y talk. I’ll hit you up when I get back.
I put my phone away and refocused on my food. “So is your lobster good?”
“Who was that?” Shabazz asked.
“That was Mia. She’s crazy, and I thought she was a goodie-goodie type chick.”
“When the fuck y’all get close?” Shabazz asked, a frown on his face.
“We exchanged numbers at Bebo’s party. Is that a problem?”
“Give me your phone.”
“For what?”
“Give me your fuckin’ phone!” Shabazz said, drawing the attention of the people sitting in close proximity.
“Shabazz, you causing a scene, and I’m tryin’ to figure out what the fuck for.”
“Jasmine, hand me your muthafuckin’ phone right now!” Shabazz stood up.
I handed him the phone just to get him to sit down and calm down. He took hold of the phone and started to go through it. I had the iPhone, and Shabazz didn’t, so I knew he didn’t know what he was looking at.
“Show me the text she just sent you.”
“Oh my fuckin’ God!” I slid my chair away from the table and stood up and went around to the other side of the table and brought up the list of text messages so Shabazz could read them.
“I guess we back in high school again, with this childish shit.” I sat back down. “You really gonna stand there and read my texts? This is some bullshit!” I was definitely starting to lose my temper.
Shabazz handed me my phone back, and he sat down. “Delete her number from your phone.”
“No! Why should I?”
“Because I fuckin’ said so!” Shabazz shot back, accidentally causing some of his spit to hit me in my face.
I had to consciously pause and count to ten because I knew I was a split second from throwing my plate of food in his face. “OK, can we just rewind back five or ten minutes and start over? We was having a good time, and I don’t want no stupid shit messing everything up.”
At that point people around us still had their eyes on us because it was obvious that me and Shabazz weren’t in lovey-dovey mode.
“Is everything OK?” our waitress asked as she approached our table.
Shabazz remained quiet, and I spoke up and told her that we were fine and didn’t need anything.
“Now I see where all that talk you was doing earlier was coming from,” Shabazz stated.
“All what talk?”
“About Skeen’s murder, and if my money was straight, and all that shit!”
“Baby, that was just regular conversation I was making because you ain’t been yourself, that’s all.”
Shabazz didn’t say anything. Our little getaway was now fucked up, and we probably weren’t even going to end up spending the night. I also remained quiet and tried to eat some more of my food, but at that point, my appetite was shot.
“OK, look, if you want me to keep it real with you, Mia reached out to me, and it was just about school. She was asking me about the nursing program I’m in. Did your name come up? Yes, but it’s normal for her to ask me how you were doing.”
“Hey, yo, do me a fuckin’ favor,” Shabazz said, pointing his two fingers at me. “Don’t let my name come out your mouth. I don’t give a fuck who you talking to! You feel me?”
I closed my eyes and I paused in frustration. I picked up my drink and drank some of it, and then I told Shabazz that I understood where he was coming from.