recognize / b.simmons

12

dlo: so you're just gonna leave a nigga hanging like that?

amari: we just can't date

dlo: it could be like last time

amari: it's just not gonna work d'angelo

dlo: aight man lmfao.

amari rolls her eyes and tosses her phone on her desk. responding to d'angelo was a mistake, he's so persistent. amari wouldn't mind being friends with him, but she knows d'angelo can't do that. he likes her and expressed it the other day, and she likes him too, just not in the way he likes her. besides it wouldn't work. he's one of karls best friends.

it's not like amari met dlo through karl. it was when she moved to LA and she was shopping and he saw her and shot his shot, and made it. it was after the fact that they hung out a few times, that she learned that they were friends. she didn't tell d'angelo that she dated karl, she didn't want to look like she was lovin the crew.

amari looks at her watch. 12:15. shes only been at the office for four hours, and she was ready to go home. it was a slow day, a lot of the ads that have been passed today werent commercials and were just posters, some of which she made herself. another thing a lot of people don't know about amari is that she has a knack for graphic design, which she's done a lot for nike.

she spins herself around her chair and thinks of ways to entertain herself. ben. she smiles at the thought and goes to their messages.

amari: come over tonight?

ben: i'm busy tonight, sorry mama

amari: it's cool.

she rolled her eyes. niggas are so stupid. the one thing amari hopes is true, is that he is actually busy with something important.

amari is upset, she will admit that, and now she wants to do something stupid. she wants to text d'angelo and tell him to come over, but she doesn't because it's childish, and unfair to d'angelo.

she tosses her phone onto her desk. 5 more hours.

-

"yo, who you bringing to jimmy's?" tahj asks ben as they put up shots.

"nobody," ben answers. jimmy was throwing a party tonight, it was pretty last minute, but ben is going. jimmy told him to bring someone, but ben isn't going to. he wanted to ask amari, but he already knew her answer.

"come on, man, what about that jawn you fuckin around with," tahj asks, a goody grin on his face. ben can't help but laughs and shake his head as he shoots a jumper that magically goes in.

"i'm tired of y'all calling her everything but her name; it's amari, and she don't want to go," ben says, retrieving his ball that just bounced off of the rim.

tahj sucks his teeth. "man, bring kendall, then," ben had totally forgot about her.

"nah, not my type," he answers. his eyes were on amari right now, and only amari. yes, they were not dating, but she had him in the palm of her hand, even though she worked his nerves a lot.

"that's a first," tahj says, shooting a three and making it. ben has only had white girlfriends, except for tinashe, who he dated last year. that was a trip.

"what? i'm not feelin her," ben says. he hasn't thought about her at all, she wasn't anything special in his life.

"aight, bro," tahj says, shooting a three from the wing and swishing it.

"if you saw amari, you'd understand my reasoning," ben says, walking over to a bench where all of his stuff was placed. he takes a big drink of water and checks his phone simultaneously. amari had texted him, which makes him smile.