“That bitch ain’t shit, Ali,” Isa said. He took a seat across the room, ass to carpet, back to wall as he reached into the square pocket on his shirt.

“What is it this time? She takes pain better? Cuz that’s the game you sold me last time. What is she doing for you that I don’t?” Aria snapped. “Cuz I been doing a hell of a whole lot for your light-skinned ass.” Her heart was racing. Adrenaline and heartbreak were a deadly combination. If only looks could kill.

Isa pulled out a blunt. He kept them rolled—actually she kept them rolled for him, and the fact that she had been so accommodating pissed her off in this moment. “Why aren’t I enough, Isa?” she asked.

“You’re the whole damn pie, Ali,” he said. The lighter was next. It was like he borrowed the fire in her heart to light the weed, because her anger turned to sadness.

“What she doing for a nigga, you can’t do, Ali. It’s business, and I don’t mix business and pleasure,” Isa said. “I don’t even want to bring that type of energy to you. I come home after that to escape. I don’t want you wrapped up in my bullshit. I’d have to hurt somebody, man. My mind won’t be where it’s supposed to be if you’re involved.”

“What is she doing, Isa? A bitch shouldn’t be in your business, period. A woman shouldn’t know something about you that I don’t,” Aria snapped. “I’m not going for that.”

“I’m not fucking her. She setting a nigga up for me, Ali. Damn!” Isa barked.

Aria jerked her neck back in shock. “What?”

“A nigga riding me and Meek for some paper. We into a nigga for a lot of money from a job that went bad a few months ago. He’s a square. A suit-and-tie-wearing-ass mu’fucka. I’ma rob him. She’s my way in,” Isa stated.

“Why would she do this for you if you’re not fucking her?” Aria asked.

“You ain’t never did nothing for a nigga without fucking him?” Isa asked, smirking as he lifted the smoke to his mouth. He blew it out, then moved over so that he was sitting against the bed. He lifted the blunt to her mouth. “Feisty ass need to chill.”

“I don’t know where your mouth been,” Aria said.

“On you, with your funky ass,” Isa shot back.

“You fucked that girl, didn’t you?” Aria asked, refusing the blunt.

“Before you, I fucked a lot of girls,” Isa stated. “I don’t fuck with them no more, though, and that’s all you got to worry about.”