Casting Down Imaginations by LaShanda Michelle Page A

because you just told me her name.”
    He
smacked his lips. “She’s just some girl I used to mess around with, that’s
all,” he said, continuing to eat.
    I was
becoming upset. “Messed around with? You mean you had sex with.”
    He
looked like he didn’t want to have the conversation. but I just had to know.
    “Did
you?” I asked.
    “Yeah,”
he said. “You know, I hit that a couple of times. No big deal.”
    My chest
hurt. No big deal? I couldn’t even look at him.
    “I know
you ain’t mad,” he said, growing irritated. “That was before I even met you, so
you can’t say nothing.”
    He had a
point. But from the way she was looking at me, this couldn’t be something she
took so casual. She was ready to fight.
    “Are you
still having sex with her?” I asked.
    He put
the drink he had in his hand down on the table. “Why does that matter?”
    “It does
matter,” I told him, trying my best not to let my voice rise. The last thing I
wanted to do was let Miss Thing back there know she was getting to me.
    “Why?”
he wanted to know. “For the past few weeks me and you been getting down like we
do, and you never had a problem with nothing before.”
    “Yeah,
we have been,” I snapped. “But I want to know if I’m the only one.”
    “Does it
matter?”
    The fact
that he answered with a question gave me my answer. But I had to know anyway.
    “Yes.”
    “No, you
haven’t been,” he answered. “But we aren’t officially together or anything. Me
and you just been chilling.”
    “Reese,
I’m not like that,” I told him. “I don’t just do things with people that I
don’t intend on being with.”
    “You
could have fooled me,” he said. “The day after we met you didn’t have a problem
doing things to me. Now you wanna act like a good girl?”
    His
words hurt. If I would have known my actions would be thrown in my face the way
they just were, I never would have messed around with him. I never thought he
would have treated me like a common whore. But you lived and you learned. Some
guys just didn’t understand that a woman would do anything for the man that she
loved.
    I
retrieved my purse from the back of my chair, ready to walk out on him.
    “Where
you going?” he asked.
    I didn’t
answer. He grabbed my arm and pinned it down to the table, refusing to let me
get up. I wanted to leave. Ol’ girl back there could have him because I would
rather be alone than to be treated like this.
    “Look,
I’m sorry alright,” he told me. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. But that’s
not fair for you to be mad at me for something that had absolutely nothing to
do with you.”
    “I’m not
mad about that,” I told him.
    “Then
what is it?”
    “You
know what it is, Reese. Do not play stupid with me.”
    He
continued to hold my arm on the table, not letting me go.
    “How
many others?” I demanded.
    “Does it
matter?”
    I glared
at him.
    “Look,
Anaya,” he said, looking me square in the eye. “As much as I like you, you are
not my girlfriend. So you can’t be mad at me, acting like I cheated on you when
technically we never even went together.”
    There
was some truth to what he was saying. But I still wanted to know.
    “How
many?” I repeated.
    “Two.”
    “Two
people!” I exclaimed.
    His
facial expression didn’t change. He honestly didn’t see anything wrong with
what he just told me.
    “Why are
you so upset?” he asked me.
    “Because
I thought I meant more to you than that.”
    “Are you
saying that you want to?”
    “Are you
saying that I do?”
    “Are you
saying that I do to you?”
    “Are you
saying you want to?”
    He
smiled and took my hand in his.
    “It’s
been a long while since I had a girlfriend,” he told me. “With me in the music
game, it’s hard to be down for somebody like that. I don’t know if I’m ready.”
    I smiled,
knowing that he was going out on a limb by trusting me. “I want to be that
somebody for you, Reese.”
    “Alright,”
he