Secret Indiscretions Read Online Free

encouragement.”
    â€œHey, like you said, it’s real talk.”
    â€œYeah, yeah, yeah. For what it’s worth, thanks for what you did tonight. Geneva had me jammed up until you called. You called right in the nick of time.”
    â€œSave the thanks. If I’d known you wanted me to call so you could get out the house . . .”
    â€œMan, you trippin’.”
    Bernard huffed loudly, clearly agitated. “I asked you a few weeks ago to stop involving me in what you’re doing. I was caught off-guard tonight and pulled into some bullshit that you created. Johnny, I don’t appreciate that shit, man. If you want to jump down the rabbit hole, be my guest. But don’t drag my ass down there with you ’cause I’m not tryin’ to mess up what I got.”
    Johnny laughed. “Hold up. Now I see what’s goin’ on . . . you’re scared you’re gonna get put on lockdown by the warden.” He could only shake his head when he thought about the weak excuse for a player that his best friend had become since he’d started dating Candace six months ago.
    Bernard had always been a hard-core ladies’ man, even when he’d been married. He was the only man Johnny knew, besides himself, who could say he’d bedded more women than he’d actually known, and that was because in many cases he didn’t know the women at all. They’d simply been one-night stands. But Bernard had gotten sloppy at the height of an intense affair with a woman who Johnny had never thought was quite worth the risk. Bernard’s wife, Suzanne, had caught him cheating, which had happened repeatedly throughout their eleven-year marriage. But this time Suzanne had reached her limit with his constant lies, manipulation, and philandering. Bernard had given her an STD that left her infertile. She filed for divorce, took half of everything he had, and never looked back. That was five years ago.
    Bernard had been going through life just fine until Candace came along. Now, in Johnny’s mind, it seemed as though his friend constantly caved to Candace’s demands.
    â€œSay what you want, but Candace is the best thing that could’ve happened to me. I don’t fear her, I respect her.”
    â€œUh-huh . . . where is she right now?”
    â€œAt the hospital; she’s pulling a double shift. Why?”
    â€œJust checking.” Johnny chuckled. “I’d hate to get you in trouble for talking on the phone past your bedtime.”
    â€œMan, fuck you.”
    â€œYou know I have to mess with you for acting all scared.”
    â€œI’m not scared for me. I’m scared for you, fool,” Bernard told him.
    â€œYou’re talking to the man with the plan. It’s all good.”
    â€œYour plan must not be that good because you’re dragging me into it. And for the one hundredth time, I have no interest in being part of what you’re doing. Geneva is a good woman.”
    Johnny reached under his seat for the box of condoms he’d placed there yesterday. He sat them on the passenger seat as he turned onto the exit ramp that would lead him to his rendezvous with Vivana. “I thought you were my boy. You’re supposed to have my back, B.”
    â€œYou say some childish shit. I wouldn’t be talking to you like I’m doing if I didn’t have your back.”
    â€œYou the one acting like a little girl.”
    â€œListen, don’t question my manhood or my friendship. Just because I don’t want to see you mess up like I did, or be a part of it, that doesn’t mean I’m goin’ soft, or that I’m not your boy. You know I’m the realest cat you got in your corner. So don’t come at me with some bullshit just so you can justify your own shit.”
    Johnny could tell by the tone in Bernard’s voice that he was starting to get upset. Johnny had already gotten his friend caught up in a lie that Bernard