Me, You, and Mason

16

"Have you heard back from the showcase dudes?" Sage asked from the living room couch.

Kenrō was only a few steps away, in the kitchen. This was where he was sketching out his plan for the quickly-approaching Fourth of July.

Now that he and Sage had some disposable income, Ken was putting his money where his mouth was.

With a mouth as big as Texas, Ken was burning through his funds faster than he anticipated. Between ensuring that Sage's show would be as grand as they both imagined and finally getting ahead on a few bills, Ken's talk evidently wasn't cheap.

Neither was red meat, and as Ken insisted upon a celebration for the Fourth of July, the rest of his money was put toward throwing food on the grill and hosting a function with loved ones.

But first, he had to make a grocery list of items.

"Nah, but I was talkin' to another artist that submitted for the showcase, and they hadn't heard back either," Ken responded.

"Oh okay," Sage mumbled, pondering if that would be a cause for concern.

Before he could dwell too long, Ken spoke up, "Aye, you said yo' girl work at Graham's, right?"

"Yeah."

"You think she could pick up some andouille?"

"Nigga," Sage chuckled, "what'chu need dat for? Stick to the fuckin' ribs and chicken."

"Maybe I also wanted to have a seafood boil. Excuuuse me for thinkin' big," Ken scoffed.

Sage laughed and settled back into his current task of writing a song. His thoughts boomeranged to Darcy-Ann for the next few minutes.

He pulled out his phone, scrolling and typing as he called for Ken again. "Aye, Ken!"

"What?"

"You gon' be here tonight?"

"What'chu mean? I live here."

"I want some alone time wit' my girl. Think I'ma plan somethin' nice for her."

"Damn, you couldn't have told me this last night? If I spend the night at Mel's two nights in a row, she gon' think I'm tryna tell her somethin'."

"Like you in love with her?"

"Sage, don't put that spirit on me just 'cuz you out the dog house," Ken denied without delay.

"Whatever," Sage snickered, finding a restaurant and reservation spot within minutes.

"I'm prolly gon' head out soon. Did you really need some andouille?"

"Bruh, yes!" Ken affirmed before tearing his list out of its notebook and handing it over to Sage.

All the while, Darcy was getting ahead on writing— finally.

Aria invited her out to the coffee shop she frequented— to people-watch, to have a change in scenery for her writing, to hang out— but Darcy took a rain check.

She'd been taking nothing but rain checks since her and Sage got back together.

Aria tried not to think too much about it, especially since she had her own love life to (attempt to) tend to; hence, all her visits to the coffee shop as of late.

She'd really started to miss hanging out with Dee, but she figured that she and Sage had some catching up to do. Besides, between work and unofficial coffee dates, her free time was often filled with running a micro-business.

There wasn't time for much else, but it was in the moments of stillness that she missed her friends— not just Darcy, but the whole crew, together. Things hadn't been right since that night at Exodus, and it surely hadn't been right since Dani passed.