In my grand scheme of things, since I knew she liked me so much, I figured I would allow Mr. Walker to continue to provide for her while she snuck off for rendezvous around the world with me. Crazy, ain’t it? But that’s what I was thinking at the time. I was young and very cocky.

I was so cocky that I didn’t believe she had the courage to leave me. She had tried to leave me several times in the past year, but she always came crawling back. I guess she was hooked on my stroke and my character.

Yeah, she wasn’t going anywhere. She was only bluffing.

Before she strutted away from me, she said, “You know, he asked me to marry him. He even bought me a ring.”

That got my attention. I looked up into her sunshades. “He did what?”

I didn’t believe her.

Instead of her trying to convince me, she dug inside her beach bag and pulled out a black ring case to hand over to me.

You believe that shit? She must have had it all planned out to surprise my ass with. I was afraid to even touch the thing. But I was curious.

I opened the case and found a nice-size diamond engagement ring. It was all round and raised like a dome. It looked expensive as hell, too. That changed everything for me. The shit was serious!

I looked up and asked her, “So what did you say to him?”

She continued to stare at me through her sunshades.

“What do you want me to say?”

It was another trap.

I said, “He didn’t ask me to marry him. What are you talking about?”

She wasn’t going to get me that easily.

She said, “Well, you know I don’t want to do that, but…”

She was still undecided.

I said, “But what?”

She shrugged her shoulders and looked away.

She looked back at me and said, “I’ve just been thinking about this modeling and stuff lately and…these racist people just won’t let me in. I mean, they know I have the look. It’s like they only let two or three black girls in at a time. And while Naomi and Tyra’s still around…”

I had been around plenty of black women who called themselves models, but I couldn’t really say that many of them made a solid living from it. Modeling was still an aspiration for most of them, and a part-time high. Then again…

“And please don’t start talking to me about that music video shit and all of these freaky men’s magazines, because I’m not interested.”

They say beggars can’t be choosers, but Andrea was one choosy broad.

I chuckled and said, “Look, we both know that you can work if you really wanted to. What’s wrong with showing a little bit of your ass? It’s a nice ass, and if they’re willing to pay you to show it…”

“Whatever,” she said and cut me off. “You want everybody seeing what you get?”