break me.”
“Damn, bruh, you need to relax. It’s not that deep.”
Okay, so I’d said that out loud.
“Thanks for the pep talk, guys, but for now I think I’ll keep my crush to myself.” I slumped on the chair, worn out by the conversation. “My main focus is my sister and Blue.”
Dani put his hand up then, conceding my point. “Okay, I’ll chill.”
Tariq agreed too. He knew how much I had riding on this. “All right, my man, that bag needs to be secured before you think about your love life. I gotchu. But women like Julia are the type that come along to alter a life plan.”
Dani grunted in agreement as I sat there fighting for breath after Tariq’s verbal gut punch.
I lifted my glass then anyway, because even though my love life continued to be a study in “failure to thrive,” I finally had friends.
“Thanks for the advice. I can’t take it at the moment, but I still appreciate it.”
Just as I was ready to shut the conversation down, I saw a text pop up from Julia just to me.
Julia: Are you getting harassed too?
I felt an electric shock ripple through my body as I read the message. Like a door I’d thought was closed forever had just been pried open.
Rocco: Yes.
My heart pounded, wondering if Julia would give me a reason to believe all the things that Dani just tried to tell me. If like me, she was struggling with ignoring what was happening between us.
Julia: Ignore them. That’s what I’m doing.
What I’d felt after Tariq said Julia was worth altering my life plan for had been a love tap. This was a gut punch. Eye-watering, debilitating, gasp-for-air punch. So hard and so strong that I almost hunched over. But it was the wake-up call I needed.
I texted a thumbs-up emoji and shut down my phone. I looked up at Dani and Tariq who were giving me curious, semi-worried looks.
“It’s nothing.” I schooled my face like it was no big deal and grabbed a menu. “What incredibly unhealthy food are we going to enjoy during this game none of us really care about?”
Julia
“Wow, you’re grumpy.”
José was not one to soften the blow and I was probably looking particularly pissed. I stood from the table I’d snagged at our favorite taco place.
I sat down, gratefully taking the margarita José had ordered for me. “What’s with the face? Did something happen with the funding?” I shook my head, since thankfully things seemed quiet in that department.
“Bless you.” I took a sip of the delicious drink and then closed my eyes, sighing. “I ran into one of the students from the program and his mom as I was leaving for the day. Seems like they were waiting for Vicki.” I cracked up at the stank face José made at the mention of my workplace nemesis. “Who was apparently giving them a ride home.” I had to really level up my outrage when José didn’t seem scandalized enough by Vicki’s bullshit. “It’s against agency policy to do stuff like that. The rules are very clear. If a client needs help getting home we have funds to get them an Uber or taxi, not drive them. She’s supposed to be modeling behavior since she’s the clinical director, for fuck’s sake.”
I took another sip of my margarita and sulked, as José asked me about the exact thing I was fretting about. “Are you going to tell your boss?”
I threw my hands up in frustration, hating that Vicki’s lack of professional boundaries was putting me in this position. “I don’t really have a choice. This is the exact type of shit that could sink us with the board and the higher-ups who would love nothing more than having an excuse to shut us down. Not to mention it’s just not good for our clients. This sets up expectations and then we can’t do our jobs for them. It’s just all bad.”
José shook his head in sympathy as I sulked some more, but he perked up as we saw Salome walking up to us. She was sporting her usual jeans, designer sweatshirt, and matching Jordans. She looked like a shorter, slimmer version of Lena Waithe, and she could turn some heads.
She smiled as she approached us and sat down next to José on the bench. “What up, peoples? Tell me something good and normal, so I can remember that academia dysfunction is not real life.”
I snorted and José smiled as he slid her the margarita he’d