Read Jumped for Free Online Page B

her. Krystal was rocking those new fall boots with the cute heels. Cowboy-style but skinny. Like stiletto but not quite. Anyway, you’re not supposed to run in those joints but Krystal was tearing up the sidewalk.
    Jay was still saying “It’s not what you think and you didn’t see what you thought you saw.” Question: How many times can a guy say that before he starts to say something else? Thirteen times. Lucky thirteen! Bea weaved from side to side trying to get around Jay, and Jay kept saying “It’s not what you think,” all the while blocking her path so she couldn’t go after Krystal. “You didn’t see what you thought you saw.”
    Me? I was just there collecting every word for the playback. I was enjoying my front-row seat.
    On the fourteenth try, the needle on the record broke. Jay said he bent down to tell Krystal something and we must have seen them at that precise moment, that precise angle. He said it’s all in where you’re standing or riding by. It’s all about the angle.
    Jiang never made angles sound this good. If he had, I would have popped back with a snappy “given” topped off with a “therefore.” Unfortunately I didn’t know jack about angles and said nothing.
    Jay was doing it. Working his game on Bea. Her body held tight but her eyes gave in. I was glued to the TV set, like damn . I couldn’t believe it was playing out like this. Jay rapped a side-angle-side talk and Bea gave in. What a letdown. And I was anticipating a show with Bea going buck wild for a change, and it wasn’t going to happen.
    Think, Leticia, think, I told myself. Bea’s your girl and you have the best seat in the house. And then it came to me. Just before Jay sighed his dodged-the-bullet sigh of relief, I asked, “So, Jay. What did you have to tell Krystal you had to be in her lip gloss?”
    Pay dirt! Jay was not loving me at that moment. “Mind your business, Leticia, and let me mind mine.” He pointed to him and Bea and said, “This is between me and she. You are outside the equation.”
    â€œBrackets, Jay? That’s algebra. That’s last year. We’retalking about this year. This day. Explain the geometry, Jay. You know. The triangle. Go on.” All that was missing was the guy who yells, “Cut! That’s a wrap! Good job, Miss Moore.”
    Bea sprang back to life. “Tell me what you were telling Krystal, ’cause I’m going to find out.”
    Still, I stepped back, pretending to give them privacy, but it was a small step back. My front-row seat was too good to give up completely.
    Maybe Jay cared about Bea or maybe he was just rapping as a reflex: Deny all accusations, even if caught red-handed. Maybe it was a little of both. It’s definitely a guy thing. Got to keep his cake but must have some cookies on the side. But don’t let another guy glance Bea’s way. Jay is on the scene, visible, hovering, playing the boyfriend role for the Academy Award. He may want his chocolate-chip cookies in his pocket but he’s not giving up that rich chocolate cake on his plate.
    Anyway, he could have come clean and said, “Bea, you and me’s been forever but it’s just time to move on…” Nope. Jay was rapping his heart out like he was about to be signed to a record label.
    â€œFirst, I’m up here,” he said. “Krystal’s down there.”
    We gave him the “Yeah.” And it’s true. Jay’s tall.
    â€œEddie likes Krystal but Eddie’s too shy, y’know. Iwas just greasing it as a favor to Eddie. But everything I said, Krystal kept saying, ‘Huh? Huh?’ And I had to keep repeating myself so I bent down. And when y’all saw us, I was at her ear at that moment telling her for Eddie. Come on. You know Eddie. Ask him. Call him now and ask him. It’s just that what you thought you saw wasn’t that at all. You just