PARADOX

PDX8

The sound of her phone ringing took her out of her daze, she shut her bathroom light off before striding over to her nightstand. She looked at the ringing phone to see Chalyn calling her, which wasn't far fetched, she quickly learned that Chalyn was an early bird and would call you at 7am ready to talk whether you participated in the conversation or not. "GoodMorning." Amina answered the phone as she put it on speaker.

"GoodMorning, you wanna go to Blue's tonight?" Chalyn spoke, the mention of Blue's sent a pain through her head. "Girl—I can't go back there." Amina replied as she walked out her bedroom and made way to her kitchen. She waltzed over to her fridge and grabbed some mustard, the turmeric in mustard was good for reliving inflammation, hence why it was good for headaches.

"Why not?" Chalyn questioned, Amina sighed before replying. "I was up there last night at the bar and I ended up getting into it with the nigga that be up there—you know? The one with the locs."

"About what?" Chalyn replied, Amina bit down on her lip realizing if she told Chalyn this story then she'd be opening up since the backstory was necessary for her to understand exactly what happened. "One night I saw him have a drug transaction outside the club, which made me realize that he's a drug dealer. We've been having a lot more interactions since I started going to the club, like the other night he found my mom's necklace and gave it back to me. I'm not super fond of niggas that sell drugs or any of that shit—so last night he asked me what happened to my mom, I don't know if I told you but my mom is dead, and I told him fuckin with a nigga like him." Amina explained, giving Chalyn a shortened version.

"Really? He seems so chill, I feel like I've never even heard him talk before—so what did he say back?" Chalyn spoke, Amina sat her phone on the counter and opened up her fridge. She was deciding between making lunch, breakfast, or combining the two and making brunch.

"I can't even lie—his ass read me my rights, called me ignorant and some more shit." Amina replied, slightly shaking her head. She genuinely felt bad.

"That don't mean we can't go back, that just mean you better stop dancing on that nigga nerve." Chalyn chuckled, causing Amina to laugh. She grabbed her carton of eggs and decided to scramble up two of them. Her idea for breakfast was a Turkey sausage biscuit and her last few strawberries. She sat her skillet on the stove and let it warm up. In that moment she remembered she had Rashad's number and decided to text him.

Hey, this is Amina. I want to apologize for projecting my feelings onto you last night especially when you were coming from a place of concern.  You really been nothing but nice to me so once again, I apologize.

"We can still go out tonight though—Blue's ain't the only spot in Dallas." Amina spoke as she shook a bit of garlic powder into her egg yolks. "Yeah, Blue's is making me hate every where else though." Chalyn spoke, Amina lightly chuckled. Her phone sounded, peculiarly making her heart beat fasten. She turned her burner down before grabbing her phone, she looked at her lock screen to see Rashad hadn't replied to her message, instead it was an update about her package being out for delivery. She decided to go back to the text thread to see if the message even delivered.

Hey, this is Amina. I want to apologize for projecting my feelings onto you last night especially when you were coming from a place of concern.  You really been nothing but nice to me so once again, I apologize.
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Damn—Amina thought to herself as she slid her phone back onto the counter and continued to make her breakfast. She didn't know what she expected him to say back, but she definitely didn't expect him to just read her message.