“I knew we’d bump into each other sooner or later,” I told her.

I was rather calm. With all the other women in the room, I’d forgotten all about her. Of course, I had a million questions I wanted to ask her now that she was there, if I would get any extra time to talk to her. So I planned to make that a priority, which meant that all my thoughts about moving on from her flew out the window.

“Ah, I’m sorry, but I really do need to get you to your table,” my escort addressed me again. I guess she was already in hot water with the organizers by losing me in the first place. But it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t as if I had waited around to be found or anything.

Andrea gave her a look that asked, How dare you? That was what I was used to from her.

She said, “Excuse me, we haven’t seen each other in quite some time, and we have a little bit of catching up to do. So if you don’t mind…”

“I’m only trying to do my job here,” my escort explained.

I felt trapped. I wanted to make it over to my table if just to catch my breath for a minute. I also wanted to feel Andrea out and at least ask her a few of my many questions. And if I separated from her, I would need to keep my eyes on her to catch up with her before she had a chance to escape again.

“Just give me a minute,” I said politely to my escort.

She nodded. “Okay.” She couldn’t force me to the table.

When I turned back to face Andrea, an older black woman wearing another green dress approached us. Her green was richer and darker than the green I wore. Her skin tone was richer and darker as well.

Andrea seemed to introduce her without even looking, as if she knew where the woman was by scent or something.

“This is my friend Brazil,” she told me.

I looked at the woman who smiled readily. She had the same height and build as Andrea, but she was a little thicker in the body.

“Pleased to finally meet you,” she told me.

Are you really? I asked myself. My mind began to race a thousand miles a minute. There was a lot going on for me in that place, and the plot was getting thicker by the minute. I started thinking about what Corey had told me about Andrea going the other way in her sexual preferences. I also wondered what she had said about me to her so-called friend. Was I the demon man who had turned her life upside down, or was it the other guy, the one she had married? Of course, had I not opened the door for her to get away, she would have never gotten married to him. Then again, how much could I hold myself responsible for the decisions Andrea made? I didn’t tell her to get involved with the guy. That was her decision.