“You’re a great guy, Kellon. You’re truly one of a kind, and you deserve someone who doesn’t come with all this baggage. I mean, I don’t even fit the aesthetic of someone you should date, and then add being pregnant. Starting a relationship while pregnant has to be some type of sin or something. It just doesn’t seem right… we’ve just me⁠—”

“A friendship then.” He interrupted my rambling, making me stop and stare at him.

“A friendship?” I clarified that I heard him correctly.

“Yeah, a friendship. If me cuffing you up is moving too fast, then let’s slow it down.”

“Slow it down?” I contemplated his words.

“We can go as slow as you want to go. I’m down. I already know how this love story ends.”

At that moment, all my defenses crumbled, and I just stared at him. His persistence was cute, but he couldn’t be serious.

“A friendship?” I repeated it for the second time, probably sounding like a broken record.

“No strings attached. Just two introverts looking out for one another.” He brushed his thumb along my cheekbone. His expression was full of sincerity.

“But we’ve already crossed the line of just friends, Kellon.” I’d never been friends with a man before, especially a man who had already tasted my juices.

“Naw, male best friends can eat they female friends pussy. It’s called being a considerate friend.”

I couldn’t believe he said that with a straight face.

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, everybody know that.”

I burst out laughing at his crazy ass, and he joined me. His laugh silenced my doubts. It was okay for pregnant women to have friends. Nobody would fault me for that, right?

“Well, maybe we shouldn’t include that in our friendship.”

He smiled at me with a silly smirk on his face.

“One day at a time, friend,” he murmured against my lips. “You shouldn’t have to feel alone going through this pregnancy, Phileigh. You need someone to go to an appointment or if you’re having a hard moment, I want to be the friend you call on.”

“The friend I call on?” I whispered more to myself than to him.

Maybe having a friend a few thousand miles away would be good for me. It definitely couldn’t hurt, right?

“I’m only one call away, best friend.”

“Oh, don’t let Lolo hear you call me that. She gon’ kill you and me,” I joked.

“I ain’t worried about it.” He shrugged. “She gon’ have to move over.”

The doorbell rang. My eyes flew to the door. I wasn’t expecting anybody, and anyone it could be had a key.

“I ordered pizza. Here. I got it.”