“Listen—” she breathes. Homegirl needs oxygen,
and fast. “Girl—”
“Stop. Catch your breath before you faint out
here.”
“No, there’s no time,” she says, like we’re in
the middle of a Netflix thriller.
There’s no time.
I laugh internally. I love this girl with her
dramatic self.
“Paris, what are you—?”
“He’s here!” she pants, breathes and chokes out.
“Who’s here?”
“Gray—Grayson.” She takes a breath. “He’s here,
and I think he’s headed here next.”
My stomach hits a backflip while my breath hitches
in my throat. This can’t be. He’s not here. He left here and has never
been back here. Why would he be here now?
I ask, “And how do you know that, Sha’Carri?”
She stands straight up now after she’s calmed
herself down a bit and huffs out, “I was—whew!—I was at the deli. You
remember Grayson’s friend, Torrence?”
Yeah, I remember that buster. I think he’s the
one who’s been feeding Grayson information about me over the years.
“Anyway, he was sitting in a booth around the
corner and had his phone on speaker. Like, who talks with their phone on
speaker in public? But, whatevs. I heard everything they said. Grayson
specifically asked about you. Torrence, with his big, wide bass mouth, starts
telling him how you’re the pumpkin spice girl and how everybody comes to
your café for the latte, right? So, Grayson said he was gon’ swing by and see
what all the fuss was about. Torrence was like, uh, you sure you want to do
that, bruh? And then Grayson was like, I’m sure she’ll be happy to see me. And
then, Torrence erupted in laughter, sounding like a wild hyena. That’s when I
got up and ran down here.”
“Like somebody set a fire to your rear end.”
“Yeah! Did you hear what I said?” she asks, her
eyes wide.
“I heard you, and thanks, Paris, but you could’ve
just called me.”
“There was no time! I did say that already,
didn’t I?”
“But there was time to sprint? In them stripper
boots? Paris, stop your mess,” I say, stepping back into the café with her on
my heels.
From Pumpkin Spice and You, available on Kindle Unlimited.
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