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“Damn, Bubbles. Are you sick or something? You look like hell dragged you all night.”

“Oh, well!” I rolled my eyes and took another sip of my coffee. My head was hurting, my eyes felt heavy, and I was still trying to figure out how the hell Anton got in my apartment. When I woke up, I checked the door and it was locked.

“Listen, baby. We need to talk about something.” I wasn’t even fully awake, and this nigga already wanted to talk. He sat down at the table across from me with his serious face on.

“About what? I’m tired, Peanut. Can’t this wait?”

“I wish. We need money, baby. After everything that happened with the trap, we don’t have shit to our name. How are we going to pay our bills? I had to pay the nigga that treated the apartment for the bed bugs with my watch you got me. We need to figure something out.”

“Okay,” was all I said. He didn’t know about the money Anton had given me, and I couldn’t tell him. We were good for now, but I didn’t know how to explain it without opening myself up to more questions. Peanut side eyed me as he leaned back in his chair.

“Since when you ain’t worried about money?”

“Who said I wasn’t worried?” I asked nervously. This nigga had gotten a lil sharper since he’d gone to jail. His ass picked up on that quick.

“You sure acting like you aren’t. You would’ve come up with something by now.” There he was. The Peanut I remembered. Waiting on me to figure everything out. Same shit, different day, but I was different. All those other times, I was broke too. So, hell yeah, I was willing to get out there and figure something out. I still had enough of the money Anton gave me, so I was good. We were good. Only, I couldn’t tell him that.

“It will work out.”

“No, it won’t. Money don’t just fall out the sky. You need to think of a lick we can do. Just not one as crazy as the trap.” I looked at him as I took another sip of my coffee.

“I don’t know, Peanut. Maybe you can get a job.” His eyes damn near fell out of his head.

“A job? Yeah, I know your ass tweaking. You never wanted me to work before.” I shrugged my shoulders.

“People change,” I said honestly. Standing up from the table, I put my cup in the sink. “We’ve done some things, and a lot of shit happened. Maybe it’s time we look for other ways to make ends meet.” Peanut looked uncomfortable, and I didn’t blame him. I was the one fucking everything up. Our relationship was different. I barely wanted him to talk to me, touch me, or be here. Our money setup was now different. I usually found the licks and put us in position to always have. It was the whole reason I was exhausted before he went in. I ended up doing some shit that could have gotten me killed if it hadn’t been for Anton. I wasn’t about to be doing that when I didn’t have to. Besides, Anton would be ready to fuck me up if he knew I was hitting licks knowing he gave me money. I shouldn’t care what he thought, but I did.

“Bubbles.”

“I’ll be back.” I left him at the table and went and put on my clothes. I could pay our bills and make sure we were good, but if Peanut needed to see shit happening to know we were good, he would have to do it himself. When my money ran out, we would revisit the conversation. Jumping in my car, I headed toward Juanita’s. The last time I went to talk about my problems with Taffy, she put a mirror in front of my ass and told me to suck it up. I needed some type of advice, and I was praying my mama could give me some.

Pulling up to her house, I parked and walked inside. As soon as I made it in the hallway, I heard a man laughing. I knew that laugh anywhere. Anton. This man was everywhere. What the fuck was he doing at my mama’s house? I stood there for a second to listen.

“I’m telling you, that woman was wrong,” Juanita said. I had no idea who she was talking about, so I continued to listen. She was already going against the grain having him here. Her ass better not be referring to me.

“You can’t call somebody wrong just because you don’t like their answer.”

“Why the hell not? If the answer stupid, then it’s wrong.” Anton had no idea that he was arguing with a brick wall. There was no changing Juanita’s logic.

“That’s not how the game works.” Now, I was confused.

“They need to change the rules then.” It wasn’t until then that I heard the TV. These mufuckas was arguing about Family Feud. “They asked her to name something a man takes off before he gets in bed. Her dumb ass said shoes. Why wouldn’t she say his wedding ring? That would’ve gotten all the points.” Okay, I had to agree with Anton. What the hell was Juanita talking about?

“That’s because you think everybody cheating.”

“Everybody is cheating. Some people just ain’t got caught yet.” I had heard enough. They were sitting in here comfortable as hell, like this was normal. Rounding the corner, I looked at them in disbelief. Juanita was sitting there eating a plate of food, Anton was reclined back, and my baby was sitting in between them.

“Lovii!” She jumped when she heard my voice. Walking over to her, I grabbed her and hugged her tight. She excitedly licked me all over my face. “Look at my pretty girl. You missed your mama, huh?” Walking to the other end of the couch, I sat down.

“See, that’s why people don’t need to get married in the first place. All that money spent on a wedding just to spend the rest of your life hiding shit.” I looked at her confused.

“You’re saying people shouldn’t get married because somebody might cheat?” Anton asked, laughing. She shrugged. “Juanita, you’re married.”

“That was an investment. Hell, I was broke with nothing to lose but my freedom and a couple of humps three times out the week.” I finally interrupted because I didn’t want to hear that.

“Ummm, hello?”

“What up, Stink?” Anton spoke and smiled at me, making my pussy jump.