Page 31 of The Plus One

“Put. Me. On. FaceTime.” Kema rolled her eyes before switching the call over. Sierra’s face filled the screen, and Kema turned the phone toward me.

I lifted my cup. “Morning.” Sierra’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes went from me to Kema before she disappeared from the screen. “STEPHEN!”

“Oh my God.” Kema dropped her head into her hand. I laughed. This shit was better than television. Stephen appeared a few seconds later. “What happened?”

“Look!” Sierra turned the phone toward him.

Stephen stared at me. “Ace?”

“What’s good?”

“What the fuck you doing at Kema’s house?”

Kema snatched the phone back. “Why is everybody asking that?”

“Because it’s eight in the fucking morning!”

“Again,” I said, “eight forty-three.”

Kema glared at me. Stephen frowned. “Why is this nigga correcting the time from inside your house?”

“Because clocks exist, Stephen!”

Sierra narrowed her eyes. “Did he stay there last night?”

Kema froze. I looked down at my coffee before my face gave her away. “He fell asleep.”

“Where?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Kema.”

“He slept on the couch.”

I glanced toward her living room. I didn’t know what that couch felt like. Shit I barely remembered what the couch looked like. Kema caught me looking and pointed a finger at me. I held my hands up. Sierra stared at her through the screen. “Mhm.”

“Anyway, none of that matters. I found my plus one.”

Stephen frowned. “Who?”

Kema turned the phone toward me. And I smiled. His expression changed immediately. “Hell nah. Have y'all lost your fucking minds?”

“Y'all said I could bring a plus one. You didn't say it couldn't be Ace,” Kema said.

“Ace is going to Cancún with you?”

“Yes.”

“As your date?”

“That’s generally how being somebody’s plus one works.”

Stephen looked at me. I knew that look. He had questions. A lot of them. Most he wasn’t going to ask with Kema and Sierra listening. I’d probably get a call as soon as they hung up. Sierra looked between us. “What the hell happened between yesterday and this morning?”

“Nothing.”

I coughed into my fist. Causing Kema to glare at me. Sierra caught it. “Oh, bitch. You’re leaving something out.”