“I ended up hanging out late with old friends,” I lied to her. There was no sense in making things more complicated with the truth.

Rachel said, “Why don’t you just tell me what you really got into last night? I won’t be hurt by it. It’s not like you’re my man or anything.”

I was immediately conflicted. Did she want the raw truth, that I did my thing with the white girl she kept hinting about at the cancer dinner? Or did she want me to tell her a better lie?

A better lie would keep the opportunity open for Atlanta, but the truth, more than likely, would close the door on everything. However, I didn’t feel like exposing too much of my personal business with the truth. And instead of telling her a better lie, I decided to stick with the first one.

I said, “I don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know who my friends are, and it’s best we keep it that way.”

“I didn’t ask who your friends are, I just asked what you did last night,” she responded.

“And I already told you,” I answered. “Now the only thing else I can do is give you names and places, and that’s only needed if I need an alibi in court for murder.”

Rachel took a big breath and said, “We don’t need all that extra drama.”

“That’s exactly my point,” I told her.

She saw the painted picture and moved on. “So, if I come down there, you’re not gonna hook up with your friends and blow me off again?”

“You would be my friend and I would spend time with you if you were here. I just can’t promise how much time.”

I wanted to get that out in the open as quickly as possible.

“Could you spend the night?” she asked me.

That could happen, as long as I had an alibi ready for Danni.

I said, “I should be able to, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

I didn’t want to commit to the idea, but it was doable.

“Do you have any ‘friends’ in Atlanta that I need to know about?” she questioned.

There was no sense in lying about that one. That would have been too big of a lie that could come back and bite me in the ass, so I told her the truth.

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“Another model chick?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you tell her you were out with old friends like you just told me.”

Imagine that? Rachel was scheming and making up her own lies for me. I guess she wanted me that bad.

I chuckled and said, “That’s pretty scandalous.”

“Look, I’m like this now; if men can do whatever they want and satisfy themselves with whoever they want to, then why can’t I do the same thing? Nobody sees it as abnormal when a guy keeps calling a woman to get what he wants from her, so why should it be different for a woman?”