“Are you still interested in me?” I asked her. I still didn’t get it. How much did a woman want a guy to play hard to get? Only I wasn’t playing, I really didn’t want her.

“Why?”

I took another breath. I said, “That wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“What wouldn’t be a bad thing?”

I was basically talking out loud to myself.

“If I went ahead and tore you limb from limb,” I answered.

“Yeah, I heard that shit from you before, and you disappeared on me.”

“True, true, but the man is still alive, and you’re still calling.”

“I don’t know why.”

“Because you still haven’t gotten what you want from me. And you’re spoiled.”

“Spoiled?”

“That’s what I said. You really expect me to be what you need. So I guess you don’t have that boyfriend anymore.”

“Yeah, and I just go from one asshole to another.”

Was she talking about me? “You’re not calling me an asshole, are you?”

She said, “Well, if the shoe fits, then take a picture in it.”

I know she’s not thinking of me as her man, I told myself. Then I repeated my question. “So, you’re no longer with him then?”

“You didn’t care if I was with him when you met me, so why are you asking about it now?”

Good point. I didn’t care. It was a late-night groove thing when I met her. Now she wasn’t letting me go.

I stood up from my chair and walked over to the window in my living room. It was beginning to get dark outside. It was a peaceful feeling.

Yeah, I could probably do this, I continued to convince myself. How bad would it be to just give in to a woman for a minute?

I said, “All right, forget I asked. But we do have some unfinished business to take care of, right?”

“Yes we do,” she responded. She wasn’t shy about that at all.

I told her, “Well, I’m not gonna be back in the Chicago or Ohio area anytime soon, so how are we gonna do this?”

“Actually, I’m thinking about visiting a friend in Atlanta next week,” she said to my surprise.

Here we go again, I thought. I didn’t really need another woman on my home turf with Danni floating around. But had I not given Danni what she wanted and kept our relationship ultra loose, like in the beginning, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about at home.

“What part of town does your friend stay on?”

“She stays on the Southside, but I’ll probably get a hotel room downtown. I like having my own space, so I rarely stay with people when I travel.”

I nodded with the phone in hand. “Okay, we’ll see what we can get into then.”

“Yeah, I just won’t hold my breath for your ass, because I don’t trust you now. Where were you last night anyway?” she asked me.

I paused. Did I need to tell her the truth or make up a convenient lie?