Free Your Love Is King by Adrienne Thompson

enough to let you come all the way to St. Louis without him.”
     
    “Really, now?” I said with a raised eyebrow.
     
    “ Really . And I’d also say that it is my privilege and my duty to take you off his hands.”
     
    “Off his hands? You make me sound like I’m some unattended land or something.”
     
    “I meant to make you sound like an unguarded treasure.”
     
    I rolled my eyes. “Mm-hmm.”
     
    “Do you?”
     
    “Do I what?”
     
    “Have a man?”
     
    “No, I don’t. Do you have a woman?”
     
    “That depends on whether or not you give me your number.”
     
    “That’s not an answer.”
     
    “No, I don’t… yet .”
     
    I smiled despite myself. “Yet?”
     
    “ Yet . Now, may I please have your number?”
     
    I sighed. “Okay, but if I give you my number, it doesn’t mean we’re anything more than friends.”
     
    He leaned in until his lips nearly touched mine, looked me dead in the eye, and said, “Then I’ll just have to take what I can get until I can change your mind.”
     
    I felt his breath against my lips and my pulse quickened. “Uh, w… what makes you think you can make me change my mind?” I asked as his eyes pierced mine.
     
    He backed away from me and smiled. “The fact that you wanted me to kiss you right then.”
     
    I put my hands on my hips. “How can you know what I want, sir? You think you can read my mind or something?”
     
    He kept his eyes on mine and gave me a lopsided grin. “Nope, but I can read your body. That gorgeous body of yours cannot lie. You like me—you just don’t wanna admit it.”
     
    I cleared my throat and rubbed my hand across my afro. I was all out of witty responses because, truthfully, I did want him to kiss me. Did he just say I had a gorgeous body?
     
    His eyes sparkled as his grin widened. “Number?”
     
    I rattled off my number to him and watched as he programmed it into his cell phone. I unlocked the front door then turned and wished Chris a good night.
     
    “Good night, Marli Meadows. I’ma call you. Oh, and I love a challenge.”
     
    “I bet you do,” I said. I entered the apartment and shut the door behind me.
     
    There was no sign of Carla. That’s odd. I thought I saw her car in the lot outside. I shrugged and decided that maybe she was still out somewhere with Carolyn and Ronda. After I showered and changed into my night clothes, I headed straight to bed and had no trouble falling asleep.
     
     
     
    ~*~
     
     
     
    I wasn’t sure what time Carla made it home, but when I arose the next day, she was already up and in the shower. She told me that she and the other ladies had spent the evening drinking and watching movies at Carolyn’s apartment, and when it started getting late, she’d decided to spend the night at her place. I knew she was probably lying but I didn’t want to get into another argument with her. So instead, I filled her in on my visit with Chris and his family.
     
    “He’s really nice. They all are. But you know, I’ve just never thought about dating outside my race,” I said.
     
    “Well, it’s really not as different as you think. A man is a man. Black, white, or orange,” Carla replied.
     
    “How would you know there’s no difference?”
     
    Carla smiled. “Oh, that’s right. I never told you.”
     
    I raised my eyebrows. “Told me what?”
     
    “About Steve. I messed around with him that summer I had that internship in Denver.”
     
    “Oh, yeah. I remember, that was the summer after your sophomore year in college.”
     
    She nodded. “Right.”
     
    “So Steve was white?”
     
    “Nope, Asian.”
     
    “Asian? You dated an Asian guy?”
     
    “Oh, we did more than date, my dear. A whole lot more.”
     
    “What?! Ooo, Carla!”
     
    Carla laughed. “I really liked him, you know? But he was all into his education.  He wasn’t gonna let anything get in the way of that. I missed him for a long time after I got back to Arkansas.”
     
    “Hey,