“I just don’t know what’s going on with you, you really need to get over this and get over this now.” Michael said.

“You were there, you saw the kiss. that was real.” Steve responded.

“Now Steve, you have done a lot more than kiss with a lot of women that you had no interest in.”

“Nope, not like that. Come on do you really think it wasn’t real?”

“If I lie to you that still ain’t gonna change the facts. The facts that you already know.” Michael said.

“Well we have a date tonight and I am going to get to the bottom of this.” Steve said. “On an entirely different note, how are the plans to ask Laura to marry you going?” Steve continued.

“I had the perfect time, but then Laura started tripping. Talking about how I allegedly looked at Tina’s butt when she walked in. Totally messed up the mood.”

“That ass sure did look good though.” Steve said while laughing.

“You ain’t never lied.” Michael responded. The two laughed. “But for real, I ain’t thinking bout that sista.”

“Are you sure?” Steve said.

There was a knock at Steve’s front door.

“Hey I gotta go…” Steve said.

Steve walked over to the front door and opened it. There stood Denise. Denise was a 28 year old slender bleach blond graduate student. She was wearing a trenchcoat. Steve immediately knew nothing was under it.

Denise quickly came close to Steve and kissed him while shutting the door behind her.

Steve kissed her, but then caught himself before he could go any further. He yelled, “Stop.”

Denise said, “Stop?” and then she dropped the coat showing her well toned body in all of its glory.

“Hold on…” Steve said.

“Hold on for what?” Denise said.

“I got a date.” Steve said.

“That didn’t stop you before, you said whenever I need it you would give it to me.”

Steve looked at her and then shook his head, “Well things changed.”

“Things changed? What, you married?” Denise said while starting to come to the realization that her plans were not going to come into fruition that night.

Steve wondered what is it that changed? He quickly thought about that kiss with Janet. He then thought about that day. The day that Janet seemed to ignore him. He thought about when she emphasized the word “friend” when talking about their relationship.

He was just about to decide to give in and engage in this little tryst when it hit him. Yeah he is 99% sure that Janet doesn’t want him, but what about that 1%. He didn’t want to mess up any chance he had with her.

He remembered how enjoyable that time with Denise was the last time he saws her, but then he remembered that kiss.

“I’m sorry, but you are gonna have to go.”

“Go? What? Where she at? She won’t ever know.”

“Well, I’ll know, and I love her.” Steve said.

“You love her?” Denise said with a confused look on her face. “Damn, someone done snagged you?” Denise laughed.

Steve smiled, “Yeah, someone did.”

Denise wrapped herself up in the coat and said, “if anything goes wrong, let me know…” She walked out the room.

Steve felt like a huge load had been lifted off of him when he said he loved Janet. He rushed to prepare for the date with Janet that night.

********

Janet was feeling very apprehensive about the date that night. She wanted to make it clear that she wasn’t going to date him, but she also wanted to keep her friendship. In addition, she wanted to keep her job.

She sat there in the restaurant thinking about how this date was going to go. She looked up and saw Terry walking over to the table.

No, No, not now. Janet said to herself as Terry walked up.

“So you waiting for your man?” Terry said in an accusatory tone.

“Um...er...what do you want Terry?” Janet said.

“I want to know if you waiting for your man?”

“That’s none of your business.” Janet said. “Please leave, I don’t want him to see me with you.” She continued.

Terry smirked and said. “I knew that there was something about that white boy.”

“You need to leave me alone and get out of here.” Janet said.

“He just had the look of one of those playboy wannabes.” Terry continued.

“Say what you gotta say and get out of here.”

Terry pulled out his cell phone and gave it to her.

“I didn’t trust that Justin Timberlake clone so I hired a private investigator. Now look at what he found just today….” Terry said.

Terry pulled out a phone with a video playing. He then said, “Look at this. See a woman in a trenchcoat going into your man’s house and look here right before the door shut you can see she ain’t got nothing on.” Terry smiled.

Janet angrily looked at the video and rewound it to look again she was shocked.

“So your man probably got some unfinished business before he gets here.” Terry said.

Janet didn’t know why, but she started crying. A flood of emotions overtook her. She was set to Steve down, but now she just can’t get past wondering why he would move on. How could he move on so fast.

Terry put his arm around her and she melted into them. Then Terry eased in and they kissed.

***********************************************

Steve was kind of happy, but he also was scared of what would happen at that date. He walked into the restaurant and he saw Terry holding Janet. And then they kissed. He just walked out of the restaurant and walked back to his car to drive home.