Free Real As It Gets by Reshonda Tate Billingsley Page A

three VIP tickets because neither he nor Travis could go. Travis had gone home for the weekend and Sammy had had to go out of town with one of his artists. So, I had actually found myself getting excited about partying with my girls.
    â€œHim and Travis are gone. Dang. I was looking forward to hanging with Travis,” she said. “But I definitely wanted to meet this dream man.”
    She picked up my iPhone and looked at the picture I’d taken of him at the VIP reception. It was my screen saver and looked better than anything I could’ve even thought about downloading.
    â€œGirl, this boy is super fine,” Kennedi said.
    â€œDo I ever date anyone who isn’t?” I laughed.
    She tossed the phone back down. “I’m just trippin’. It’s like I was just here a few weeks ago and you didn’t even know this dude. Now, you’re all in love.”
    Kennedi and I had been friends since we were little. Our mothers had been friends for years. But she lived in Orlando now, so we didn’t get to hang as much. Still, she had been there through every guy I’d ever dated—from my first boyfriend to my last. And she didn’t hesitate to let me know what she thought of someone, so I was anxious to see what she thought. Sheridan had met Sammy when the three of us and Travis had gone out to dinner the night before. Of course, she’d liked him, but right about now, she was more concerned with making sure Sammy liked her since he was Travis’s boy and all. I’d never seen Sheridan act so thirsty, and it was so not a good look. I’d also told Kennedi about Travis and Angel. She told me my first loyalty was to Travis, but I definitely knew that she was biased as far as that was concerned because she didn’t care for Sheridan.
    â€œSo, where did this Sammy come from?” Kennedi asked. “I mean, I know Miami is big, but anyone who is anyone, we know. So he must not be anyone.” She sat up on the bed, being careful not to mess up her nails or toes.
    â€œOh, trust. He’s someone. I’m telling you, it’s like everybody knows him.” Just thinking about how well connected he was had me smiling.
    â€œWhere does he go to school?”
    â€œHe’s out of school.”
    That made Kennedi sit up some more. She loved her some older guys. “Oooh, is your mom gonna go for that?”
    I shrugged as I decided on the outfit I had originally planned to wear. “It doesn’t matter if my mom likes him or not, he’s here to stay. But the way he’d dazzled her, she hadn’t even bothered asking me about his age. She just wanted to know more details like who were “his people” and if I really liked him.”
    Kennedi laughed. “That sounds just like your mom. So how old is he? When did he finish school?”
    â€œHe just graduated three years ago,” I said. “So he’s not a whole lot older than me. He’s twenty-one.”
    â€œWhere is he from?”
    â€œWhat is this? Twenty questions?”
    â€œJust answer the question.”
    I laughed at my friend. “He’s from here.”
    â€œSo he is from Miami?” She shook her head. “I just don’t get it. Why haven’t we ever met him? He must not be in the in -in-crowd.”
    I smiled as I thought of the way Sammy worked the crowd at that VIP reception. I knew why girls swarmed around J. Love, but Sammy had guys and girls jocking his every move.
    â€œSammy’s the type that makes his own crowd. Everywhere we go, someone knows him. It’s wild.”
    â€œWow,” Kennedi said. “So what does he do?”
    â€œHe works as a record producer.”
    â€œDoesn’t everybody.” She rolled her eyes.
    â€œNo seriously, I went to his studio with him. He was straight runnin’ things.” I leaned in the mirror at my vanity and dabbed some lip gloss on.
    â€œI guess if he’s getting love like