Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1)(24)

I scoffed, but she did sound better already. And I’d been hungry enough before to feel lightheaded and discombobulated, so maybe that made sense too. But still… I wasn’t all the way convinced.

“So why were you drinking and crying? Was I right? Something happened with your little boyfriend? Somebody was looking at you and he tried to kick their ass? You saw he wasn’t worth shit?”

I was just messing around, trying to bait her into our normal dynamic, but she shook her head, knocking back a gulp of water. “No. Well, I did see that he wasn’t shit, but I already knew that. Today was confirmation. Caught him with my frie—no. Caught him with a trollop I thought was a friend.”

“Trollop?” She shrugged, then savagely bit into a piece of heavily buttered Texas toast, and I chuckled. “Man,” I said. “You’ve got to admit that it’s nice to be so privileged that a cheating boyfriend is the extent of your problems. That hit you so bad that you had to come to the regla’ black folks side of town to drink.”

Again… I was mostly just messing with her, but from the look on her face, she wanted to reach across the table and choke me. She finished chewing the bread in her mouth, then took a long sip from her glass before she fixed me with a glare.

“My father died today. Not like, today, but six years ago, today. It’s not a fucking good day for me. I picked myself up, got out and did something, trying to cheer myself up. Trying to forget. So to find out today, of all days, about that shit? Yeah, I came to have a drink, okay?”

Shit.

“Reese, I—”

“These are my father’s people! Sammy and Lana. Lana was my father’s cousin. They knew him, they know me. I came here to feel close to him, not to get fucking judged by you. Not today, Jason. Yeah, I got a little bougie in me, from my mother side of the family, but I’ve got a little “neighborhood” in me too. This is home, just as much as the campus side of town. I came to hurt around my family, not to “slum”. So fuck you.”

By the time she finished that little mini-monologue, she had tears streaming down her face, and I felt like shit. It was clear that she’d been crying already when I walked in, from her eyes being red, but actually seeing her face wet made my damned chest hurt. Her tears turned to quiet sobs, and I started to slide out of the booth to try to comfort her, but she looked up with scowl.

“Stay your ass over there,” she snapped. “I don’t need you feeling sorry for me.” She grabbed a handful of napkins from the dispenser on the table and cleaned her face, then pinned me with another glower. “They weren’t gonna let anything happen to me. The only reason they even let you approach me or bring me over here, is because apparently, they know you too. But recognize – you’re a family friend. I’m family.”

“I see that now,” I nodded, swallowing hard. “I was fucking with you Reese. I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I get that you don’t really feel like playing like that right now, though, so I’m sorry.”

She sucked her teeth. “You should be. Come in here messing up my vibe.” A few seconds of silence passed between us, and then she said, “But thank you.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For treating me to dinner.”

“Who said I was treating?”

Reese stopped to frown at me, with a pickle slice halfway up to her mouth. “I said you were treating. It’s just a fish basket. What, you can’t afford a fish basket on a mechanic’s salary? Do I need to pay for yours too? Is that why you’re so testy, you can’t afford a date?”

I drew my head back, and then opened my mouth, ready to light into her for that long list of wrong-ass assumptions, but then I caught a look at her face. Her expression was blank, but her eyes were smiling.

“Aiight,” I laughed. “Point taken. But, you were doing a little judging yourself, princess.”

She shrugged, then wiped her hands on her napkin. “Yeah… I kinda was.”

Silence again, while we ate, and then something occurred to me. “Hey… what did you do when you caught ol’ boy messing around?”

Reese almost choked on her water, then shook her head. “You don’t wanna know.”

“The hell I don’t, with a reaction like that!”

She pushed out a heavy sigh, playing with her straw as she held her glass in front of her. “Umm… I threw a drink in his face, and snatched her seat from under her.” She looked away as soon as those words were out of her mouth, and took a long sip of her water again, just before the waitress came by with refills.

My eyes were wide as hell as I waited for the server to leave, so I could hear more about that. I’d jokingly though that Reese might carry around a blade, but damn… was she really a little mini-thug?

“You did what?” I asked, as soon as we were alone again. “Are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious. And as wrong as I know it was… it felt good as hell.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “Yeah, I bet it did. Wow, though.”

“Mmmhmm.”

I watched her for a few seconds as she played in the remnants of her fries. “Hey,” – she looked up – “I almost expected you to tell me you pulled a Viv. Put on your sweats and got a bat, ready to go smash up his house.”