Kim looked past me and asked, “What do you plan to do about your two friends?”

I turned to see who she was referring to, but I already knew. Victoria and Jill continued to look lost in the crowd.

“Are they looking for you?”

I wasn’t too hard to find. I was in plain view.

I shook my head. “Nah. I already told them I’m not staying long.”

“Well, are they looking for you to say ’bye?”

I looked back at Victoria explaining something to Jill in the distance. Maybe she did want to have a few more words with me. But before I approached them again, I figured I’d ask Kim how she felt about them.

“What do you think…”

She cut me off again with a smile. “I already know. You’ve had a busy night tonight. And yes, I did see Andrea here briefly as well. But I told you that white girl was feeling you when I saw her at the airport.”

I continued to deny it. “Nah, she’s definitely all about getting the contacts she needs.”

“Well, how come she isn’t working the room to get them? Looks to me like she’s waiting for something.”

I took a breath and thought about it. I had already explained my position to her.

“I mean, if you invited her here, then go handle it,” Kim advised me.

I started walking back toward Victoria and her friend without another word. All of a sudden, Rachel popped back up in the area. But I had things to do, so I planned to ignore her again.

“Are you okay in here?” I asked Victoria. She looked perplexed.

She said, “Actually, I’m not.” Without a word, her friend Jill walked off, leaving Victoria and me for a private discussion. Once I saw that, I knew I was in trouble.

“Okay, what’s the problem?”

I figured I would go about it like a medical doctor: examine the patient and prescribe the cure.

“Well, I was really looking forward to spending time with you here, and I think it’s more than just meeting people. I mean, anyone can do that, but I wanted you to do it.”

I opened my mouth to respond. I thought we had already agreed that I was not in the best frame of mind that night to be the introduction guy. But before I could speak, Victoria cut me off.

“Now, I understand that you have a lot going on, but I still want to be with you. And it’s not fair for me to sit here and act like I don’t. So I’m gonna have to be a little bit selfish and just tell you how I feel.”

She was knocking me flat on my ass. I immediately thought back to what Kim had said when she first met and observed the girl: “These white girls don’t play. They see what they want and they go right after it.”

I don’t know how true that was as a blanket statement about white women, I just looked at Victoria more as an East Coast girl who would say what she wanted when she needed to.