Chapter 13 Zoya #3
As he softly touched my face, he gave me a look that I could tell many didn’t get to see.
My heart was beating out of my chest so fast as I smelled his cologne.
Gerald always smelled like sandalwood and citrus.
His aroma was always so soothing to me. I remember when I fell asleep on his chest in Barbados, his scent was stuck in my night gown for weeks.
I’d never admit that I slept in that nightgown just so I could feel like he was close to me.
“You done with your sermon?” I tried to remove myself from the counter, but he kept me blocked in with both his hands resting on the countertop.
Gerald didn’t speak; he was just staring at me. It didn’t make me uncomfortable, but it did make me feel seen. It was as if he could read every single thought that was running through my mind.
“Gerald?” I spoke softly.
The only sound that could be heard was the sound of Bando tearing up the dental chew I had given him moments before.
“Boobie?”
“Why did you become quiet?”
He lifted my chin and continued to maintain our eye contact. “You lied to me twice, baby.”
“Huh?”
“I remember a while back when I hopped out that truck in Brooklyn, I told you that you owed me a date?”
I remembered the exact moment that he was referring to. It was the day that brunch had gotten shot up, and he hopped out, giving Capri his gun to handle business. I could still smell the gun smoke in the air, and even with how high stress things were, I was worried about him.
The kind of worried wasn’t the kind a lawyer felt for her client.
I was worried like I was his woman or something.
The kind of worry that made me want to know when his timbs crossed the threshold.
Wanting to be the one waiting for him to return home every night.
When he mentioned that I owed him a date, I smiled discreetly, because I wanted that date.
Sadly, it wasn’t the right time for us to have that date. It seemed like our timing for each other was always either delayed or never supposed to happen.
“And the second?”
He softly kissed my cheek, his beard rubbing against my face. “You told me that you wanted a Goon date.”
I laughed. “I remember saying that. In my defense, I didn’t know if you would get blown up or your plane might crash.”
He pulled his head up. “You and Menace just say shit that comes to your mind?”
I shrugged, feeling all giddy when that was the opposite of me. He had me feeling all girly, when in reality, I was a real nigga.
“Sometimes.”
He stood up fully. “We can play these games like we’ve been playing, or we can use this timing… right now, to see where this can go.”
“I’m not ready for a relationship.”
“Yuh a liad,” he said in an accent.
I shoved him. “I don’t even know what that means, but I can tell it’s not nice.”
“You over here lying through your teeth. That last shit wasn’t a relationship… why wouldn’t you want to date your husband, Boobie?”
“Husband? Gerald, we’re not even together.”
“Yet, baby… yet.”
I giggled. “Since I’m a liar, what do you need from me, Gerald?”
His lips brushed across my jawline. “I need you to pack something for the weekend.”
“I’m a mother… I cannot just pick up and leave my child.”
Holding my chin. “Trust me to handle it.”
His voice was so smooth and reassuring. I didn’t trust a thing that came out of a man’s mouth except Menace. That was mostly because I didn’t believe Menace had the capability to lie.
Each time he should have lied, the man was telling the truth. With Gerald, he made me feel like he wasn’t just telling me anything. That he was going to actually stand behind his words.
For good measure, I stared into his eyes, waiting to see when it would slip. There was always a slip that I had been able to catch in men. Always seeing it the minute their eyes changed.
Whenever I took on a new client, I could always tell when they were telling me the truth or telling a lie.
You would think because their truth was protected, they would be honest, but some men walked into my office, opened their mouths and lied to the person responsible for protecting their freedom.
“What should I pack? This is too spontaneous for me, Gerald.” I started to stress. I was someone who had to make excel sheets to put together my outfits.
Blair and Capri both knew the minute they made plans, I needed at least a week to mentally prepare to do anything.
“You don’t need anything fancy. Pack some casual relaxed shit.”
“That tells me so much.” I sarcastically replied, even more stressed because what was casual relaxed shit?
His phone started to ring, and he released me from his hold by the sink. “Go and pack something while I handle this.”
I watched as he put his phone to his ear and then walked over toward the window. Grabbing my phone, I went down the hall to my bedroom and called Blair.
It was Friday and I knew Capri and Meer were going on their date nights. With four kids now, they planned out their time together, which I thought was cute.
“Well, hey. I wasn’t expecting a text message back until next year,” Blair sarcastically answered the phone.
I plopped down on the tufted ottoman in my bathroom. “Ha, you’re hilarious.”
“Zayah is in the kitchen with Gams. It’s something about the sound of her cutting on that wooden cutting board that always puts her to sleep.”
“My diva… I want to give you and Sim a break.” Blair busted out laughing. “I’m not an incompetent stupid fat bitch, B.”
The laughing seized, and the line grew quiet. “Who the hell even said all of that, Zoya?”
“I can watch my God daughter… I am a mother, you know.”
Blair chuckled. “Whenever you’re ready to watch your God daughter, you can come pick her up.”
“Thanks.”
“Everything alright, Zoy?”
I messed with a loose thread on the ottoman. “Gerald is here, and he wants to take me away for the weekend.”
Even with us being over the phone, I could hear Blair sit up in whatever she was sitting in. “Wait, seriously?”
“Yes. He forced me with a gun to come pack.”
“Zoya, please,” Blair busted out laughing.
To know me was to know that I had dark, dry humor, and I was very dramatic. If I allowed you in, you quickly learned just how big of a baby I really was.
I didn’t show that side of me to everyone.
“His lips felt like the gun,” I whispered, looking toward my bathroom door, in case he walked in and heard that.
“You kissed?” Blair screamed.
“How about you tell it to the entire world.” I muttered. “And no, he kissed my face… not a big deal.”
“For you, that’s a big deal,” She squealed. “I’m good, Gams… Zoya was being kissed on,” I heard her talking to Gams, who was checking on her because she was screaming.
“Kissing, huh? Gerald?” I could hear Gams ask in the background.
“Gams, I’m not messing with you anymore. Had me high out my mind with those cookies you gave Meer.” I laughed, thinking about how many layers of emotions I had gone through while off her cookies a few weeks ago.
Gams laughed in the background. “You have to go slow… one bite.”
“When I’m done breastfeeding, I’m eating the entire cookie,” Blair sighed, daydreaming of the day she would be able to eat Gam’s cookies again.
“Remember what I told you on the island. That man is a man in love. Let him love you, Cheesecake.”
I smiled. “I hear you, Gams.”
“Hearing and doing is two different things. I know you’re used to being tough and having to safeguard that heart. Let a real man handle it, and baby, you won’t ever regret it. Gerald is a good boy… man,” she corrected herself.
It was easy for Gams to refer to Gerald as a boy. She referred to all the Gods as her boys. In her eyes, they were her babies, even Papa Inferno. She took care of them when they needed, and she would until her last breath.
A tear slid down my cheek, and I quickly wiped it away. “Zoy?”
“I’m here, B.”
“It’s hard to let someone in… scary, huh?”
I quickly closed the bathroom door and leaned my back against it. “I’m so scared, B. Not because I don’t trust him… I don’t trust me.”
They led me to the back near the holding cells, and I followed behind the officer.
He motioned for me to stand near the bars, and I looked into the cell that was holding about seven men and tried to pinpoint my client.
Capri wasn’t the kind of friend that asked for favors often, so whenever she called and needed one, I made sure that I could deliver for her.
“Gerald Wraithe?”
The man sitting in the back with his head rested on the brick wall opened his eyes. He wasn’t in a rush, and it was as if this was familiar to him. His hopes weren’t high, from the way he remained on the bench toward the back of the cell.
While he was relaxed, the other men were dying to have a conversation with me. A conversation meant their chances were better at getting from behind these bars.
“What up, Ms. Lawyer?” His deep voice caressed my ear drums, slightly knocking me off my game.
His voice was smooth, like a knife slicing through perfectly churned butter. Usually, when I met clients in the holding cells, they were anything but relaxed.
Not Mr. Wraithe.
He sat calmly in the cell, waiting for anybody to say some shit to him. “Fuck him, baby… get me the fuck out of here with yo fine ass.”
Mr. Wraithe finally rose to his feet, his tall frame unfolding as he did a slow, deliberate stretch.
It made the men around him nervous, because the man sitting beside him slid over a bit.
The fluorescent lights overhead captured his rich dark skin, highlighting his jawline that had been chiseled out perfectly by God.
His waves were so deeply etched into his crown that they gave the ocean competition. The room seemed smaller with him standing, his presence demanding attention without him having to say a single word.
I found myself holding my breath, caught between being in awe and slightly intimidated, as though the earth’s orbit was pulling me closer to him, however, the bars kept us apart.