Page 14 of Rekindled

"So," she started, "thisis thethingI wanted to talk to you about. Here." Journee handed me the brimming glass of wine. "Drink. All of it."

∞∞∞

"Zyair, man!" I stomped through the doors of the guest bedroom and dropped my backpack to the floor. "Explain. Now!"

"Okay, okay." Zyair stepped into the room behind me and closed the door after he entered. "Journee and I accidentally double booked.

"Youdidwhat?!" I shouted.

Zyair held his hands up to calm me. "I had no idea she was inviting Maven this weekend."

"How the hell did you not know that? Y'all don't talk? You and Journee have been married for only eight months. Is communication shot between you two already?"

Zyair ran his palm over his bald head. "Listen, I'm sorry. She'd already invited Maven yesterday and today after I got off the phone with you and told her you were on your way here instead of Anguilla, we both thought it would be criminal to tell either of you to turn back around. Journee's been working tirelessly on this TV pilot with the studio, pulling long hours. It completely slipped her mind to tell me about Maven coming out here."

"Yo, did you see Maven's face?" I asked, running my hand down my beard. "She did not look happy."

"Well, neither did you."

I sighed and plopped myself down into a seat on the ottoman in front of the bed. I dropped my head into my hands first before I grunted against my palms.

"We'll make this work," Zyair promised.

"Nah," I shook my head, leaning back in my seat to pull out my phone from my pocket. "I'm going to book a room at a hotel. The way she was looking out there, I doubt this will be an easy weekend to get through with the two of us under the same roof. Nah."

"The breakup wasn't even that bad, though."

"Tell her that," I retorted, looking up at him. "Maven didn't see it that way. All she remembers is that I left without a fight. Ain't that what you told me, Journee told you?"

Zyair dropped his eyes to the floor. "I mean... I may have said that—"

"Ain't nothing changed and you know that." I clicked into my internet app on my phone to find a hotel to stay at.

"The cabin is big enough for the four of us," Zyair reasoned. "We won't even spend that much time here. I planned for us to hit up a lounge later tonight to catch up. We can make this work."

I shook my head as I skimmed through the hotels, my heart sinking each time my search came up short. Every option listed the rooms at the nearest hotels as fully booked. Of course they were fully booked, it was Christmas Eve. It would be impossible for me to book a room at the last minute during a holiday weekend.

I grunted again and dropped my head back between my shoulders. "This is not happening right now."

"Honestly, I think you might have misinterpreted Maven's reaction," Zyair tried. "I'm sure she isn't trippin' right now over this in the least."

∞∞∞

"What the fuck, Journee?! This is a total nightmare!"

I watched my best friend's eyes balloon as she did her best to keep me calm.

"Okay, so I think I may have fucked up."

I scoffed. "Youthink?"

After pulling out the wood stool from beneath the granite island, I dropped into a seat and raised the rim of my glass to my lips to gulp my wine.

"This is not as bad as you think it is though."

I rolled my eyes up to glare at her.

"We won't even be in the cabin for that long. It's just a few days and really, you came out here to see me."

---