Sample Sunday - Sister Circle

Unedited. Subject to change. Coming... eventually. :) Enjoy! “You fellas seem to be having a good time.”I sat up from being bent over laughing, and opened my eyes long enough to see who’d said that. My eyes opened a little wider, I sat up a little straighter at the sight of Fine, and Also Fine.“You mind if we join you?” Also Fine, asked, putting her hand on Rob’s shoulder.He smiled at her, then nodded in the direction of me and Derrick. “Sweetheart, you’ll have to ask the single side of the table.”She let her hand linger as she looked over at us, eyebrows raised before she exchanged a glance with her friend, who spoke up. “Well… single side of the table. What do you say?”“We say the more the merrier,” Derrick answered, stretching his arms over the back of the seat.The way the seating in this part of Stoney’s was setup, was that for each of the round tables, there were three low-backed, bench style seats. The seats were curved to match the table, and each one sat two or three people. Currently, each of us had taken a seat to ourselves, but at Derrick’s invitation, Fine and Also Fine sat down – one beside me, the other beside him.“I’m Eva,” Also Fine said, putting her hand on my knee. “And this is my best friend, Jennifer.” She pointed to Fine, beside Derrick, and she waved. We offered quick introductions of ourselves, and then Eva spoke up. “What are your fine asses laughing so hard about?” she asked.“Homeboy shit,” Derrick answered again. “What are y’all doing out here looking like this on a damn Thursday?”Jennifer grinned. “What are we looking like?”“Like exactly the kind of trouble I’m trying to get into after a rough week.”“That’s funny,” Eva laughed. “Because before we walked over here… we were looking at you guys thinking exactly the same thing.” Her hand traveled further up my leg as she fully turned to face me, squeezing the muscles of my thigh. Eva looked good. Nice curves, glowing skin, pretty face. “So what about you, Kyle? See any trouble you want to get into?” she asked, a question that, in the past, would’ve had a very high likelihood of getting a “hell yes”. Tonight though… I don’t know.And it wasn’t her, at all. There was nothing “wrong” with her, something I tried not to give an impression of by answering, “Not tonight gorgeous. Trying to stay out of trouble.”“Oh,” she said, raising an eyebrow.  Her hand went higher. “But your friend said you were single.”I nodded. “I am.”“So what, I’m not cute enough or something?” she asked, leaning into me, and I chuckled as I shook my head.“Nah, it’s not that. And you know that shit,” I told her, making her smirk.“Then what is it?” she asked, looking me dead in the face. I glanced at Rob and Derrick, wondering if either of my homeboys was going to help me out of this, but they were both looking too, probably wondering the same thing she was.Hell… I was wondering too.“Just not feeling it,” I shrugged, and from the look on her face, there was no mistaking the fact that she was on the verge of being offended, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.“Hey,” Derrick cut in, standing up. “How about you ladies accompany me up to the bar, let me buy you a drink? And… just how close are you as friends? Because I can get us into plenty of trouble on my own.”I was grateful for the distraction of Derrick’s antics – and laughed as Eva and Jennifer hooked their arms through his to head to the bar. I shook my head as Eva’s supple, cinnamon-toned thighs moved away from me, then reached again for the beer I’d forgotten was empty. When I looked up, Rob’s eyes were narrowed at me.“What’s up with you bruh?” he asked.“No idea what you’re talking about.”He scoffed. “You let her,” – he gestured in the direction where Eva had disappeared with Derrick—“walk away, no interest at all. Something is up.”“Nothing is up. I’m just chilling.”The skepticism on Rob’s face was clear as he sat back, shaking his head. “What… you’re trying to get back in good with Audrey or something?”“Man, hell no,” I answered, finally catching a server’s attention. I asked for two – one for me, one for him – then turned back. “That’s… done, as far as I’m concerned.” His mouth twisted in disbelief, and I laughed. “Nah, seriously this time. We’ve been stuck on each other too damn long, and I’m sick of the games.”“You’ve said that before.” When I shot him a scowl, he threw his hands up, shrugging. “I’m just saying man, you have. So what’s different this time?”I returned his shrug. “Hell if I know. I just know that before, even when I was saying I was done… I knew in the back of my mind I really wasn’t. I knew I didn’t want to see her with anybody else, knew I wanted her to still be all about me and my son. But now… I just don’t give a fuck anymore. I mean, of course I still care about her, that’s the mother of my son. I need her healthy and whole for him. But as far as this other shit? I just want some damn peace, and I don’t see that happening with her, not on a romantic level. Too much shit between us.”Rob nodded. “I feel that. You know I  feel that. But… that don’t explain you turning Eva down. And knowing you like I know you… there’s an explanation.”“I told you there wasn’t anything to explain. Keep that emotional honesty stuff over there with you and Iris, this ain’t the fucking sister circle, nigga.”Rob threw his head back, laughing. “Aiight, fair enough,” he replied, clutching his stomach as he laughed. “Sister circle though, bruh? This is the shit I get accused of for trying to make sure you aren’t going off the deep end?”“I’m just saying,” I chuckled. “I’m good, seriously.”