Chapter 4 Bishop
BISHOP
This was a bad idea. Everything about this was a bad idea but I walked with Asante to the bar anyway.
“Pick your poison.” He walked around the back of it and I shrugged.
“Surprise me.”
He nodded then turned around to survey the several liquor bottles lining the counter. I took that chance to really take him in.
He was just a little bit taller than I was but he was much bulkier compared to my lean frame.
He had a full beard and a clean cut head.
He was just wearing some jeans, a plain black shirt and some matching tennis but honestly, he looked good.
He had a tattoo on the inside of his arm and when he turned around with his bottle of choice, a large smile on his face and some soft brown eyes.
I’d pulled paperwork on him the night we’d met so I knew he had a sister named Nadira and that his family had come from Kenya three generations ago.
I knew about his military service and his marriage that had ended due to infidelity which had caused quite the scandal given how well respected his wife had been at the time.
He was 28 and lived alone. He didn’t have any kids on paper and he’d been in Crescent Falls for about a year now
If we were going to be conducting business in this man’s establishment we needed to know who he was and if he had any loyalties to anyone adjacent to us and our lives.
I’d thrown a tail on him and thanks to someone we knew in cybersecurity, Memphis, we’d verified that he didn’t have anything suspicious on his computers or cell phone and no random deposits had been made.
I didn’t read Asante as someone who was out to get us, but I also knew my radar wasn’t a hundred percent effective and I would never bet my family’s safety on a gut feeling that I got.
Asante poured us each half glasses of brown liquor and I watched him take a sip before I took my own without even thinking about it for real.
He tapped his knuckles on the bar.
“So, do you usually flirt or get flirted with?” he asked.
“I don’t even know how to answer that question, Asante.” I took another slow drink from my glass. “The men that I…” I paused and searched for the way I wanted to word my statement. “The men that I usually hang around with-”
“Fuck?” Asante cut me off.
“What?”
“The men that you usually fuck,” he clarified. “Have you ever said that out loud even to yourself?”
“You a therapist now?”
“Nah. I’m just a man asking questions.”
“Right.” I tilted my head back and drank the rest of my glass down. I hissed through my teeth as the liquor burned its way down my throat. Then, I reached back for my pack of cigarettes and freed one into my mouth without uttering a word.
When I looked back at Asante his eyes were already on me and he had a smile on his face. I looked away while I lit up and took a long draft.
“We don’t really do the flirting thing,” I said. “It’s usually just sex with no real conversation involved.”
“Well that sounds fucking mechanical and a little sad honestly.” He tilted his head back to finish off his own glass of liquor then casually leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms across his chest.
“So, what? You’ve been magically in love with every man you’ve ever fucked?”
“Nah, but I’ve at least known shit about them.” He licked his lips. “Look, I’m not here to judge or try to force you further out of your glass closet or any of that shit. I’m just asking questions to get to know you, Bishop. It’s not an interrogation.”
“You sure? Because it feels like an interrogation.”
“My bad.” He chuckled. “I’m just trying to get to know you, kid.”
“You go have to stop with that kid shit,” I cut my eyes at him.
“Yeah, alright.”
I slid my glass toward him and he plucked up the bottle to pour me another half glass.
“So, what do you do, Bishop?”
“What? You haven’t heard rumors about that too?”
“Nah. Besides, I don’t want to hear shit from other people. You’re the source. I want to hear it from you.”
“My brothers and I deal in art. Rook finds the best pieces for the best prices and secures them. Knight makes sure all the pieces are legit, sets the prices and vets the people that show interest in purchasing.. I make sure our assets are protected and arrange transportation for each piece we purchase. King does everything else.” I took a hit of my cigarette.
“How the fuck did you get into art dealing?”
“Family business,” I chuckled. “My dad used to do it but when he got old enough to want to retire, he passed it on to King who brought the rest of us in as we got older.”
“You ever want to do anything else?”
“No. Never,” I admitted. He nodded at that and poured himself some more liquor. “So, what? Is this your version of flirting?”
“Nah. I’m just getting to know my new favorite patron.”
“Your favorite, huh?” I took another hit from my cigarette then leaned it over to put it out.
“Well I haven’t had anyone else over before opening to drink for free.” Asante smiled and I chuckled.
“What about you, Asante? What’s your story?”
“No story. I graduated top of my class and went to the navy. I got married. I got divorced. I finished out my time in the military. I moved here. I brought this bar.”
“So, you don’t have any business running or bartending experience?” I scoffed.
“Nope. I’m just winging it.” Asante took a sip from his glass.
“What made you pick this place then?”
“It was selling,” Asante said simply.
I shook my head with a little shocked smirk on my face, but didn’t comment.
Just thinking about this man throwing his money into a spot he knew nothing about had me fucked up. I couldn’t imagine taking that kind of risk.
Bzz. Bzz.
I grabbed my phone from my pocket immediately and saw that it was Rook texting me. I shot him a text back and decided that was a sign. I finished the rest of my drink in one quick gulp then tapped my knuckles on the bar.
“Well, thanks for meeting with me and agreeing to the security details but I’ve got to get going.”
“You sure?”
I froze. It wasn’t necessarily the question that did it, moreso the way the question had been asked, like he was just asking about my job or hobbies still instead of the fact that he actually really was somewhat flirting with me.
I wasn’t used to that shit. I hadn’t been joking when I’d told Asante that the men I usually messed around with were just that.
The men that were usually in my space knew my family and how we got down.
They didn’t bother with the twenty questions.
They knew that I had a marriage pending.
It was flirting and sex, but it was never more than that.
They never looked at me the way that Asante was, like they genuinely wanted to figure everything about me out.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure that I’ve got to get going. I have some family stuff I need to deal with.”
“Some art to get appraised?” Asante asked.
“Yeah, some art to get appraised.” I licked my lips and tapped my knuckles on the bar. “Thanks for having me though for real.”
“Anytime.” Asante grinned. “Seriously, maybe we can do this again sometime.”
“Maybe we can.”
I returned his smile then headed for the exit, ignoring the way I could feel him staring at me as I left. It took everything inside of me not to look back, but somehow, I did it.
I exhaled and slowed the treadmill that I was on so that I went from a full fledged run to a jog. Rook was running on one side of me while Wes was running on the opposite side, all of us not speaking to each other, headphones wedged into our ears.
It was easy for my brain to wander while I was exercising.
It was all damn near muscle memory at this point and of course when my mind was free to wander it somehow drifted from a checklist of things I needed to figure out before our next family meeting to any little reminder I needed about the security tech I ran for the family’s house to that fucking club owner, Asante.
I couldn’t lie. That night with Asante had been a good one, although it had been short.
That was why I hadn’t responded to his text messages.
Messages. Plural. He’d texted me on three different occasions.
The night we’d gotten drinks together he’d sent a quick message just saying he hoped I made it home safely, something I’d never really experienced before.
Then, he’d texted me the day after jokingly asking if I was ignoring him which I was.
The third text message had been sent the following weekend and had simply said: drinks?
I hadn’t responded to that one either and he hadn’t reached out since.
I was fine with that.
Asante wasn’t the type of man who seemed like he would be cool with the whole one night stand thing or with being a short term lover and that was all I had to offer. I didn’t need either one of us catching feelings.
That didn’t stop me from thinking about him though, about his kind eyes and mesmerizing smile.
I stumbled slightly on the treadmill and pulled the emergency stop. The machine started to slow down and Rook looked over at me. His eyebrows fiddled together. He pulled his own emergency stop. I slowed down with the machine then grabbed my water, leaned my head back and took a slow sip.
“You uh, talk to that club owner after y’all hung out that night?” Rook asked me as he slowed down to a stop himself.
“What?” I glanced from him to Wes who had his headphones on his head and was still running full speed with his eyes focused forward. “Nah. I haven’t spoken to him.”
“You want to?” Rook grabbed his water bottle and took his own drink.
I told Rook a lot of shit but I didn’t usually give him the specifics of what I had going on in my personal life especially when it came to men.