“No, I mean how’d you get the money?
“I called my mom Thursday morning and told her I needed some cash. She wired me a few hundred dollars and I left early yesterday evening – drove all night.”
“Well, that was simple,” I replied, knowing that this wasn’t a favor he’d be able to call in whenever he wanted. Mrs. Hahn’s kindness didn’t mean that our situation had changed any; our visits would still have to be few and far between.
AJ was getting ready to say something else, but the knock at the door interrupted him. I totally forgot that Terrell was supposed to come by and get me for breakfast. Naturally, my heart sank. Not because I had anything to hide, but because Terrell coming here was precisely what set AJ off in the first place.
“Just a minute,” I called out, trying to hide the tremble in my voice. AJ watched as I slithered my naked frame over his to get out of bed. As quickly as I could I pulled on my clothes and rushed to the door, stumbling over one of AJ’s shoes along the way. With the slightest hint of hesitation, I pulled the door open a few inches. Terrell was wearing a big cheesy grin on his face.
“Time for pancakes!” he stated, sounding as greedy as humanly possible. He paused and looked over my attire. “Didn’t you have that on yesterday, though? If you needed quarters to do laundry, all you had to do was ask.”
I rolled my eyes and fought back a laugh, mostly because I was painfully aware of AJ’s presence behind me. “Shut up. Look, it’s a bad time,” I explained.
I heard AJ exhale sharply and I closed my eyes, bracing for the storm. “No it’s not. Let him in. I’ll be at Karl’s.” When I turned to face him he was already fully dressed and buckling his belt.
“Why are you leaving?” I asked. “Wait.”
He wouldn’t even look at me. I turned to Terrell who was peering inside, trying to figure out what was going on. “Look, I’ll talk to you later,” I blurted in Terrell’s general direction. Without waiting for him to respond, I shut the door in his face. AJ stood to his feet and started walking toward the door.
“See? This is what I’m talking about! You don’t listen to me,” I said exasperatedly.
“What do you wanna say? I think I have a pretty good grasp on the situation, but if you think you can explain it better, go right ahead,” he said condescendingly.
Where the hell was all this coming from? “Terrell is just a friend. He doesn’t even look at me like you’re thinking; I remind him of his sister. It doesn’t get any less romantic than that.” AJ continued staring at me like his mind was already made up about Terrell’s intentions no matter what I said. “Why don’t you just meet him? For me?”
I held his gaze. His eyes flickered a little and the hard expression he was sporting softened slightly, letting me know that if I laid it on thick enough he’d give in. “I tell you what,” I reasoned, moving in a little closer and tugging at the hem of his shirt to pull him the rest of the way. He stared down on me, waiting for me to continue. “If you just agree to give him a chance, then I won’t bug you about it anymore.” I smiled at him sweetly to soften him up some more.
He sighed and tried to pretend like what we did the night before didn’t have him wrapped around my finger. “Say you’ll stop talking to him altogether and we have a deal,” he countered, the corner of his mouth hitched up into a half-smirk.
I shot him the ‘you are NOT my daddy’ look that he was fully expecting, and his smile grew. Got him! He looked away for a second, and then nodded. “Fine.”
I leaned in to hug him, placing a kiss on his chin while he still tried to play hard to get. “Thanks.”
If all went well, AJ and Terrell would get along and I’d be able to keep them both around. Before AJ could change his mind, I went down the hall to talk to Terrell about us all hanging out later. He’d left his door open and I found him sitting on the edge of his bed, channel surfing.