He said, “Whatever,” but still wanted to confirm things with me. “So have you made up your mind on your order?”

I could see that I was about to have a long night.

“I’ll take whatever you bring me, man.”

It was the safest thing for me to say.

“Okay, I’ll have them hook you up.”

When he left the table, Danni looked at me and joked, “Looks like I busted somebody’s groove up in here tonight.”

She looked over at Corey and asked him, “Did you see how he looked at me when I sat down? Oh, boyfriend did not want me here. Okay?”

Corey could care less what she was talking about. Danni had brought an entire aroma to our table. It was a scent I had never smelled before, and it had crept up on us from the moment she sat down. I was sure that my friend could smell it.

I asked her, “What is that you’re wearing?”

Corey laughed on cue. “That’s what I wanna know.”

Danni smiled wide and whispered to us both, “It’s, like, some new shit. They just gave it to us today. Don’t it smell good?”

It smelled to me like she wasn’t going to make it back home to her luxury apartment in Buckhead that night. I could use the release, that was for sure. Corey’s mention of Andrea had done a job on me.

He leaned back in his seat and asked hypothetically, “Why do we always tend to whisper whenever we talk about good deals with white folks?”

Danni looked at him and frowned. It was the wrong line of conversation to use with her. She was hardly the pro-black, sister girl. Danyel Addison had been trying to move on up as far as she could in life, and race meant nothing to her.

She said, “Here we go with that black man shit. Don’t even get me started on that.”

Then she reached over and grabbed my drink. That was why a lot of men couldn’t have their way with Danni. They tended to put their foot in their mouth, as if she brought out the worst in them. I guess a lot of guys got too anxious around her and ended up trying too hard.

“You want me to order you a drink?” I asked her calmly.

“Please.”

I watched her kill the rest of mine without a word about it. From that moment on, I realized that Danni had no intention of staying there long. Her goal was to make an entrance, make a scene, and then steal me away for the night to fuck my brains out. And who was I to deny her?

“Terry, watch my purse while I run to the restroom.”

I hated when she called me that “Terry” shit. It sounded less masculine to me, so I informed everyone to stick to my full name. Danni knew that already. So I figured she wanted me to be rough with her that night. It was like a cat-and-mouse game that we played. I knew her every move, and she knew just what to say and do to push the right buttons on me.