Page 2 of Ex- Factor
“Hello, Eshe.”
“How do you know my name?”
“West told me. Before I knew you were you.”
I ignored the part of my brain that could feel everybody watching us.
“You’re not going to ask my name?”
“What’s your name?” I asked, before I even registered I was doing so.
He put the little boy down gently. “Go to your mama, Ekon.”
He waited a beat, just long enough for the boy to scamper off, before his eyes locked back on me. Then he closed the distance between us in one stride...
He wrapped his thick fingers around my wrist and pulled me aggressively forward. I slammed into him. His arms wrapped around me, holding me in a tight embrace. My face ended up pressed flush against the hard plains of his chest. My breath caught. My brain said push him off. But my body… stayed still. His warmth made me feel hot. The hug went on too long. Long enough to notice he smelled really fucking good—clean, crisp, and masculine.
I heard a woman say, “Oh shit, she ’s in trouble.”
Then the man, who still hadn’t told me his name, whispered in my ear, “You are, in fact, in trouble. But the best type.”
Chapter two- Eshe
“So anyway,” West said, raising his hands like he didn’t still have that good-boy charm sitting soft in his voice, “I’m at the urinal, minding my business, and dude just walks up behind me.”
I stiffened, cutting my eyes at him because he was being messy. “So you wouldn’t tell me what happened with Donte and you when I asked, but now you wanna share it in front of everybody?”
West shrugged, unapologetic. “You don’t know Silas. He asked me. He would’ve bothered me until I did.”
“That is true,” Silas said. I was sitting on the arm of my sofa, but I was damn near on his shoulder because he had sat so close to me. I didn’t move. But I was too aware of how close he was —and I wanted to be closer.
“I kept it cool,” West said, looking at Silas, then back at me. “Dude came in hot, ice-grilling me, saying stuff like ‘You know who she belongs to,’ and ‘Don't get too comfortable.’ My dick was still out. I was so, ironically, uncomfortable.”
The whole room cracked up, except me. I was chewing my lip.
“What’d you say?” Angel asked from the floor. She and her husband Cassius were so nice. I could see myself beingfriends with them. The Naomi girl was a little brash, but she was cool too. She and her husband had left early. Ekon was in my bed, knocked out. We were waiting for the game to start.
“I said, ‘Sir, I’m just trying to piss in peace.’” West took a sip from his glass. “He stepped in close, real close. Sizing me up and shit. He told me Eshe wasn’t over him and never would be, so I didn’t stand a chance.”
I felt the room tilting. Or maybe it was just my stomach. I hated how familiar this all sounded. Donte was always threatening people, and I had dealt with his jealousy by ignoring it.
“What ’d you say?” Cassius asked, with his brow raised.
West nodded. “Nothing. I had to literally count backward from ten because I wanted to beat his ass. But I controlled myself. Not for him—for me. Because I like my job and I don’t want my face on the news. The fuck I look like being under the headline ‘Public Defender Needs Public Defender’? I left the bathroom, told Eshe what happened, left, and ran into my dream girl.” He grinned at Aja, and her whole face lit up. I hated them both; they were so cute.
“You know what,” I said, “I wish y’all didn’t have this happy-ass origin story built off the back of my heartache. I ain’t even mad though. Here’s to heartache turning into forever, for somebody else.”
I held up my glass for Silas to clink. I wanted to change the subject.
I looked at him. Full-on. “So Angel’s your baby momma and Cassius is your friend?”
Silas nodded. “Yup.”
“How y’all navigate that?” I asked, tilting my head and looking in Cassius's direction. “Knowing your boy was with your wife?”
Cassius snorted and nearly choked on his drink. “I’m going to let him answer.”
I looked back to Silas; he just shook his head. “I never had sex with Angel.”
