Smoke’s been around long enough to see the pattern before you wanted to name it. The way your boyfriend would disappear for hours, then show up with gifts and apologies too buttered up to be real. The way he would love-bomb you after arguments, the sudden sweetness when you started pulling away. Smoke watched you forgive things you shouldn’t have had to.

He never liked your boyfriend. He’d seen this kind of man before. So when Smoke sees him downtown, laughing too hard with his hand settled on another woman’s waist like it belonged there, it doesn’t shock him. It just confirms everything he already knew.

He comes to you that same night, knowing that you need to know the truth before anything else. You let him in without much preamble and he dives in.

“You know I’d never lie to you,” he starts. “And I’d never let somebody keep playin’ in your face.”

In Smoke’s mind, you were never just somebody’s girlfriend. You were his friend. His constant. His soft spot. His woman… whether you knew it or not. Throughout your relationship, he’d been waiting, protecting, loving you in ways he never demanded credit for.

And now that the truth was coming out, Smoke isn’t sure how to keep pretending he doesn’t want more.

“As a man, and as your friend, I can’t keep this from you. You deserve to know the truth about who you been layin’ with.”