Page 19 of Loyalty, Lust, Love
Their friends groaned and smacked their lips.
“Why don’t y’all just date already?” Joaquin questioned.
“Seriously,” Meaghan added.
“First of all, my daddy would kill me if he found out I was dating. Secondly, we’re best friends,” Fateema declared.
“I don’t know another boy and girl who are close like y’all. I wouldn’t be surprised if y’all end up married to each other.” Adam interjected.
“Me either,” Joaquin agreed.
“I don’t even think I want to get married,” Lynx said.
“I do, but not until I’m old, like thirty or something,” Fateema responded.
“I have an idea,” Octavia announced.
“What?” everyone else asked simultaneously.
“If y’all are still best friends and single when you turn thirty, you have to marry each other.”
“What kind of idea is that?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, Lynx said he doesn’t want to get married,” Joaquin said.
“He said he doesn’tthinkhe wants to get married. So, y’all wanna shake on it?” Octavia encouraged.
“If we agree to it, then y’all have to agree too. Joaquin will marry Meaghan, and Adam will marry Octavia,” Fateema said. “Or the other way around.”
“Eww, heck no!” Octavia shouted. “I don’t like neither one of them.”
“I’m with her. I’m not marrying Joaquin or Adam,” Meaghan said.
“You can’t expect us to agree to something like that. We’re not best friends or as close as you two are. It’s not the same,” Adam noted.
Before Lynx and Fateema could agree or disagree with Octavia’s idea, their phones rang with calls from their fathers.
“Oh, shoot. We’d better get back to the house.”
The six of them ran down the street and back to Fateema’s backyard. It seemed the party would never end, but eventually, everyone went home. Later that night, after their fathers had gone to bed, Lynx and Fateema snuck out to the treehouse, their favorite place.
“The party wasn’t so bad,” Fateema said.
“No, it wasn’t. All the food was good.”
“Yeah. Look what I got.” She pulled two caramel cupcakes from her bag.
“I thought they were all gone. How’d you get them?”
“I put some away for us before everyone arrived. I have two more in the house.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Bunny.”
She gave him one of the cupcakes, and they enjoyed them in a comfortable silence. When alone, they often enjoyed each other’s company without having to say a word.
“What do you think about Octavia’s idea?” Lynx asked.
“About us getting married?”
