TroubleinParadise by Cindy Jacks

time?” she asked.
    He rubbed his neck. “Yeah, kinda.”
    “I’m sorry. I just don’t feel like going home. Can I come
in? I’ll stay out of your way. You won’t even know I’m here.”
    “That’s the thing.” He scrunched up his nose. “I wouldn’t
mind you hanging out, but I’m…I’m not alone.”
    “Oh.” The full meaning of what he’d said took a moment to
sink in. “ Oh . God, I’m an idiot. Serves me right for popping in
on you. Sorry. Good night.”
    Clarissa couldn’t hurry down the steps fast enough. She
ignored his calls after her. Her cheeks burned with humiliation. Earlier, when
she made the decision to see Sione, she’d imagined him home, forlorn and
brokenhearted, pining for her. And all his crap about wanting her. If she were
free—if he were free… Embarrassment at her gullibility turned her stomach.
    He jogged up beside her as she hurried across the street.
“Kala, don’t leave mad.”
    “I’m not mad. I feel stupid. I bought the bullshit you were
slinging the other night. But thank you. Really, I’m glad you were otherwise
occupied tonight. At least I never actually slept with you, right?”
    “What? You came over here tonight to sleep with me?”
    “No.” Though the thought had crossed her mind on the way
here. A lot. Exhausted, she flopped onto the bus stop bench and sank her head
into her hands. Her eyes stung as she blinked away teardrops. What a mess.
    Sione sat down and rubbed her shoulders. “What did you two
fight about?”
    “You should go back to your date. Don’t worry about me.”
Even as she said the words, her voice trembled and jumped two octaves, undercutting
her bravado.
    “It’s okay, Kala. Tell me what happened.”
    Wiping her cheeks, she sniffled. “It’s the same thing we
always fight about. He wants me to commit to making babies this spring and I
want a little more time.”
    “For what?”
    Clarissa shrugged. “I don’t know. To get settled into a job.
To work on my art career. The usual stuff.”
    He continued to massage her upper back, his strong hands
working the knots from her neck. After a while, he said, “I’m going to say
something you aren’t gonna like, but I’m going to say it because I’m your
friend and you need to hear it, ’kay?”
    She nodded.
    “Mika’s right. You make excuses to put off what he wants
because you’re afraid of the responsibility. And before you bite my head off,
let me just say that I see the behavior in you because I do the same thing. We
don’t want to grow up, but maybe it’s time we both did.”
    As she looked up at him, her first instinct was to dispute
his assertion. But how could she? He’d hit the nail on the head. Every time
Mika brought up children, she felt as though a hippo had parked itself on her
chest. Scared and cornered, her only recourse was to lash out. How could she
tell the man she loved that his hopes and dreams felt like a straitjacket to
her?
    Sione planted a kiss on her cheek. “And I’m sorry if I—not
‘if’— that I muddied the waters.”
    Clarissa took a deep breath. “Wasn’t just you. We both did.”
    “Michelle’s here,” Sione said to the ground more than
Clarissa.
    “What?”
    “Michelle’s my hot date.”
    “Holy crap.” She clapped a hand over her mouth, giving Sione
a pinch on the arm. “You should’ve told me.”
    “ Auwe . Sorry, sistah.”
    “Oh God, she must think I’m pathetic, showing up like this.
Apologize to her for me.”
    “Nah. She knows you’re going through a rough time. That’s
why she came over last night, to rip me a new one. She was pissed after you
told her what I did. Yelled at me for like an hour, told me I was messing where
I had no right to mess. When she finally let me get a word in, I said she was
right.
    “Then we talked about us for a while. There’s something
between us, always has been.”
    “Which is why you ran away from her,” Clarissa interjected.
    “Exactly. After that, one thing led to another…”