Page 31 of Bending The Rules

“Second?”

He nodded. “When she was three. You know I told you she was born with a congenital heart defect, right? Well, she had surgery about two weeks after she was born, and everything was great. But then a few years later, she started having some problems, and they had to go in again. It was… stressful.”

“I can imagine. Three issolittle.”

“Yeah, it was. But muffin is a tough little girl.”

I smiled. “Muffin. Why do you call her that?”

“Because that’s the first thing she asked for when she woke up after that surgery. Well, she asked for her PawPaw, andthenshe asked for a muffin. She was obsessed, for about a year. And I can’t even recall that she’dhada muffin before then.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. But… I had no idea that your child had surgery –twice.It seems like the type of tidbit my mother would have been falling over herself to tell me.”

Justin lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah… like you being engaged. Marjorie kept that close to her chest.”

“It was private news.”

“It was a shock to my system,” Justin chuckled, but I didn’t get the sense that he found it funny at all. “My first reaction was honestly,who the fuck is she marrying, and why the fuck didn’t he askmeif he could marry her?”

My eyes went wide. “Wow. Still that protective, huh?”

“I guess it doesn’t go away. So…Russell,huh?” he said, with the same inflection one might use to ask someone if theyreallythought garbage juice was a delicacy.

I went quiet for a moment as our food was delivered, then wrinkled my nose at him over the table. “You don’t have to say it like that.”

“Say it like what? I’m not saying it any kind of way. The nigga’s name is Russell, is it not?”

“Justin…”

He tossed his hands up. “How do you want me to say it?”

“I don’t want you to say it at all,” I laughed.

“Ahh, I see. You two still haven’t made up.”

“You could say that.”

Justin laughed. “And your ass keeps giving vague answers to that question.”

“Which will continue, until I have a clear one.”

“Damn. The blogger messed up bad, didn’t he?”

I put my fork down. “Wow. First of all, he’s not a blogger and youknowthat. Second… so you googled him?”

“Hell yeah. I like to keep up with who is going to be in my space, and if he’s marrying you, he’ll have proximity.”

“So in this scenario, he’s in your space becauseI’min your space.”

“Precisely.”

“So you’re saying you want me around?”

Justin stopped with his glass halfway to his mouth, and lowered it, looking at me like I was crazy. “Toni… when has that ever not been the case?”

“A lot can change in seven years of not speaking.”

“Not that. There was never a point where I didn’t miss you anymore,” Justin said, shaking his head. “Never.”

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