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“Yeah, my girls have it under control and I didn’t have any more clients, so I left a little early. I feel like I haven’t seen you at all since you and Jaz shacked up.”
A nervous laugh crept from my throat. “We aren’t shacked up.”
We stopped at the steps leading up to her floor. “Whatever you say. I haven’t even had a chance to drill her yet on what happened. You wanna tell me?” she asked, batting her big brown eyes.
“No, I’ll leave that to her. We’re just spending a lot of time together.”
She raised her brows. “So, I’ve noticed. She went from not looking at you to climbing you like a tree pretty fast, if you ask me.”
“Onyx! Don’t talk about her that way. She’s a doctor for God’s sake.”
“Excuse me,” she said as she mock flipped her hair, “but I said what I said. She’s my sister. And where’s the lie?”
I rolled my eyes.
She playfully punched my arm. “Chill. Anyway, you working Sunday?”
“Nope, actually I’m not. Why?”
“Great. Mom wants y’all to come eat. I know Jaz is off already. I’ll let them know you’ll be there.”
She started up the stairs, but I grabbed her wrist before she took a step. “Hey, you can’t do that. You need to speak to Jaz.”
“Mike, you act like you don’t know them. Mom is upset you haven’t come around since you’ve been back, and they know y’all are” – she made finger quotes– “un-shacked up.”
I swallowed hard. “They? Your dad knows?”
She laughed. “Jaz is a grown woman. He knows she has sex.”
“Go on, Onyx, I need to shower. But don’t say anything to them without talking to Jaz first,” I said, wagging a finger at her.
She put her hand to her head like she was saluting me. “Aye, aye, captain. Oh wait…you're not the boss of me. Byeeee!” Then she bounded up the stairs.
Shit.
Her dad was always nice, but still a dad. One time he pulled me aside and, as calmly as if he was explaining the weather, told me he would shoot me if I knocked her up unwed. He didn’t necessarily say not to sleep with her, but that impregnating her would have dire consequences. When I told Jaz about it, she nearly gagged she laughed so hard. I didn’t recall it being so funny. That was right before senior prom in high school. Maybe he would be less intense now.
Her mom always seemed to like me, but she enjoyed hanging out at my house more. That’s what we needed to plan: a joint visit to my parents’ house. They’d be ecstatic to see her.
I showered, changed, then shot Jaz a text that I was headed to meet Jason.
Me: Hey, I’m going to meet Jason for a bit. Is that okay?
Jaz: Of course! I need to do laundry and Onyx texted she wanted to talk anyway. Text me when you get home and I’ll come down!
Me: Perfect. Have fun with your sis. Miss you.
Jaz: Miss you. See you in a bit.
I felt bad that she’d be home soon, and I was going off to meet Jason. But Onyx was right. We had been spending every moment together. It was probably a good idea to keep some breathing room. Plus, since we got back together, I hadn’t really spent time with Jason and I needed to make up for lost time with him, too.
I used a rideshare to get to the pizza place so I could have a few beers and not worry about driving home. When I walked inside, I spotted Jason’s Braves hat and headed to the table.
“Hey, man.”
“Hey, brother,” he said as he threw his hand out for a shake.
“Good to see ya. Sorry to pull ya from Lucy.”
