Chapter 9 #2
She opens the bag and removes the bottle and all three kits. “All this isn’t for me,” she says while unstacking the kits. “You pick since you bought them. I like all three actually.”
“Lady’s choice. Pick your favorite.”
“Our first interaction together and you already know I drunk text. Now you’re going to know I’m greedy too,” she says with a grin. “I want a little of all three. Can we just share? I do that with my girls a lot.”
“I’m not thinking shit in a negative way. We can share. I like them all too but I need to wash my hands. Where’s the bathroom?”
After easing off the sofa, she says, “Come on.” Gladly, I follow her through the suite into the bedroom, watching the sway of her hips and ass.
Even with these big ass sweats, I can see all of her curves.
“Ignore the bed. I just got out of it. The wine and massage knocked me out,” she says while holding her hand toward the bathroom door. “I’ll be back in the living room.”
She walks off and I step into the bathroom. It, along with the rest of this suite, smells just like her. Her sweet scent has infiltrated every inch of this room. I take it in as I relieve my bladder then wash my hands.
When I walk back into the living room, she has glasses for the drink, water bottles, and plasticware on the table. She’s sitting on the floor and her legs are stretched out under the table. Joining her, I remove my Dunks and ease down on the floor beside her.
“You don’t have to sit down here if you’re not comfortable,” she says.
“If you’re down here, I’m down here. Even though you were drunk, you invited me to be here with you. So I’m here.”
“I’m never living that down am I?” she asks with a huge smile.
“Nah. Never,” I tease. “I’m just fucking with you. I’m cool right here.”
“Good.” She hands me one of the lids from the meals. “Get what you want.”
“Pretty ladies first. I got this for you,” I insist.
She smirks before grabbing another lid. Then she grabs a fork and gets portions of everything.
When she’s done, she grabs wasabi and ginger from the sushi tray.
Her eyes dart toward me then she nods for me to get my food.
Once my lid is loaded, we bow our heads at the same time and I say a quick prayer.
“Amen,” she says.
“Amen.”
I tackle the pasta first and she starts with her sushi. In the corner of her lid, she mixes soy sauce, a little wasabi, and ginger. The mixture has me curious as hell. I eat sushi but only the cooked stuff and all I ever do is dip it in soy sauce.
“What does that taste like?” I ask.
“A tangy little spicy piece of heaven,” she says with a smile.
Then she opens another packet of plasticware, pulls out a fork, and dips a piece of the Philly roll into her mix.
“Taste it,” she says while holding the fork out to me.
When I hesitate for a second, she laughs.
“Please don’t tell me you’re scared of a little wasabi. ”
“Nah. That just looks odd as fuck,” I explain.
“Trust me. It’s really good though,” she insists. I give in, take the fork, and place the entire roll in my mouth. I can’t lie. The shit looks weird but tastes good as hell. When I smile, she says, “Told you. I know food. These hips don’t lie.”
“If sushi is responsible for those curves, keep eating it,” I tell her and she laughs.
“Wow. I walked right into that one,” she says.
“Blame it on your scrubs. That day at the office had me stuck.”
“I know. You said it all after your surgery,” she says with a grin. “Your friend kept trying to shut you up but you wouldn’t.”
“Whatever I said was true though. Like your drunk text, we speak the truth, unfiltered, when we are lit. I just hope I didn’t say something too wild that offended you,” I admit.
“Trust me, if I was offended, you would have never got my number and you definitely wouldn’t be right here with me. I do not play.”
“I believe you too.”
“As you should. You want me to change the channel on the TV?”
“You can really cut it off. I like talking. We’ve been texting all week but this is better, hearing your sexy voice is way better.” At my words, she opens the bottle and fills her glass. Then she turns the bottle to my cup. I push it closer and she fills it too. “I hope you like that,” I say.
“It’s Black Ops. What’s not to like?” she asks and grins. “But for real, I like all the specialty drinks and this is one of my favorites. Should we toast?”
“I’m cool with a toast.”
“Raise your glass then,” she says and I comply. “Let’s say… to getting to know each other?”
“To getting to know each other,” I agree and we clink glasses.
For a few moments, we just eat without words while exchanging glances.
She keeps looking at me and I can’t stop staring at her.
Adora is truly beautiful, everything about her—the way her big eyes drop when I catch her looking, the curve of her lips when she’s holding a smile, and even the way she keeps tucking the small piece of hair falling on the right side of her face.
Her beauty is effortless, that she woke up like this type shit, which makes it sexy as hell.
“So how old is your brother?” she asks, jumping right into it.
“Twenty-three. Well, twenty-two. He’ll be twenty-three in August.”
“How much older than him are you?” she asks.
“You trying to get my age?”
“Yes. I’m a single mother with two adorable little girls and I’m twenty-eight. I don’t have time for a YN.”
“Kadean is the YN, not me. I’m a grown ass man. Thirty, but you know that already,” I tease and her eyebrows furrow.
“And how do I already know?” she says before biting the bottom left corner of her lip.
“You didn’t know?” I ask and she does the lip shit again. “You didn’t look at my chart?”
After taking a big gulp of her drink, she smiles sheepishly then finally admits, “Alright, damn. I looked at your chart after you asked for my number. I was curious.”
“I knew it. You were on me,” I say and she shakes her head.
“Like I said, I was curious.” She takes another sip from her glass then leans back on the sofa, cup still in her hand. “You don’t like the drink?” she asks while darting her eyes toward my cup.
“It’s straight. I just like less fruity shit,” I admit.
“Then why’d you bring it?”
“For you. I figured you might like it.”
“There’s some shots in the minibar or we can order you what you like through room service,” she suggests.
“I can fuck with this. It’s still liquor,” I admit.
To prove my point, after eating the last sushi roll on my lid, I take a huge gulp of my drink, killing almost half of the glass.
It’s fruity as fuck but I rock with it. Then I shift, inching a little closer to her and resting my back on the sofa.
The top of her head lines up with my shoulder. “How tall are you?” I ask.
“Five-eight. Too short or too tall?”
“Neither. Just right,” I admit because she is.
“What about you?” she asks, then sits up. She dramatically looks under the table then back up to me. “Let me guess. Six-two?”
“Close. Six-one but why you do all that looking and examining?”
“’Cause you could have had a short or long torso. I wanted to check before I guessed.”
“Now you got me wanting to know. Is my shit long or short?”
“It’s normal,” she says. This time, my eyes scan her body. With her legs stretched out, her hips spread a little. “What are you checking? My torso?” she questions.
“I’m checking all of you really. You’re beautiful, you know that?”
“Thank you. I like what I see in the mirror,” she teases then adds, “You’re kinda cute too.”
“I’ll take that,” I say, then take another sip of the fruity drink. She does the same. “What else you wanna know about me?”
“You’re a businessman with two locations. That’s a big deal. What made you choose detailing?”
“I had a little money saved up and knew I needed to flip it the right way. I was taking care of Kadean and also knew my ass couldn’t work for nobody on a daily.
I started checking out easy startup businesses.
I was thinking laundromats at first but it’s enough of them in the city.
Then I got lucky. My boy who picked me up after my surgery is a realtor and he told me about the old car wash being for sale. ”
“That’s right. It was something else years ago. I remember. Duds it holds too many horrid memories and a mistake I can’t escape.
“Daddies didn’t exist. Them clowns were cool with not knowing or helping us and my momma was zooted all the damn time.
Any money she got ahold of was spent on drugs.
She used to boost then sell the clothes for shit around the house but even that money stopped making it back to us.
Shit was bad and I had to man the fuck up.
We lived in the Ridge; so finding something to get into was easy.
I only had to knock on the door three doors down from us. ”
“But you were thirteen,” she says again. “That’s too young for anyone to carry so much responsibility. I just can’t imagine.”
“It’s more common than you know. I wasn’t the only thirteen-year-old running packs,” I say, and when she doesn’t question me, I realize she’s familiar with the drug game.
Not everyone knows running packs is moving drugs from place to place.
I ran from our building to the blocks in The Manor. “Where did you grow up?”
“In the Manor but off Blythwood,” she says, mentioning a small housing area in my hood, not too far from the my projects.
“By that basketball court,” I say and she nods. “Then we should have went to school together. I know we didn’t because I fo’ sho would have remembered yo’ pretty ass.”
“We had to. I just wore glasses and was super skinny,” she says but she does that biting thing on her lip before sipping from her drink. I don’t know if she’s telling the truth or fucking with me.
“Real shit?” I question.
“Yeah. I was little like my baby Romi until high school. I would eat but never gained any weight. I don’t have that problem now though,” she says. “Food loves my hips, I swear.”
“I don’t blame it; I love them too,” I admit, taking advantage of this opportunity. I’m finally in her space and face and I’m enjoying it.
“You’re a mess,” she says with a slight grin.
“I’m just speaking facts but I still would have remembered you. You went to Ridge Pointe Middle and Manor Crossing High?” I ask because I don’t see how I wouldn’t have noticed her. Everything about Adora is memorable.