like that, and then we just go back to being friends like nothing happened?? Huh?”

My frantically whispered question made Aviva’s eyes go wide, and she glanced up, lips parted in shock before she slid away from me on the pew.

“What are you doing?” I hissed, scooting to her side again, earning myself a scowl.

“Getting away from you before your heathen behind gets struck by lightning for talking like that in this church!”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m the heathen? The manyou’rescrewing twice a day is at home taking care of the stranger danger donor’s baby you had injected into you and you’re going to sit here and callmethe heathen?”

“…Touché. Come on.”

Aviva grabbed me by the sleeve and practically dragged me out of the sanctuary, into the front foyer of the church.

“What are you doing??” she whisper-yelled to me, leading me to the front door. “I brought you to bible study with me so we could work on being better, and look at you!”

“Vi,please.You brought me to bible study because you’re trying to get deep enough into your pastor’s good graces that he’ll do a dedication ceremony for your out-of-wedlock baby.”

“You should mind your business. And take down some of these buttons, what are you a nun? A man of God is still a man, and my pastor is a young, handsome, single one. Come on back in here so he can get a good look at you.”

“So you can pimp me out to your pastor, but you can’t talk to me about Justin?”

Vi rolled her eyes, then propped her hands on her hips. “Toni, I amnotabout to go down that rabbit hole with you again. You’ve been talking my ear off about your little attic escapade, when I’ve already told you what you should do.”

“I can’t do that!”

“You can’t tell him how you feel, but you can beatmedown about it while I’m trying to hear the word?”

“I can’t tell him how I feel because I don’tknowhow I feel.”

“So tell him you don’t know how you feel.”

“I can’t dothateither, because he was… pretty clear in telling me howhefelt. He only wants to be friends, Vi. What would I look like telling him “Hey, actually, I’m pretty confused about the fact that I’mmoreattracted to you now, and I have a nagging feeling that we should explore the possibility of something else.”?”

Aviva wrinkled her nose. “Umm, an honest person is what you’d look like, Tee. And you’d be a lot less stressed, it seems like. You’re bugging right now.”

“Uh,duh. I screwed the person I’ve been friends with since elementary – who I had rules about not screwing. Yeah, I’m freaking out!”

“Sostop,” Vi said, putting her hands on my shoulders. “You have three options here. Leave, and keep globe-hopping so you never have to see him again. Keep following his lead, and just be friends… and seduce this pastor real quick for me. Or you can tell him how you feel, and let the chips fall where they may. But freaking out? Getting you nowhere.”

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