Page 63 of Certified Pressure
We sat there tossin’ ideas around a little longer. Blaqson suggested bribing one of the staff to check her room when she wasn’t around. Renza talked about settin’ up some kind of game night where the women had to do physical challenges, thinkin’ maybe one of her balls would slip out.
The more they talked, the more I realized I didn’t have to rush it. I was gon’ play it cool, let her think the situation had blown over, and watch her closely until the truth came out, and when it did, I was gon’ deal with it my way.
Because in my house, nobody plays me.
The time was windin’ down, and I was back in my room thinkin’ about all the shit that was happenin’ around me. It felt like the last few days had been movin’ faster than I could keep up with,and I’d been doin’ shit I don’t normally do. From eatin’ Pluto’s pussy earlier like I couldn’t get enough of her, to damn near makin’ love to Kashmere when I knew good and well I had no business goin’ there. It hit me that if I kept movin’ like this, somebody was gon’ end up hurt, and it might not even be one of them—it could be my ass.
But damn… bein’ in a house full of fine-ass women was like puttin’ a kid in the candy store and tellin’ him not to touch nothin’. It felt damn near impossible to resist. Everywhere I turned there was another smile, another dress clingin’ to the right curves and another set of eyes tryna catch mine. I’d been holdin’ my composure for the most part, but I could feel myself slippin’.
I leaned back on the edge of my bed, rollin’ my watch around my wrist while my mind bounced from one woman to the next.
I rubbed my face with both hands, lettin’ out a breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holdin’. I told myself I could handle all this, I could pick who I wanted, when I wanted, and not get caught up. But the truth was, emotions was startin’ to creep in, and I didn’t like that shit.
My phone started ringin’ from the nightstand. I glanced over and saw Ka’mari’s name flashin’ across the screen.
A part of me didn’t even want to answer. I just had to pull up on her nigga and beat the brakes off him, and now here she was callin’ like we didn’t have a history full of bullshit. Ka’mari had this hold on me I hated. This damn girl could pull me right back in with the smallest thing. She was that one woman I could never seem to shake, no matter how much I told myself I was done.
I let it ring twice more before I picked up. “Yep…”
Her voice came through soft. “Hey… I was just checking on you.”
That threw me. “Checkin’ on me? Since when you care enough to check on me?”
She laughed under her breath, but it wasn’t playful. “You make it sound like I’m the devil or something.”
I leaned back against the headboard. “Nah, I’m just sayin’. Not too long ago you was tryna convince me I was the worst nigga on the planet. Now you callin’ me all gentle and shit. What’s that about?”
There was a pause on her end. “I don’t want nothing specific, Pressure. I just thought about you.”
I snorted. “You married to another nigga, Ka’mari. Why you thinkin’ about me?”
She hesitated, and that told me everything. “Me and Donovan never got married,” she finally said. “You crashed the damn bachelor party, remember?”
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “Don’t matter. You still fuckin’ with him.”
“And you been doing you,” she shot back. “I’ve seen the ads floating around the internet. The ones about you looking for a wife. You didn’t think I was gon’ see that?”
I stayed quiet for a second, starin’ at the ceiling. “So that’s why you been callin’?”
“No,” she lied. “But since we on the subject… what was the point of all that?”
I laughed low. “Same reason you went out and got engaged. Don’t act brand new.”
We went back and forth for a minute, neither one of us lettin’ up. It was the same old shit—her pushin’, me pushin’ back, both of us too stubborn to admit we cared enough to argue in the first place.
Then her tone shifted, softer than I’d heard in a long time. “I don’t wanna fight, Pressure. I just wanted to thank you for still being here for me, no matter what.”
I closed my eyes for a second. That’s the shit I couldn’t stand about her. She could say one thing and have me feelin’ like maybe she still had a piece of my heart…even after everything.
“Yeah,” I said finally. “I hear you.” I didn’t give her time to keep talkin’. “I gotta go.”
Before she could respond, I ended the call and tossed the phone down beside me.
For a moment, I just sat there, tryin’ to make sense of the pull she still had over me. Every time I thought I was done, her ass showed up in some small way and knock me right back off balance. I hated that she still had that power, but I couldn’t lie… part of me didn’t want to let it go.
Between Ka’mari, Pluto and Kashmere, my feelin’s was bein’ stretched in different directions and I ain’t like that shit… at all.
I pushed myself off the bed, grabbed my keys from the dresser, and headed for the door. I needed to clear my head, and the only way I knew how was to take a ride.
