Chapter 2 #2
We entered through the double doors, some fool in a cowboy hat held the door for us. I thanked him, refusing to look back as I was now thinking about their famous hot wings and a Coke.
“Evening, Jonas,” my sister greeted, immediately finding the old-timer behind the bar.
That was his normal space since he didn’t trust many behind it.
Well, he trusted Versai, but it wasn’t too often Hani let his lady be the bartender at Guuds.
It was well known and well laughed at by the lot of us.
“Evening, y’all. What can I get you?
“I don’t know, surprise me, Jonas.” Raev smiled in his direction as we scooted onto the stools at the bar.
“And you, Doc?” he asked, smiling in my direction.
“Hot wings and a Coke please.”
“Coming right up.” Jonas left me and my sister alone, me looking at her overly giddy ass as she was already moving her hips around in her seat.
“Can you please not sit here and mug the air? Shit is mighty dampening.”
I chuckled. “I’m not mugging, Raev.”
“The hell you aren’t. You always look like you don’t wanna be somewhere. It’s like you just don’t wanna be bothered.”
Dramatically, I pressed my hands against my chest before speaking. “Me! What gave you that idea.”
“Greene, please live in the mome—” Her sentence trailed off as something in the distance caught her attention.
I was about to turn around and see what she was looking at, but she grabbed my arm. “Nope, eyes here. He already saw me looking. I don’t need him to see you too.”
Confusion swept my features. “Who the hell is he?”
“Don. Duhani’s brother.”
I was still confused, then it hit me. “The one who came to town that year and you had tha—”
“Yep and he’s headed over here right now. How do I look?” she started.
“Good, now stop fidgeting.” I gave her a once over before turning to look at anything but my sister.
I remembered the name Don so vividly because he came to town the Christmas before last and she kept going on and on about him.
Come to find out, they’d met here, had a drunken one night, spent time together, then he went home.
She had been heartbroken over him, listening to Whitney Houston for over a month before she finally moved on.
It wasn’t long before the infamous Don was in front of my sister and I was looking everywhere but at them. I was actively minding my business, even though Raev wouldn’t hesitate to put me in her business.
“Sis, this is Don, and Don, this is my sister, Greene.”
He smiled in my direction then nodded. “Nice to meet you, Greene.”
I nodded. “Likewise. It’s nice to put a name to a face.” A polite smile covered my features.
His grin grew, then he looked from me to my sister before nodding again. He was about to say something, but Jonas’s voice interrupted the conversation.
“Coke and a surprise. Your wings are coming right up, Greene. I figured you wanted regular fries instead of that sweet potato shit.” Jonas’s voice gripped my attention. He was looking down at the drinks.
“Good idea. Thank you. Question, if you don’t like them, why do you stock them?” I giggled.
“Because around holiday time, when the tourists start flowing in by the boatload, that’s all they ask about. That and those damn fried cauliflower.” His face showed exactly how he felt about the sides.
“What’s up, Unc? Hani around?” Ol’ boy my sister was now looking at like he was God asked. Shit, that was all it took, some good conversation and maybe two promises before she forgot how broken she had been when this nigga told her he didn’t know when he’d see her next.
“Uh no, he’s at the hou—” Jonas started, but his sentence was cut short.
The sound of the bell at the door—and the two men stepping through it—had his attention.
One of which I immediately recognized as Duhani, but the other I drew a blank.
The man with him was beyond my memory. I didn’t know who he was but judging from Jonas’s reaction he knew who the guy was.
It was in the way he rounded the bar and pulled the man into a hug.
Ol’ boy towered over Jonas by several inches, but that didn’t stop him from hugging him like he hadn’t seen him in ages.
“Damn, Pops, we just spoke this morning.” He chuckled when they parted.
“Yeah, and you conveniently left out that too.”
He laughed. Shit, that man was gorgeous and had a mouth full of white teeth showcased by that beautiful smile.
Damn, this man was fine. I’m talking god molded type.
He was tall, but not too tall. Fair skinned, not too dark, with a mustache and goatee that were just the right length.
His jaw line was sharp, with the cheekbones of Zeus and a natural expression that made him look mean as hell.
He looked so mean that the smile on his face seemed foreign to his features.
Shoot, even the couple freckles under his serious eyes looked misplaced.
“Damn, he fine.” Raev’s voice filled my eardrum. She had leaned in my direction only for me to hear that, especially since Don was still next to her.
I laughed just as the waitress came out with my hot wings.
I was immediately grateful for something else to focus on other than this fine ass man and my sister’s ol’ giddy ass.
It wasn’t until I heard her telling me she’d be right back that I looked up and saw her hightailing out of the door, her hand locked in Don’s.
I had also noticed that she’d slipped me her car key fob. This hoe.
Now I was sitting my ass in here eating all lonely like I didn’t have better things to be doing with my evening.
That corner of my couch was calling my name, yet here I was.
I decided to dig into my food, then if she hadn’t returned, I’d be paying the tab and driving myself home in her car.
I was all in my mind when I heard Jonas call me the nickname many had for me around here.
“Doc, this is my son, Hudson, and of course you already know Hani.” Jonas’s entire being had transformed before my very eyes.
“Hudson, this is one of the town’s veterinarians, a damn good one at that.
She spends more time over there at Guuds than at her office.
” A laugh escaped Jonas’s lips before he was moving back toward the other end of the bar.
His eye contact was intense, so intense I didn’t know if he was happy to have met me or if this introduction had inconvenienced him.
Hudson nodded. “Doc, huh? Can I get a first name or am I supposed to call you Doc every time I see you?” His eyes stayed intense, but his dark tinted lips creased into a charming smile.
A giggle escaped my lips. “Greene, my name is Greene with an e.”
“Nice to meet you, Greene with an e. Them wings good or you just order them to make the old man feel like he doing something?”
More laughter from my giggly ass. “Um no, they’re good. You should try them.”
He nodded. What I didn’t expect was for him to pull out the stool on the opposite side of me and take a seat. Within seconds, Jonas was standing in front of him.
“What are you having, Hud?”
I felt Hudson’s eyes before he spoke. “Greene with an e here says you have half decent wings, I’ll have what she’s eating.”
My eyes momentarily bulged. “I did not say half decent. I said they were good.”
“Same shit, right?”
Jonas chuckled. “Yeah, I got you. You need anything, Doc?”
“Yeah, more ranch please.”
“Coming right up.” It wasn’t until after he left that I felt Hudson’s eyes on me again. He was quiet though, probably looking for something to say. I assumed he settled on nothing, but before that belief settled, he was talking again.
“You gonna at least give me some conversation since I invited myself to your dinner or keep staring at everything but me? I swear I ain’t that ugly, Greene with an e.”
I looked away from my phone at Hudson before nodding. “I mean, I guess since you did invite yourself to this seat and my sister did just kind of ditch me for your cousin. What does conversation look like?”
“Shit, I don’t know. You let me get to know you and you get to know me.”
“You don’t do small talk at all, huh?”
“Nope, I feel like it’s for motherfuckers with nothing to say and all the time in the world to waste.”
I nodded. “Spoken like a true city nigga. But I’m inclined to agree.”
He laughed. “What made you wanna be a veterinarian?”
I shrugged but answered. “My mama was a vet assistant, my father is a veterinarian, and the list probably goes on and on. Truth is, I’ve spent my whole life around animals and I love them. Felt like I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t.”
He nodded. “An animal lover. I kinda see that on you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yeah, I do. You got that whole you don’t like people thing going on.
Coming here was probably your sister’s idea, right?
Now she don’ left you and you’re ready to get up outta here and commence to a lil calm boring ass evening void of people with your dog who is at home waiting on you.
Probably a beagle or some shit like that.
What show were you intending on watching? ”
I nearly choked on my drink from the way he had read into me that easily.
Too bad some of what he said was wrong. “You were almost right, but you have a couple things wrong. One, I had every intention of my calm evening, but no I don’t own a dog, especially not a beagle.
They have more health problems than people, from epilepsy to back problems and even obesity.
You couldn’t have at least assumed I owned a German Shepherd or something?
And maybe I was gonna spend my calm evening watching The Golden Bachelor.
And yes, it’s a really good show.” I smiled when I finished my statement.
He studied my features before a throaty chuckle escaped his lips. “Yo, I said all of that and you only heard the part about the dog and the show?”
“Pretty much. Everything else was right on the money.”