Page 128 of Certified To Handle You 2

“I gotta slide,” I told her.

Reni looked at me like I had slapped her. “So that’s it?”

“I need to get from in here and figure out what the fuck just happened,” I replied. “I ain’t tryna argue with you, and I ain’t finna stand here while you blame me for some timeline you got wrong.”

“You full of shit Renza… That bitch didn’t have no business knowin’ about my abortion,” she said again, her voice lower now. “The fact that you would do some foul shit like that make me sick to my stomach.”

I paused near the door and looked back at her. “You right about that part. I shouldn’t have told her nothin’ that personal about you.”

Reni’s face softened for half a second, but it ain’t last.

I left the room before the conversation could turn into another round of the same shit. The whole walk through her condo, I could feel the weight of what had happened sittin’ on me. Reni was hurt, Sha’Nelle was mad and I still ain’t know what the hell Sha’Nelle had said besides whatever Reni decided to repeat.

When I got outside, I walked to my truck and climbed behind the wheel. My phone was still sittin’ inside the center console where I left it last night. Soon as I grabbed it, I saw a missed call and voicemail from Sha’Nelle.

I ran my hand down my face before pressin’ play.

Her voice came through loud and pissed from the first word. She told me not to ever call her again then how I was cryin’ about how much I loved and missed her while I was laid up with another bitch. She went off about me lyin’ when she asked about Reni, told me I proved why she should‘ve never trusted me.

By the time the voicemail ended, every bit of confusion I had turned into anger. I called her ass.

Sha’Nelle picked up after a couple rings and came through the phone already yellin’. “Don’t call my fuckin’ phone, Renza!”

“I ain’t tryna hear none of that shit,” I told her, startin’ the truck. “How the fuck you think you can do whatever you wanna do, stay with that nigga and leave me sittin’ around waitin’, but the minute I move, now you got a problem?”

“You lied to me!” Sha’Nelle snapped. “I asked you about Reni, and you sat there and told me no.”

I went quiet ‘cause that part was true.

She caught the silence and laughed without nothin’ funny in it. “Exactly. You ain’t shit!”

“I ain’t owe you no explanation while you still with another nigga,” I replied, even though I knew the lie was what had cut her deeper than me bein’ with Reni.

“You owed me the truth after you called my phone tellin’ me you loved me,” she said. “You wanted me to leave my whole life and come be with you while you still runnin’ back to that weird lookin’ ass girl.”

“I ain’t runnin’ back to nobody.”

“Well, you sure woke up in her bed,” she shot back. “It’s cool though. Reni had you first, and she can keep yo’ slow ass.”

I tightened my grip on the wheel. “You done?”

“No, I ain’t done,” she replied. “All you did was prove why I need to be with Couture. He a better nigga than you anyway.”

Every thought in my head stopped on that one line.

I looked through the windshield while somethin’ cold settled in me. “A better nigga, huh?”

“Yes,” Sha’Nelle answered, still pissed enough not to realize what the fuck she had just done. “Couture don’t lie to me. He don’t come with all that bullshit you come with.“

“A’ight,” I said, keepin’ my voice calm.

Sha’Nelle kept talkin’, tellin’ me how much peace this nigga gave her and how I had brought nothin’ but confusion into her life. I let her run through every word while my mind moved somewhere else.

I knew where that nigga stayed. I knew what he drove. I knew where he worked, what airport he used and damn near every place he stopped when he was back in Greystone.

Sha’Nelle had spent all this time protectin’ him from me, tellin’ me the shit between us wasn’t about him. Now she wanted to throw him in my face and call him a better nigga ‘cause she was mad.

“Fuck you, Renza,” she finally said before hangin’ up.