Free My Daughter's Boyfriend by Cydney Rax Page B

yawning. “Sound like my sister.”
    “I’m not your sister, but I do need to talk.”
    “Damn, man, what time is it?” he asked, his stomach still pressed to the floor.
    “Don’t matter, sit up, Brad, man.” I urged him up with both of my hands, “Get up, this is serious.”
    “Ah, hell. I didn’t know paying half the rent here would entail all this.” He mumbled a few other things that weren’t decipherable, but I tuned him out and stretched out on the couch. Brad squatted on the floor Indian-style and leaned his shoulder sideways against the couch.
    “Okay, okay, Aaron. Whassup?”
    “It’s this . . . this
woman
.”
    “Uh-huh,” he replied, digging underneath his fingernails. “So I take it you’re not referring to Lauren?”
    “I said she was a woman.”
    “Well, who is she, Aaron?” he asked, looking bored.
    “She’s, she’s, uh, I can’t say,” I told him firmly.
    “Damn.”
    “It’s like that right now. Thing is, I haven’t admitted it to her yet, but I’m digging her big-time. She’s more mature but sexy as hell, and man, we have this chemistry.”
    “So what’s the problem?” Brad asked, yawning once more and rubbing his eyes.
    I winced. “I—I want to get with her, but it might be the wrong move.”
    “ ’Cause of Lauren?” he said, pointing his finger in an I-think-I-get-it way.
    “You got it.”
    “If you want her that bad, sneak some but don’t tell Lauren,” he replied, and placed one foot on the carpet like he was about to get up.
    “Sit back down, Brad. It’s not that simple.”
    He groaned, but repositioned himself by leaning against the couch. “Why not?”
    I looked at the floor. “Sh-she lives near Lauren. Too risky.” I looked at Brad. “Not out to hurt my girl.”
    “Then don’t do it. Or bring the woman over here,” was Brad’s brilliant response.
    “Hell, naw,” I said, but still picturing myself bringing Tracey over. Getting her alone. Helping her to release both our frustrations.
    “Damn, man. Who is this mystery babe?”
    “Take a guess.”
    “Who is she, Aaron? Tell me.”
    Should I or shouldn’t I tell?
    “She’s . . . uh, better not.”
    “Tell me, or I’ll tell Lauren you’re cheating on her,” he said like he was serious and wouldn’t hesitate to do just that.
    “But that’s the thing, I’m
not
cheating on her.”
    “But you’re thinking about it, right?” Brad said, and stared so intently I thought he was trying to see through me, trying to break me down.
    I scratched the side of my face and patted down my hair. What was I doing? Sometimes things happened in such a way that it seemed I wasn’t taking time to evaluate what I was doing. Guess I never did feel comfortable thinking about stuff too much, seemed like that always made things too hard.
    “Yep, you’re thinking about it,” Brad said with a satisfied grin, like he was a freaking relationship guru who could figure everything out in ten minutes.
    “Why you say that?” I said in such a serious tone that my earnestness canceled out his grin. He pondered his words for a moment and shrugged. “Getting with somebody always starts with a thought. Apparently you’ve been thinking about this. Only a matter of time before you’re acting it out.”
    Hmmm, is that right,
I thought. All you gotta do is think about something, then you’ll be doing it? Hey, let me think about being a millionaire and watch the money roll in.
    Yeah, right.
    I looked pointedly at Brad. “Well, she’s been somewhat on my mind lately, but today was when I really started thinking about her.”
    “Why today?”
    “Saw her at the mall and . . . we hung out,” I said, holding on to the most treasured parts so I could savor something for myself.
    “Oh yeah? Well, how she feel about you?” he asked, wobbling his legs up and down like he was starting to develop a cramp.
    “I think I’ve hooked her and she tries to fight it, pretending like I don’t affect her. But I know she feels the