Page 26 of Call and Response

“Because you were kinda mean the day we met.”

“I was mean?”

“Uh,yeah.” She laughed. “Well… mean might be a stretch. Rude?”

“That’s not better!”

“What do you want me to say?!”

I shrugged. “Hell if I know.” I chuckled. “In seriousness though… you know I wasn’t being an asshole on purpose, right?”

“I do,” she agreed. “I know the music thing is… complicated for you. And seeing me may have brought some shit up, blah blah blah.”

“So you get it then.”

“I do,” she agreed. “It's hard to navigate it all—clearly my ass is confused too—so it would be pretty wild if I couldn’t see where you were coming from. But I hope it was a net positive experience for you. And not just the concert, you know?”

My eyebrow shot up. “Are you trying to get me to rate your pussy?”

“No!” She laughed. “I’m talking about the writing experience, fool!”

“Oh. You mean how youI can write a song for you’dyour way into some dick?”

“That isnotwhat I came over here for!”

“And yet… here we are. You wrote me right out of my draws.”

“Stooop.” She giggled, hiding her face in her hands. “I swear, this is not remotely typical for me.” Her head popped up and she met my gaze. “You’ve got me acting all the way out of character.”

“So it’s my fault now. Daaaamn.”

“If we’re assigning blame, you’re damn right,” she teased. “This is on you, for being so…”

“Handsome? Smart? Talented?”

“Raw.”

Oh.

Wasn’t expecting that.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I asked, returning her eye contact even though it felt like something had shifted, making the act much more intense than it had been thirty seconds before.

She smiled.

“The best thing, actually.”

CHAPTERSEVEN

Audra

“Oooh. You been fucking.”

My eyes bugged wide at Winnie’sinstantclocking, the moment I walked into her cardio boxing class at the gym.

She wasn’tasking, either, just said the shitsomatter-of-factly, then moved on about her business of setting up stations with resistance bands, mats, and anything else we might use for today’s circuit.

Nobody else was here yet; I’d come in early to help with what she was doing now. Instead though, I rushed to get in her face.

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