“What you doing here?”

“I ain’t got nothing else to do,” she said.

We went on up to the room I was staying in, and I took a shower. When I got out, the tiredness from the game came down on me. Mary-Ann had some money, so I asked her to go out for some Chinese food.

“I ain’t hungry,” she said.

“Well, I am,” I said.

“Let’s go out later.”

“How you and your mama been getting along?”

“Why you ask?”

“Because you don’t come to the Grant unless you and her have a fight,” I said. “That’s why.”

“We didn’t have no fight,” Mary-Ann said. She was lying on the bed, kind of halfheartedly going through the Ebony. “I just figured I’d come by and see what you were doing.”

“Why don’t you cop a walk and come back in about an hour and a half so I can cop some rest, baby?” I said. “And why don’t you bring some Chinese food with you when you come back? Maybe some shrimp fried rice, or some moo goo gai pan, or even some ribs if your stash can carry it.”

“Why don’t you just lay yourself on down and rest and then maybe later I’ll get up and get the food?” she said. “Unless you’re nervous about me being on the bed and all.”

“Why not?” I didn’t feel like playing with the chick and all, but I lay down on the bed with her. All I had on was some cutoffs I wore around the place sometimes, but I really didn’t care too tough, I was so tired.

“Lonnie?”

“What?”

“You like me?”

“What you want me to say?”

“How come you never hit on me?”

“That ain’t what we’re about,” I said.

“What’s that mean?”

“You know, we ain’t about no bam-bam thing.”

“You’ve had sex with other girls,” she said. “You want me to tell you who?”

“Hey, I’m tired.”

“Why don’t you want me?”

“It’s not that I don’t want you,” I said. “It’s got to be different with you. It can’t be just—getting some. You know what I mean.”

“Make it different,” she said. “You want to make it different? Tell me that you love me. Tell me what it means to you, what makes it different.”

“How’d we get into this anyway?”

Mary-Ann turned toward me and kissed my chest. I didn’t really want her to do that. She just didn’t kiss it like she was friendly; she kissed it slow enough for me to feel how soft her lips were and how cool they were against my body. I put my arm around her shoulders.

“The only thing that can make it different is if we make it different for each other,” she said. “I love you, that makes it different for me. I want to be your woman. You make it different for me, not just different, more. I just love you so much I can feel you with me even when you’re not around. It’s like I got you inside me and you keep me warm and do all sorts of good things for me. Can you get next to that feeling? Can you feel anything like it?”