Page 19 of Feeling Blue

“How long y’all staying out there?” Goody questioned Forever.

“Maybe a few more days, then we’ll go there for a week. He said he needs to check on some things.”

“Like what?”

Forever shrugged lazily. “I don’t know. Maybe his friends and family.”

“Or that gang he’s always hollering about,” Eternity said. “Them gang niggas fine as hell, though, I know that. Did y’all see that lil’ Egypt and Auto? Whew shit, them was some fine muthafuckas.”

“Yes, they were,” Goody high-fived her.

“Man, when I walked up to the courthouse and saw Auto, I almost lost my focus, then when Egypt's bright self joined, I nearly ran for the hills,” Forever cosigned.

Goody and Eternity agreed with her in one way or another before Eternity came back with her typical outlandish commentary.

“I wanted Egypt to fuck me.”

Goody nodded with her. “You sound like me. I was watching Auto so hard, I’m surprised his dick didn’t jump inside me.”

“I bet you glad you got a Florida nigga, ain’t you Forever?”

Her cheeks warmed from the thought of having Blue to herself, so all she could do was nod her head. She was, in fact, glad, but it was too much to try to explain right then.

“I see who won’t be taking anymore Florida trips anytime soon,” Calvary’s voice startled all three of the women.

With wide eyes and open mouths, all three of them gave Calvary their attention. Not sure what parts of their conversation he’d heard, none of them said anything else until he did.

“Don’t get quiet now. Y’all was just all loud with your gang talk. Don’t hush for my benefit,” the sly smirk on his face let them know they were all caught, so Forever did the first thing she could think of and hung up.

As soon as Goody saw the phone screen blink, she laughed out loud with Eternity chuckling lightly, but not as loud. She was probably still scared of being in trouble. Calvary was, in fact, her man. Goody and Forever might have been able to get off, but she would have no such luck if Calvary decided to have an attitude.

“Leave us alone, baby daddy. We’re just having some girl talk. Don’t come raining on our parade.”

Calvary leaned over and kissed the side of Eternity’s face before standing back upright. “I’m just fucking with y’all. I ain’t hear shit for real. Me and Money just got here.”

“Marcellus here?”

Calvary nodded at Goody as she stood from the floor and hopped down the stairs to go speak. When she walked in, she found Marcellus seated on the living room sofa, scrolling through his phone. His head raised the moment he saw her.

“Slim Goody, what’s going on?”

“Nothing over here, helping Yummy get ready for y’all new nephew.”

He smiled and nodded his head while lying backward on the sofa. His face was somewhat long and void of its usual glow, and Goody noticed.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t huh me, nigga? What’s wrong with you?”

Marcellus smirked because he clearly knew that even if he tried, he wasn’t going to be able to hide anything from Goody. The two of them had been friends for as long as she could remember and she was literally the only woman he could tolerate longer than ten minutes at a time…well, one of the only women.

“How’s Forever?”

The smile left Goody’s face as her forehead scrunched in the middle. “Fine.”

“Why you say it like that?”

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