“Yeah, you know…not like all upset or nothing, just asked me if I’d heard,” he added. “Look, man…I just wanna make sure things go smoothly for all parties involved next weekend.” He paused. “Maybe you should call her JUST to clear the air between y’all before then.”
I was already shaking my head halfway through Terrell’s sentence. “No way. I spent the better part of my college life chasing her and I’m done. I can assure you that the air between us is clear and there won’t be any problems. But calling her?” I shook my head again. “Out of the question.”
Terrell was quiet.
Knowing I’d regret it later, I asked. “What now?”
He took a breath and from the way his background noise was now void of the television show he and Maisha were watching, I knew he’d changed rooms. “Listen…I know you have your own thoughts and feelings about Sam leaving back in the day, but…it wasn’t like you thought it was, man. She was messed up. I mean real messed up…for a long time.” He added the last part under his breath and I wondered if he meant to say it in his head. “Still kinda is.”
I waved my parking pass at the attendant and waited for the bar at the entrance of the structure to be raised while I thought. My mind was made up and I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I would not be accepting Sam’s number to call her, but Terrell’s words still lingered in my head.
“Look, it was just a suggestion,” he finally spoke. “As long as y’all don’t go all Jerry Springer at the wedding, I’m cool. Whatever you decide isn’t my business.”
I didn’t respond, still deep in thought.
“I gotta take off, though. Hit you up later,” he concluded.
I ended the call and sat in my parking space for a moment before heading inside to start my workday. A million thoughts crossed my mind – Why would Dee run her mouth to Sam considering the fact that me and Kira’s relationship didn’t concern her at all? Why had Sam even bothered mentioning it to Terrell? Shaking my head, I climbed out of the car and headed in.
Half the day had passed and I couldn’t name one productive thing I’d done. I was sitting through the second meeting of the morning when my phone vibrated in my pocket.
“Oh, yeah…congrats,” was all Terrell’s text said. It wasn’t lost on me that he held out hope for Sam and me longer than I did. He liked Kira enough, but, in his mind, Sam and I were supposed to have patched things up.
While my father carried on about “quarterly goals” and “indicated dividends”, I zoned out, thinking back to how Kira and I came to be. The only reason I even discovered the first email she sent me was because I was checking it constantly, hoping to hear from Sam. Kira hadn’t even made it to Virginia yet, but she reached out anyway. Her excuse? She didn’t know anyone else there, and refused to spend her summer vacation hanging out with her sister, Reina.