Chapter 2 #2
And I believed him. He wasn’t even doing the most. A simple outfit that was designer but not flashy.
A nice watch and two chains wrapped around his neck.
His edge up was sharp like he’d just left the barber’s chair, and the masculine, woodsy scent that dominated the air around us had my nipples hardening and my clit pulsating.
I was sure that if Onyx was able to get me alone, it wouldn’t take much effort on his part for me to be putty in his hands.
Ivan had never turned me on to the magnitude that Onyx was, and I gave his lame ass a baby after only five months. Stupid, stupid, and more stupid.
My silence alerted Onyx of my skepticism. “You don’t have to be afraid. I got you. You’re always safe with me.”
My eyes cut into slits as I sized him up. “Unless you have wings and Superman type strength, I don’t think you could save me from falling to my death if something goes wrong with ziplining.”
“Tatum.”
The way he said my name made me shiver, and I prayed to God that he hadn’t noticed it.
“I got you. Come on. Don’t make me beg.”
My God in heaven. Clearing my throat, I sat up straight. “I’ll give you my number. While I wait on your call, I’ll think about it. If my mind doesn’t change, then you’ll have to pick something else.”
“Fair enough.”
Onyx must have had his phone on silent because I didn’t hear it ringing, but he pulled it from his pocket and answered.
I was sort of relieved but kind of disappointed at the same time that he remained on the phone for the rest of his service.
That didn’t stop him from getting my number before he left.
As his scent lingered and tickled my senses, I counted the money he’d given me and realized he’d given me a $35 tip.
Shit, if he did call, there was no way I was turning down ziplining with him.
Three days later, I was shitting bricks as the adventure park employee kneeled in front of me, and held out the part of the body harness that I was supposed to stick my left foot into.
I wondered if he could tell that I was trembling.
Lifting a leg that felt like lead, I placed my left foot inside the hole and then my right foot into the next hole.
I could feel Onyx staring at me, and I wanted to throw up.
So much for me agreeing to possibly plunge to my death just because he was fine.
Fine didn’t mean sane, and I had clearly lost a few of my marbles to agree to join his crazy ass.
We climbed seven flights of stairs to get the top of the wooden platform we’d be jumping off of. The moment I looked down and realized how high up we were, I had to close my eyes and fight the urge to vomit.
“You good?” Onyx asked as the man in front of me secured the harness around my body and tightened it.
“No,” I admitted making him chortle. “It’s not funny. I don’t know why I agreed to do this, and I have to throw up.”
“You’ll be fine,” the guide promised as he placed a helmet on my head. I wasn’t so sure about that, but I wasn’t going to argue with him.
“Who wants to go first?” he grinned while taking a step back after my helmet and harness were in place.
“I will.” Onyx volunteered.
I breathed deeply through my nose while trying to calm my racing heart. If I suffered a heart attack before I left the platform that had to be a better way to go than plummeting to my death.
“You’re going to run, jump, then tuck your knees, okay?” the instructor explained to Onyx, and he nodded eagerly. There wasn’t an ounce of fear etched on his handsome face.
Onyx did as he was instructed. A hard swallow hurt my throat as he slid down the line to the platform on the other side. The instructor turned to me wearing a broad grin. “See how easy that was?”
All I could do was roll my eyes. It was about to get real, and I couldn’t talk.
Fear gripped my entire body and locked my voice box up.
There was nothing I could say. I assumed the instructor had been doing his job long enough to be able to read people.
He must have known that I never would have jumped on my own, so he pushed me, and I screamed as my feet left the platform.
As I zipped across the line my eyes were closed, and my cheeks puffed out from all the air I was holding in.
When I reached the second platform, the instructor caught me. My heart was pounding so ferociously in my chest that I couldn’t breathe. “Calm down. You’re okay,” he stated in a soothing tone.
“That wasn’t bad, was it?” Onyx asked as I saw yet another line and another platform.
“How many times do we have to do this?” I implored with wide eyes.
“Just four more,” Onyx grinned, and my nostrils flared.
“I so hate you.”
For as scared as I was each and every time my feet left the platform, I made it to the end without dying.
I had never in my life been so relieved for something to be over.
It was a good thing Onyx did research before he signed us up for the activities because he told me to wear something I could get dirty.
When we finished ATV riding, my black shorts, black shirt, arms, and legs were covered with dirt and mud.
“I feel so gross,” I frowned as we sat at the bar waiting for food and drinks. I wore a bandana over most of my face as we rode, and I had just washed my hands in the bathroom, so my hands and face were the only parts of my body that were clean.
“But did you have fun?” he grinned showing off that diamond grill.
“You mean after I died? Yeah, it was cool.” My sarcastic response made him shake his head.
“You did all that whining and crying and look at you. You made it. We have to go horseback riding next.”
“I take it you’re an adventurous person.”
“Very. I love nature and outside too. We can go fishing, hiking, whatever you want.”
Being hot and sweaty and fighting off bugs were a few things that I loathed. Of course, I would run into a man that wanted to do outside dates. “Yayyyyy.” Yet another sarcastic tone and a fake smile made Onyx chortle.
“Stick with me kid. Soon enough, you’ll be into all kinds of shit.”
The bartender placed our drinks in front of us, and I took a sip of my Bahama Mama. “What do you do for a living?” I knew enough entrepreneurs and successful black men to know that being young, having gold teeth, tattoos, etc. didn’t always equate to street pharmacist.
“I sell a little weed here and there,” he replied casually.
Onyx drove a nice car, wore nice jewelry, designer clothes, and expensive shoes. I doubted he sold a ‘little’ anything, but I also didn’t expect him to confess to me if he was some big-time king pin.
“My father has an auto shop that he wants me to help him run. If I move here, that’s what I’ll spend most of my time doing.”
Bobbing my head, I took another sip of my drink. I could respect that. The money may have been good, but there was no longevity in drug dealing. It was nice to know that he had something else to fall back on.
“When will you know if you’re moving here?”
“Maybe a few weeks. I’ll be here for at least two weeks handling some business. I don’t know how long it’s going to take just yet but once that’s done, I’ll know for sure.”
“Why are you single?” Since I survived ziplining, I was for sure going to interrogate his ass. His answers and our chemistry on the date would determine whether or not I blocked him when we left the adventure park.
“I was with someone for two years, and she joined the military. Between basic training in South Carolina and AIT school in Georgia, we were apart for fourteen weeks. Then, she chose a duty station in Korea for a year. I wasn’t going to stop her from doing what she wanted to do, but I damn sure wasn’t going to Korea, and I knew she wouldn’t be able to come home like that.
We chalked it up as a loss,” he shrugged passively.
“That was a year ago, and I’ve just been living life and doing me since then. ”
I knew people only told the parts of the story that they wanted to, but it was a relief to hear that it wasn’t cheating or some general fuck nigga shit that caused him to be single.
So far, the only red flag I’d seen was the fact that Onyx liked to partake in pass times that could ultimately kill him.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but he was a nice guy.
During our encounter when I did his pedicure, two phone conversations, and our date, he hadn’t made any crude sexual comments.
There wasn’t one bad thing I could say about him, but it was still very early.
The bartender made my drink super strong, so two drinks had me giggly and feeling really good.
I didn’t know Onyx well enough to give him my address, so I met him at the adventure park.
He walked me to my car and promised to call.
I couldn’t believe my giddy ass smiled all the way home.
Of course, I had to tell someone, so I called my best friend, Fatima.
She answered the phone in a muffled tone.
“What are you eating now, Big Back?” I teased.
Fatima was seven months pregnant and literally ate every hour.
She alternated between full-blown meals and weird snacks.
I still believed there was an extra baby hiding in there somewhere because no way did she eat like ten men just from carrying one baby that at the moment only weighed three pounds.
“The baby wanted a Biscoff bundt cake. And a strawberry and cream cheese one. And a red velvet one.”
Cackling like a witch, I tossed my head back and had a good laugh. “Bro, stop blaming your gluttony on that baby. Fatima, that’s ridiculous. You’re going to weight six hundred pounds by the time you give birth. What happened to eating fruit when you wanted something sweet?”
“Didn’t you hear me say one of these cakes was strawberries and cream?”
“Okay, friend. I’ll change the baby’s diaper but rolling you over and washing in between your cracks and crevices won’t be on the list. Your husband will have to do that.”
“Anyway, bitch, what’s up?”
Before answering, I ran my tongue across my top row of teeth. “I just went out on a date with a fine ass man. I’m talking ‘bout that 90’s man kind of fine. That melt in your mouth not in your hand chocolate type man with waves and gold teeth.”
“Oh my God. And why are you on the phone? You didn’t fuck the saliva out of his mouth?”
“No,” I laughed. “Ivan damn sure isn’t as fine as him, but I’m trying not to be blinded by the wrong things and make another huge mistake.”
“Ugh. I hope you did your research and those aren’t his homeboy’s grills.”
“Girl! Not his homeboy’s grills,” I laughed. “I pray nobody is fronting that bad. That’s nasty. Nah, I don’t think they out here doing that.”
“You never know. Anyway, who is this man, and where did you meet him?”
I ran all of the details down for Fatima as I drove to my parents’ house to pick Angel up. The fact that I smiled the entire time that I talked was insane. No way should I be that enthralled after one date.
“Ohhh he’s not from Golden Waters, I love that. Prayerfully, the city’s finest sack chasers haven’t already put that demonic pussy on him.”
There was a group of five women that were dubbed The City’s Finest Sack Chasers.
Between the five of them, they’d been with damn near every well known, financially stable man in the city from dope boys to minor celebrities, the most popular tattoo artists, DJ’s, club owners, you name it.
Pretty much no penis had been left unturned.
Once I found out a man had been with one of them, that instantly made him unattractive in my eyes.
My gut literally churned at the thought of one of them getting their hands on Onyx.
“If he’s been here for more than a day, I’m sure one of them saw the bat signal,” I joked. “He doesn’t live here though, so there’s no need to think too far ahead. He’s not sure whether or not, he’s going to move here or remain in Charlotte.”
“That just means you have to work your magic and give him a reason to stay.”
“I don’t know about all that,” I mumbled as I turned into the driveway of my parents’ home.
I didn’t want to allow myself to become too attached to Onyx because then if he did leave, I’d be disappointed.
I wouldn’t say Ivan ever broke my heart, but I’d been disappointed too many times to count when it came to how he handled his daughter.
I didn’t have the space to allow another man to come into my life and start making me feel things that I didn’t want to feel.
Only time would tell how this thing with Onyx would go.