Page 151 of IRL: In Real Life
It didn’t.
Because even through text, I could feel the difference. There was no teasing, no comeback, nothing to stretch one moment into two.
Devon saw my face change immediately.
He paused the game without asking.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
He looked at me like I had insulted both of us.
“Talk, nigga.”
I leaned back into the couch and let the controller rest against my thigh.
That was the problem with old friends. They remembered your face from before you learned how to edit it for other people.
Finally, I said, “Tuesday, one of the women I used to talk to posted some raggedy shit about banker men moving dirty.”
Devon looked over. “What woman?”
“Candace.”
His face stayed blank for a second. “Who?”
“Exactly.”
That got the smallest laugh out of him, but I wasn’t there yet.
“She used to be in the inbox for a minute,” I said. “Not even long enough to count. We never fucked. Never got close. Soon as I realized she was mostly performance and angles, I left it alone. But she saw something with me and Talia, got in her feelings, and posted like she had history worth mentioning.”
Devon nodded once. “Aight.”
“I told Talia the truth. Went to her place. Sat with her. Reassured her. Thought I’d handled it.”
“But.”
I scrubbed a hand over my jaw and looked down at the controller in my hands.
“But then Bryce happened.”
Devon leaned back into the couch. “Walk me through it.”
I exhaled once through my nose.
“We were out. Good night. Good food. She invited me to her parents’ for Labor Day.” I shook my head once because evennow, that mattered. “Bryce walked up, said something about it being good to see us off the timeline.”
Devon waited.
“And I had a whole opening right there,” I said. “A clean layup. Could’ve said yeah, that’s my woman. Could’ve said we together. Could’ve said anything that sounded like I knew what she was to me in public the same way I know it in private.”
He didn’t interrupt.
That made it worse.
“And instead,” I said, “I hit him with, we just came out for a drink.”
