Chapter 6
I couldn’t help but to overhear bits and pieces of Liv and Lex’s conversation whenever I marched to the bathroom or grabbed something from the kitchen.
I had to blame it on my military training and enhanced hearing.
I hated the fact that Lex had fallen for a fuckboy.
Even more so, I hated the fact that I felt a strong pull toward her but was worried about the consequences of acting on my feelings.
There was a mountain of reasons telling me to leave her the fuck alone—her friendship with my sister and her being engaged, even if it clearly was to the wrong nigga.
It was crazy how I was still mesmerized by her after all these years.
Lex had the type of smile that gave a hard ass, militant nigga like me butterflies.
The way her forehead creased when she was mad haunted my thoughts.
I tried my best to convince myself it was all a fleeting attraction—that I was just caught up in the nostalgia of seeing her again after so much time had passed.
But the hold she had on my mind and body was out of this world.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Lex or choking my dick whenever her beautiful ass ran past my mind. That had to mean something, right?
Saturday finally arrived, which meant it was Liv’s thirtieth birthday.
She’d been running around all day with Lex, getting pampered with face masks, manis, pedis, and all that girly shit.
By late evening, I sat in the living room, enjoying the peace and quiet while watching TV when the front door opened.
Liv and her sidekick sailed inside, all smiles and loud ass giggles.
“Hey, Oak,” Liv greeted me.
“Sup, y’all? How was your birthday?” I asked.
My sister grinned from ear to ear. “Great. We had brunch, then had a spa day. Now, we’re about to get dressed and pregame before hitting the club,” she announced.
“Y’all old asses hittin’ the club?” I joked. “Y’all in your thirties now.”
“Nigga, who the fuck you callin’ old?” Olivia griped, her brows snapping together in disapproval. “I’m flirty thirty, okay?”
“But forreal, girl, when’s the last time we twerked in public? We haven’t been out in so long, I probably forgot how to dance on beat altogether.” Lex giggled.
Liv snickered. “Which is exactly why we need to live a little!”
“We’ve already lived so much today. Couldn’t we have gone to a comedy show or found a karaoke night? Anything that doesn’t require me to pack flip-flops as backups to my heels?”
“Quit your whining! It’s my birthday, and we’ll twerk if I want to! Now, let’s go get dressed!”
I chuckled at their banter while turning up the volume on the TV. “Y’all be safe out there tonight.”
“Your old ass should come out with us,” my sister suggested.
I swung my head in an immediate no. “That’s a hard fuckin’ pass,” I replied, waving off my sister.
I didn’t care if it was her birthday. We were five years apart, but to me, it may as well have been decades.
I wasn’t hip to the latest music, didn’t know one damn TikTok dance, and I damn sure wasn’t one of those niggas posted up at the club every weekend trying to see who I could take home for the night.
“Pleaseeeeee? You can be our designated driver. It’ll save us money on an Uber! And I promise to let you scare off any creeps. Besides, you haven’t been out of the house since your welcome home party,” she stated, laying out all her key points one by one.
“Whatchu think, Lex? Should I come?” I questioned, letting her be my deciding factor.
“I highly recommend drinking and driving with us, just saying,” she replied with a shrug.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Lemme hop in the shower and get dressed.”
I stepped outside my bedroom, dressed in all black from the fitted hat on my head to the Jordans on my feet.
The only outlier was the gold Cuban link chain around my neck that I got during a port call in Dubai some years back.
I walked into the kitchen to see Lex standing there looking good enough to eat with her phone in her hand.
I slowed my stride, overhearing her conversation as my eyes soaked her in from head to toe.
Her petite frame was wrapped in a mesh, spaghetti-strapped, see-through black dress with a V-shaped plunge that showed off her cleavage, and a pair of strappy platform heels that she looked too damn good in that made her three to four inches taller than usual.
Long, loose curls framed her face, and dark red lipstick was painted on her lips.
I also noticed her ring finger was still empty, but I knew better than to mention it.
As badly as I didn’t want to be their designated driver and babysitter, I was glad it gave me a reason to be around Lex.
Her aura gave a nigga the chills every time I saw her.
“Baby, you gotta believe me. That shit wasn’t me,” I heard a man explain desperately. “I had four legs yesterday. My second flight had a delay, which fucked up my whole day.”
“So you just needed some outside pussy to relieve your stress?” she accused.
He sighed. “No. Hell no. They delayed my other flights and didn’t have any reserves to cover it, so I ended up with an overnight in Cleveland, where I lost my phone. I couldn’t get a new one until I got to Charlotte.”
“Then who the fuck was fucking on your phone, Pat?” she argued.
“I don’t know. I swear I wouldn’t do you like that, baby. You’re the only person I’m dealing with. I love you. You know I do.”
The look on her face told me she didn’t know who or what to believe. When she turned and saw me, she hurriedly got off the phone. “Pat, I gotta go,” she said before ending the call before he could respond.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “How much of that did you hear?”
I swung my head before allowing a white lie to slip past my lips. “Not much. You good?”
She nodded. “Yup. Want a shot?”
I nodded. “Bet.”
Before she could pour our shots, Liv came down the hallway wearing a tight, tan deep V-neck dress that zipped in the front and had rhinestone and feather details.
“I know y’all rude asses ain’t drinkin’ without me on my birthday,” she accused, folding her arms across her chest.
“We would never,” Lex insisted, pouring a shot for the birthday girl first.
“To Liv,” I toasted, raising my glass.
The three of us clanked our shot glasses together before throwing the top-shelf tequila back.
“Goddamn, tequila is nasty as fuck, but after a few more shots of this shit, I probably will be too.” Lex giggled.
“Um, hold up. I know we’re mad at Pat, but where the hell is your engagement ring, bitch?” my sister questioned.
“I’m single for the night,” Lex announced.
“Aw hell, you’re still on this shit? I can tell I’m going to need another shot.”
She giggled. “Yeah, me too. I wanna get so fucked up tonight that I can’t feel my face, girl,” she admitted.
“Oh shit.” Liv chuckled, watching Lex pour up her troubles in the form of another shot.
I watched her toss down the tequila, straight to the head like it was water, and wipe the excess from the corners of her lips with the side of her finger before looking my sister dead in the eyes.
“This is what happens when a rich nigga wifes you, girl. They don’t do right by you either.
He’s not going to know what he had until I’m wrapped in a better nigga’s arms. I just wish I could stop thinking about him for one minute. ”
“Me too. At least for tonight. All I want for my birthday is for you to stop thinking about that nigga for the next twenty-four hours.”
Lex’s bare shoulders rose and fell. “You’re right! And what the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets.”
“Well right now, this birthday girl wants to get so twisted I’m dancing on top of the bar like an extra in Coyote Ugly by the end of the night. Let’s go!”
The three of us exited the apartment and got inside Liv’s car.
I sat behind the steering wheel feeling like a parent driving their bad-ass kids to soccer practice instead of driving toward the club.
They kept snickering in the back seat, which made me even more suspicious, so I kept stealing glances in the rearview mirror.
“Here, drink up, birthday girl,” Lex encouraged my sister. “Go on and apologize to your liver now because I’m gettin’ you fucked up tonight.”
I glanced up to see her passing Liv an airplane bottle of tequila. My head swung from left to right as they clinked their tiny bottles together in a toast before tossing their heads back and guzzling them down.
“Wanna know the difference between a nigga and a shot of tequila?” Liv jested.
“What?”
“That tequila gon’ get you right every time, bitch.”
The back seat erupted in laughter, and I turned up the speaker volume in an attempt to drown them out with the sounds of Juvenile’s “B.B.B.” But no matter how much the song slapped, it was no match in drowning them out. If anything, it made them get louder as they twerked in their seats.
The rest of the ride consisted of more pregaming and them singing backseat karaoke to whatever songs that played through the speakers. When we pulled into the parking lot inside the large shopping center near the club, I killed the engine before getting out.
The back door popped open, revealing Lex as she downed another airplane bottle before reapplying her lip gloss and getting out.
She tugged at the hem of her short ass dress.
“I swear I fucking suck at casual drinking because I always end up drunk as a skunk, but I promise I’m not gettin’ that fucked up tonight. ”
“I thought you said you didn’t wanna feel your face tonight,” I reminded her.
Her brows creased. “When did I say that?”
I chuckled. “Ah, hell.”