"Without saying another word I got out of the truck, grabbed my purse and started walking home. Jaye yelled my name a few times, but I didn't answer nor look back. I wasn't for the going back and forth or the games, I was a grown ass woman that needed a better surrounding which meant getting some actual adults in my life for once.

As I walked home I thought back to my birthday…how Jimmy left a beautiful black dress that left little to nothing to the imagination. It was backless, ,had my stomach showing and a slit up to my thigh. Any other time I would dare be caught in a dress like that, but since this was a special night, why not…well no one saw it other than the people in the hotel because as Jimmy was suppose to take me out…he never showed up. Jey called me four hours later then when he was suppose to take me out and told me he couldn't make it. By that time I had cut the dress up and threw it over the balcony outside my hotel room.

I wiped a few tears off of my check roughly while I walked up the steps of my apartment. I took my keys out and unlocked my door and walked in…

"Jey what are you doing here?" Jey was sitting on my couch watching my tv, eating my ice cream with his shoes off and his feet up on my table!

"I brought you some food from the restaurant. He pointed towards my kitchen, but never took his eyes off of the tv.

"Thank you, but why are you here?" Jey picked the remote up from beside him and hit the mute button and patted the seat beside him. I dropped my bag and went over and sat next to him.

"First off, I'm not going home because Jimmy is still there." I took the ice cream from him and saw it was my strawberry cheesecake one.

"That's your brother-"

"And? I had to hear that shit at work, I'm not going to listen to it again." Jey opened his mouth and I put a spoon full of ice cream in his mouth before getting another scoop and putting it in my own.

"So you're going to leave your pregnant woman there to suffer? Real smooth Fatu." I shoved another spoon full in my mouth and gave Jey the side eye.

Jey rolled his eyes and turned the tv back up and I saw Auction Hunters was on. I smacked my lips and got up to go see what he brought me to eat. I was going through the bag and saw it was my favorite, stuffed shells. I was doing a little dance when Jey walked in still eating my ice cream.

"He made that." My smile instantly dropped and I pushed the whole bag away causing Jey to start laughing.

"Why did you do that?" Jey pulled the bag over to him and started taking everything out while I watched.

"Because he probably poisoned it or something." Jey shook his head, but the smile never left his lips. I kicked my shoes off and hopped up onto the counter.

"You two are a trip, both hurting and fronting like you two don't give a fuck about the other…how long have you two been doing this?" I shrugged and looked down at my toes. They were somewhat stuck together from wearing those damn heels all damn day. I started wiggling them and completely forgot Jey was here.

"Really? You just going to shrug me off like I'm some nigga on the street?" I jumped and looked up with I'm sure a bit of shock on my face.

"Damnit! You scared me, but Jey I don't know, I just know I'm tired-" Jey opened up some of the containers and got a fork from the dishes that was in the drainer beside my seat.

"If he walked through that door right now and told to drop them panties right now, you would do it-" He pointed to the door with the fork before sitting down and started stirring the sauce.

"I'm not wearing any." Jey had the fork up to his opened mouth and paused. He looked at me and then looked lower before looking back at my face.

"Serious? Let me see-" I threw a dish towel at him and started laughing.

"Jey take your ass home!" Jey caught the towel and threw it back at me, hitting my arm.

"Tell Jimmy to go home!" I hopped off the counter and waved my hand at him.

"That's your brother!" I said smartly and snatched the fork out of his hand. Jey sat back in his seat and watched me eat…shit since he was dead yet, the food must be ok.

"That's your man." I damn near chocked on my food when he said that.

"BULLSHIT!" Jey shook his head and took the fork away from me. And sat me on his lap. I sighed and started to wonder what I hated more, the fact they were so bigger than me or that I was so damn smaller then them.

"I know you two were bullshitting when we were younger. No one can hate that much. How long have you two been friends behind everyone's backs?" I smiled to myself before looking up at Jey's wondering face.

"Since we were sixteen…on and off." Jey started tickling me and I quickly hopped off of his lap.

"You two some funny people, did you two-" I shook my head quickly while sitting back on the counter.

"Not until Hawaii. We just talked shit mostly and hung out in places no one was around or would dream of being." Jey cocked his head to the side and I forward my brows.

"What?" Jey rubbed his chin and smirked.

"WHAT?" Jey shook his head and went back to eating my food.

"Spill it Joshua!" He ignored me and kept eating. I watched him until my food was gone and he wiped his mouth and sat back in the chair.

"JEY!" Jey stood up and went to my refrigerator and started looking through it.

"Damnit Jey-" I hopped down and pulled on his ponytail and in seconds I was up on my kitchen table with my legs around Jey's waist and Jey had a firm hold on my hips and our faces were barely an inch away from each other's .

"Don't do that." I had to blink a few times to and let my calm my heart down. I let go of his arms and nodded my head.

"I forgot." Jey closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on mine and inhaled and let out of his nose slowly. He inched his hands up my thighs until they were right at the crotch of my pants before opening his eyes and looking into mine.

I jumped when Jey suddenly moved back and walked out of the kitchen. I opened my mouth a few times before giving up on the fact nothing was going to come up and rolled off the table just in time to see Jey pick up his keys.

"I'm still waiting on that card Long Legs!" Was what he said over his shoulder before opening my door and leaving…leaving me confused.

I walked over to the door and locked and chained it up before turning around and leaning my back on the door.

"What the hell am I doing?"

It has been two weeks and I haven't seen nor heard from Jimmy…or Jey. Jaye keeps trying to have a get together at her house, but I always come up with something else to do. Once I even went to my mother's just to have an excuse not to go over.

But on a brighter note, I have started talking to Officer Farrelly. He stops by the shop every now and then to "check on things" and to see me. Malika has started to try an flirt with him, but he just looks at her weirdly, bid me a good day and leaves.

Also Jaye told me everything went great last week when Chef Ramsey showed up and since then the place has been busier than ever. Of course I was happy for them, but I couldn't help but to feel hurt at the fact that neither one of them told me how things went and that I felt like an outsider.

I was sitting on the bus stop reading a book when I heard loud music coming up the street. I looked up just in time to see Jey driving pass in his car. I watched it speed down the street and shook my head. Is this what my life has come to? In one day I lost both friends and a fuck buddy?

Not too long after that happened my bus came and I got on.

I was at work and I felt numb. I have been here for six hours and haven't even taken a fifteen minute break.

I was in the middle of taking inventory when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I froze not knowing who it could be or what was about to happen to me. I was in the back of the store where no one was suppose to be and Malika has been gone for two hours and I knew she wasn't coming back. I felt my hands start to shake, but a smack of the lips and a sigh made me relax and I turned around to see Jaye standing there and her belly bigger than ever.

"So what is this? You're going to ignore me and your godmother duties now Danielle?" I rolled my eyes and leaned on a shelf.

"How am I doing that and you're still pregnant?" Jaye stomped her foot and I shook my head trying not to laugh in her face.

"Dani! You know my baby shower is in ten days and my family is in another state, I need your help!" I calmed down and felt bad for her. I knew the twins didn't know the first thing about a baby shower and here she was alone and I all but turned my back on her because of them.

"I'm sorry girl…how about this, to make it up to you I will close the store early and we can go shopping now." Jaye smiled and grabbed me into a bear hug. I laughed and hugged her back and started shooing her out of the back.

"Okay okay let's go, you know damn well you shouldn't be back here." Jaye looked around at the dust and made a b-line for the front.

"This is true, but girl I don't know why that man won't just put you in charge of this store. It's not like what's her face knows what the fuck she is doing." I started locking up the money and securing the windows.

"Correction, she knows how to steal, the girl is stealing from a man who gives her money, how dumb can you be?" I grabbed my things from behind the counter and we both left and I locked up the door.

Jaye waddled over to the truck and got in the passenger s side and got in. I got in the driver's side and saw the keys were already in the ignition.

"Jaye you left the keys in an unlock truck…are you crazy?" Jaye waved her hand at me and reclined her seat back.

"Girl as dark as these tents are, no one can see a damn thing in here, I do this all the time." I shook my head at her and started the truck up.

"Jey is going to fuck you up-" Jaye smiled at pointed to her stomach.

"Too late!"

"I highly doubt we forgot anything Jaye." I said looking around all of the bags in the livingroom surrounding us. Jaye was sitting in a lazyboy with her now swollen feet up and eating chicken fingers and fries.

"I can't believe you spent so much, I told you I got it-" I shook my head and started going through the bags.

"What good is throwing your own baby shower? If it wasn't for what's her face down at the restaurant you wouldn't know a damn thing about it…" I stopped talking when I heard this sucking noise. I looked up and saw Jaye sucking the hell out of her fingers. She was on her pinkie when she stopped and looked up at me.

"What?" I shook my head and went back to looking through bags.

"JAYE! Girl how much did you spend?" I stopped in my tracks and closed my eyes. That was Jimmy, I knew it in my soul. I took a deep breath and looked up just in time to see them both walk into the living room. When they saw me they both stopped.

Jey was the first to move. He gave me a dry "sup" and went over to Jaye and kissed her.

"For your information I didn't spend a dime, Godmommy Dani bought everything, unlike a certain godfather who hasn't done anything-" Jimmy glared at me and Jey sighed and gave Jaye a warning look.

"Don't start Jaye-" I held my hand up and grabbed my purse off the couch.

"Well on that note I'm gone-" I slung my purse over my shoulder and grabbed a few bags that belonged to me. I was walking pass Jimmy when he looked down on me and smirked.

"Yeah you need to be, this is a family thing we have going on here." I stopped and looked at him and just saw a different man. To say what he said hurt me would be an understatement. I nodded my head and kept on going.

"Jonathan!" I heard Jaye say and then the curse words started flying.

I was a few blocks away from the house when I heard footsteps coming up on me quick. I turned around to see Jey running p behind me. I rolled my eyes and kept it moving.

"Oh it's like that-" I flipped him off the best I could with two bags in my hands.

"Fuck off Fatu." Jey got in front of me and made me stop.

"So what? You have a problem with him so fuck me too-" I stopped walking and dropped my bags on the grass of someone's lawn.

"You stopped talking to me Joshua! Not the other way around, I've done not a damn thing to you and I now all of a sudden get treated like yesterday's shit?" Jey looked up at the sky and said a few words that I couldn't understand before looking back down at me.

"Look-" I grabbed my bags and shook my head.

"No, you don't have to explain anything to me, I'm not family remember?" Jey blacked me from moving and I growled in frustration.

"I didn't say that-" I hit him with my bags and tried to go around him, but he kept standing in my way.

"You didn't have to! It's obvious I'm not that important anyway." Jey grabbed my bags and threw them up the street. I kicked him and started speed walking up the streets to get my bags.

"Whatever, so you're just going to shut me out!" I made it to my bags and turned around and I don't know if he could see my tears or not…hell, right now I didn't give a shit.

"I don't need to, you already did that for me." The look on Jey's face read hurt…something like what my heart was doing.

We stood there for a minute just looking at each other until I got tired. I bit my bottom lip and walked the rest of the way home.

Kendra