ELEVEN #6
Everything about Jio felt like home and a disaster waiting to happen all in one moment. The ride started quietly, neither of them seemed interested in forcing conversation. They’d always been comfortable with one another even in silence.
“How’s your mama?”
The question took him by surprise, maybe because they rarely discussed her. His eyes shifted briefly toward her before returning to the road.
“Good.”
“Does she still blow you up?”
“Every day.”
Nina smiled at the fact that some things truly never changed.
She missed listening to him complain about his mother calling ten times a day, only for him to spend the next hour talking about how much he loved her crazy ass. The contradiction somehow made perfect sense.
“How’s Auntie Vee?”
“Working per usual.”
His auntie was the one person that she would’ve still kept in contact with, if she had the strength to balance just an ounce of anyone related to Jio.
“She misses you,” he let her know without saying what he really wanted to say which was she was dead the fuck wrong for how she did shit.
“I miss her too.” For some reason, her admission made Nina emotional.
Jio’s people had become hers too.
He reached for her hand and kissed it and he didn’t let it go until they made it to his penthouse.
Although they hadn’t spent much time together at his new place before they broke up, it still held precious memories. Her chest tightened as she wondered if she’d made the right decision.
Jio pulled into the parking lot.
“Since when you started parking your own car?”
“A lot has changed, baby girl,” he let her know as he turned off the engine. He wasn’t an open book, but she could hear the pages turning in his head.
“I can send you home if that’s where you really want to be.”
Jio didn’t like doubt and she knew that. He was accustomed to certainty and being wanted.
For the first time all night, Nina accepted that the possibility of him not getting his bitch back genuinely scared him.
The thought settled heavily inside her chest. Should she take her ass home?
Nina sighed. “Let’s go, I’m sleepy,” she said, although she knew sleep was the last thing that was about to happen.
The elevator ride was familiar. He stayed on one side and she on the other.
He didn’t speak and neither did she. He didn’t move to touch her and she remained planted, but Nina longed for him to do what only he could do.
The silence carried more weight than intended.
History crowded into the small space between them.
The arguments, laughter, heartbreak, forgiveness, and most of all, love.
It filled the elevator, and when the doors parted, it fell out with them.
Nina looked up and into his eyes, questioning what was going through his mind, and he wanted to know the same.
For her, she’d spent the last year brainwashing herself that she would be okay without him.
As for Jio, he wanted to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder and take her to the balcony and stuff his dick down her throat.
He was faded and wanted her pussy. She looked like she wanted to talk about her feelings and shit and he wasn’t trying to do that.
Missing him never went away. The feeling didn’t disappear the harder she worked.
Shit didn’t work like that. Jio was used to being the bigger person in their union.
He was a man. He didn’t mind doing the work as long as she was okay with following his lead and his baby had no problem.
Jio reached for her. “Come here mama…” he sounded desperate.
Nina ambled into his arms, and in the foyer of his home, he took her clothes off, piece by piece. He left her heels on because he liked to see her prance around in them. Titties swanging, booty cheeks clapping was all he wanted to hear for the next few hours.
He touched her cheek with the back of his hand. “You the most beautiful person in the world.” He was grammatically incorrect but she didn’t dare let him know that. His words paired with his gestures were the most intimate thing that she’d experienced in quite some time. Nina was smitten.
Jio wasn’t a seductive type of nigga. It was just something about him that didn’t require manipulation. He was affectionate in his own way. It was pure and simple and she never had to question his intentions.
Nina’s eyes fluttered between open and close. She trusted him way more than she trusted her own gut so she kept closing her eyes as if that could help her figure out what the fuck she was about to do. She just didn’t want to regret anything by morning.
Jio hadn’t taken his eyes off her. He studied her more than he’d watched The Godfather movies. The trilogy was his personal blueprint for how he decided to handle shit.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked desperately. She had to know now.
He didn’t answer her with words. Instead, his lips found hers and the wall that she’d been forced to build came tumbling down. No fireworks, just built up pressure between two people who missed each other way too much.
For one night... neither of them wanted to pretend otherwise.