The One She Loved

Chapter twelve,

       "Asanté," Tyra sternly called him, causing him to look up from his phone, his brows furrowed at her tone. "Can I speak to you privately?"

       She beckoned him, walking toward her room. Asantè obliged, getting up and following behind her.

       Once they made it to her room, he shut the door behind him. "Wassup?" he finally spoke.

       "So, just help me understand again, why go through the trouble of doing what you did, just to turn her down?" Tyra confronted him.

       Asanté sucked his teeth, followed by a loud sigh. "I don't know what's hard to understand about it. Y'all saying it doesn't make sense, help me understand how it doesn't," he gestured for Tyra to go on.

       "Asanté, you took this girl to meet your family. Caught a full blown attitude when she stopped speaking to you, didn't hesitate to almost shoot a nigga at a party when you found out he locked himself in the bathroom wit' her—practically been coming to this girl's defense for months. Now all of sudden when she done caught feelings, you're not ready for a relationship—typical nigga shit."

      "One, I didn't take her to meet my family. I took her to my family's restaurant, of course she was bound to meet them—the same way y'all did. Two, my attitude came from the fact she kept telling me there was nothing wrong and that I didn't do anything to her—whole time, shawty in her feelings. Three, you know exactly why I don't want to get into a relationship, Tyra," Asantè argued, lowering his eyebrows, a bit annoyed that his friend was coming down on him about something that he already discussed with Luvie.

        "Then why would you force her into revealing her feelings about you?" Tyra shifted her weight, folding her arms under her chest as she cocked her head to the side. "If you suspected that she liked you, you could've kept it to yourself until the time came when she was ready to tell you on her own—then, tell let her know, 'hey, I fuck wit' you but I'm not ready for a relationship right now',"

        Tyra paused, inhaling deeply as she clasped her hands together and brought them to her mouth while closing her eyes. She deeply exhaled, opening her eyes, "I love you, I do. You're like the brother that Faven and I never had, but you pulled some complete bullshit on my friend. I understand what you're going through, we all do—she doesn't though, doesn't she at least deserve an explanation for why her time was wasted?" she calmly spoke.

         "Why would I tell her, Tyra? Wouldn't that give her a reason to stop fuckin' wit' me? The girl was already wary of me from the start, how does that make me look if I come out and explain the shit I'm experiencing on a daily basis? I'm on a fuckin' kingpin's payroll, Tyra—the minute I decide to stop, I'm good as dead. I'm not tryin' to put her through that shit, they'll target anyone who they deem close to me,"

       "Asanté, I think you're failing to realize, we don't care about that. We stick beside you because we love you and care about you, we made the decision to stick by you. Why are you not giving Luvie that chance? We've already had that conversation wit' her about letting outsiders interfere wit' her relationship wit' you. She knows the risks but she doesn't care—otherwise, she wouldn't have caught feelings," Tyra said.

      "Okay, well...I'm sorry, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take," Asanté shook his head, shrugging.

       Tyra profoundly sighed, rolling her eyes. "Maybe it is a good idea for her to go out wit' Joel then," she mumbled, opening the bedroom door.

       Asanté quickly got up and pushed the door closed, he lowered his eyebrows, a slight scowl gracing his face. "What did you just say?" he asked her. Tyra remained quiet, twisting her lips to the side.