“Ohhh snap!”
I cracked up and shook my head at her.
“What was it like? Did it feel like you were doing it to a stranger?”
I made a face at the creepy tone she took and then looked straight ahead again. “It was like being with AJ,” I reasoned. “It was a little different, but he’s not into any weird stuff or anything like that, if that’s what you’re asking.”
She bit down on her lip. “I bet it was hot, though. Was it hot?”
“Ok, we’re done here,” I concluded, knowing that her well of questions was an endless one. She’d be at this all day if I’d let her.
We made it back to my building and traipsed up the stairs to my floor. From the top of the steps, Angel and I both spotted a large bouquet of roses sitting in a vase outside my door. I approached them slowly, feeling confused. Stooping down to grab the card, I wondered how AJ had enough time to do this while Angel and I took the short walk to the phone store.
“What’s it say?” she asked, holding the crystal vase in her hands and sniffing the arrangement.
“Give me a second!” I said smiling. Pulling the small card free, I opened it and realized that I’d assumed wrong…very wrong.
“I know these roses don’t make up for the things that I said last night, but I just thought you should know that I’ve decided to file…Don’t give up on us. -J”
I stared at Jason’s words on the small card.
“What’s it say? ‘Will you be my girlfriend; circle ‘yes’ or ‘no’?” Angel joked.
Distracted as I reread the note for a second time, I never replied. Angel chose to read over my shoulder when she couldn’t stand to wait any longer.
“File for what?” she asked.
I sighed, realizing that there was no way around this; I’d have to tell her the truth about me and Jason’s breakup.
“Just…come in,” I replied, unlocking my door and stepping inside.
My head was spinning as I busied myself putting the couch cushions back together and picking my towel up from the floor. Angel stood by, watching, waiting for me to explain. When I plopped down, her attention was on me.
“Okay…,” I sighed. “I wasn’t going to go into detail about me and Jason because I didn’t want to involve you, but…has Lamar ever mentioned someone by the name of Ryan to you?”
She seemed confused as she shook her head.
“Well…that’s Jason’s son.”
Her eyebrows pulled together as she tried to make sense of it all. “I’m sorry, Jason’s what now?”
I nodded. “You heard right. Jason has a six year old son…and a wife,” I added.
Her eyes bucked. “Wife? Like…I…I don’t understand.”
“That makes two of us. I didn’t find out until a couple weeks ago. They’ve been separated for a while, but they’re still married technically.”
“Just…wow,” was all she could say.
“Don’t be mad at Lamar; Jason’s his brother. You can’t just expect him to spread his business.”
Angel nodded her head, still deep in thought.
“That’s why we broke up – he wasn’t willing to divorce her because he’d have to come up off more money than he already is. That’s what that note was about. Apparently, he’s had a change of heart overnight.”
She met my gaze and witnessed the perplexed look on my face. There were so many scenarios running through my head that it felt like the room was spinning. On the one hand, I was woman enough to admit that I still had very strong feelings for AJ – there was no denying that. However, he had a whole life outside of me that I couldn’t expect him to abandon just because we’d…reconnected. He didn’t owe me anything. In fact, I was surprised that he was willing to even give me the time of day after how I left things when I moved.
“What’re you gonna do?” Angel asked. “How serious is AJ about this other chick?”
There was a long bout of silence while I deliberated, eventually just deciding to tell her the whole truth.
“Serious,” I replied.