Page 18 of Legend's Legacy
“Not funny. That’s the first time that you’ve spoken my name. I love the way that it sounds, coming off your lips.”
I balled my sub sandwich paper up and shoved it into my empty potato chip bag. I walked my trash to the nearest can, tossed it, and returned.
“Listen, I appreciate you being there for me earlier and having my back through that terrifying experience. But I’m not sure what you’re doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Joining me for lunch. Telling me that you like the way that I speak your name.”
“What’s the problem, ma?”
“It feels like you’re looking for something from me.”
“Why did you approach me at the bar?”
“I told you that I was looking for a rebound, a distraction to get over my man.”
“Tell me something, Legacy. Are you still with him?”
“Hell no.”
“Were you still with him the night you went to the hotel with me?”
“No. Well, not technically. I went home the next morning, packed my things, and moved in with my sister until I got my own place.”
“How many times have you and he hooked up since that night?”
“Zero. He won’t come near me. Thanks to my sister’s boyfriend, he’s afraid even to think my name. Where is all this coming from?”
“You were all over a nigga that night, and you didn’t even know me. You were ready to throw it at me, but now you act like you barely want to speak to me.”
“I was drunk.”
He started singing Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It.”
“It wasn’t just that, but I was also devastated.”
“About?”
“I had just busted my boyfriend cheating on me, with my girls as witnesses. He made a fool out of me for all the times I took up for him.”
“So that wasn’t the first time he cheated?”
“No. Mostly, I would discover it through girls sliding in my DMs, telling me about him. He would deny it until they would send me the receipts—texts between him and them, pictures they took with him in intimate positions, him asleep in their bed when he claimed he was with his boys or at the studio, and even one girl’s paperwork showing that she’d had an abortion. When he denied it was his, she showed me the text messages and the payment receipt with the last four digits being the same ones on his card.”
“Damn. I’m sorry you went through all of that. Why did you stay?”
“Stupid. I thought that I could change him and that he needed to get some things out of his system before he settled down. So that’s why I’m not interested in a relationship right now. I have no room in my life to be someone’s anything other than a friend. Maybe in a different lifetime or after a few months of getting my head together. It’s scary thinking about being involved with someone at the office. Things could go drastically wrong.”
“How?”
“I’m the jealous girlfriend type.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Word? You’re the girl that sings about busting windows out of cars and slashing tires?”
My mouth dropped in surprise, and my eyes widened. “Hell no. Clearly, that’s not me, because my ex deserved that and so much more.”
“Then how are you jealous?”
