Page 36 of Divine

“Don’t change the subject, Lee Lee. I’m trying to give you the tea.”

“Oh, yeah? Where is it? I was gon’ grab a bottle of water out of the fridge.”

“That means gossip, silly. I’m trying to let you know what I have going on so there are no more secrets.”

“OK, you’re seeing someone. Who is he?”

“His name is Sherrod Bates. They call him Rod the God,” she disclosed.

“The rapper?” I frowned. I just knew I was hearing things.

“Yes.”

“So, that’s the kind of dude you fuck with?”

“Not typically, but he’s so sweet, Lee. He treats me like a princess and spoils me just like the boys. I always knew that whatever man I ended up with had to treat me the way they do, or he wouldn’t be able to keep my interest. I’m not ready for him to meet my family yet, so I’ve been trying to keep it low key. It’s only been about a month.”

“That’s cool and all, but if he gets wrong with you, you know I have to check him.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Please, keep this between us until I’m ready for him to meet my people.”

“All right,” I said, picking up the remote and turning up the volume on the TV. I had heard enough about Divine’s love life to last a lifetime.

“I guess that’s my cue to leave,” she said, laughing nervously.

“I’m out here if you need me.”

“Thankyou for giving me your time today, my guy. Some people don’t take being called in to work on their off days lightly.”

“It’s nothing. I didn’t have too much going on today.”

“Cool. I wanted to ask you about something.”

“All right,” I said, unsure of why this impromptu meeting couldn’t have been a text message.

“How long you been working with Divine?”

“Like four months I think,” I answered casually.

Actually it had been four months, one week, and two days, but who was counting?

“Sounds about right.” He nodded. “You ever met a nigga named Roger Cunningham?”

“That name doesn’t ring a bell,” I lied.

Now I needed to know where the hell we were going. Better yet, where was this line of questioning headed? I knew from experience people didn’t ask questions like that if they didn’t already know the answer.

“Good answer. He used to work on Divine’s detail. It was maybe six months ago. He didn’t last long. She told me he did too much and made her uncomfortable. I never liked the way she said that shit. I wanted her to explain what he did to make her uncomfortable, but I don’t like her knowing too much just in case some shit goes down. Instead of going with my first mind, I just let him go.”

“Understood.”

“She told you, though. I assume that you were asking questions or for whatever reason she felt comfortable enough to tell you about him.”

“About who?” I asked, pretending to have forgotten what we were talking about.

“When Psalm told me he saw him on the news, he mentioned that you had just asked about him, saying you thought you knew him from somewhere. He didn’t think anything of it, but I know the feeling of letting somebody get to someone you care about. I would have done the same thing you did.”

“And what’s that exactly?” I asked, turning to face him.

---