Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
Karim
As soon as I’d walked in earlier, I found my way to the couch, my mind moving in overdrive because being around him was both exhilarating and excruciating.
I cared about him much more than I wanted to admit or really feel.
I sat there for a minute nearly, staring at a wall, before I was up on my feet moving around.
I couldn’t sit and obsess over him. I spent too much time thinking about Reminisce when he wasn’t here…
When he said one thing and did the other.
“You be acting like you don’t want me like that, but I see through that act you put up, just like you claim you see through mine.” His fingers tiptoed up my bare side before his hand landed fully against my flesh.
“I don’t know what you see. Shit, we probably should get your eyes checked out.” I giggled at the same time his lips contacted my hip.
“I see well and so do you. But I won’t force you to see anything you don’t wanna see.”
“You keep alluding to what I see. Why don’t you tell me I wan—shit,” I started, but his fingers found their way between my legs.
“Because you want me, Karim, just as bad as I want you, but you’re too scared to get hurt,” he admitted before another peck found my flesh.
“And where did you get that from?”
“It’s in the way you look at me, Rim. It has been since the day you met me at the pool party.
No matter how hard you are, those expressive ass eyes say everything.
The thing is, I’m damaged and a woman like you should stay as far away from me as possible because you deserve better, even if you don’t see it. ”
“You’re damaged. I’m damaged. In the grand scheme of things everybody is carrying some sort of trauma that makes them damaged.
Nobody is without damage. I mean, unless you’re a Caucasian male raised in the suburbs with a stay-at-home mom who drove a Mazda and a dad who worked enough to put food on the table and make it home every night before six.
Either way, no person is more damaged than the other. ”
He laughed between tracing kisses up to my chest. “Where the fuck do you get these analogies from?”
I shrugged. “I watch a lot of biographies and all the other informational TV. It’s interesting.”
“Animal Channel and shit like that, huh?” His face was hovering over mine as he waited for a response.
“Yes.”
He dipped his head, so his lips were less than a centimeter from mine. “Okay.” He kissed me.
A knock at my front door interrupted my thoughts.
I blinked a few times, residing in the present before I was on my feet.
I moved to my monitor in the cut of my living room where I saw my brothers Aro and Bry standing on my porch.
Only God knew why these niggas were on my porch unannounced, knowing damn well I hated it.
Aro didn’t care though. He never had, which was why I made a habit of popping up at his place unannounced as well. It was the least I could do.
I opened the door a few minutes later, immediately noticing the scowl on Aro’s face. I loved my brother but every single time I laid eyes on him he looked like someone had pissed him off. He was never not mugged up.
“Yo, you took too long to come to the fucking door. It’s cold out there.”
I waved him off. “Uh, first of all, you should have let me know you were coming. Both of you.” My eyes went from him to Brysheer.
Bry immediately threw his hands up in surrender. “I was minding my motherfucking business and this nigga dropped by my place of business talking about come take a ride with me.”
With my arms crossed over my chest, I mugged up my mugged-up brother. “How can I help your grouchy ass, so you can take that energy elsewhere? Be walking around acting like you need a hug all the fucking time.”
That earned a laugh from both him and Bry.
“I’ont need no fucking hug. I just don’t like being cold. I need you to look up a name for me though.”
“Lead with that then.” I turned around and moved back to my computer.
“Ol’ boy you’re messing with must’ve pissed you off or something, ’cause you’re definitely taking that shit out on us.”
“I don’t even know who you’re referring to, and no, I’m not taking out anything on you, Aroyal. I’m just returning your same energy from when you walked your rude behind in the door.”
Bry laughed. “You know he gives everybody attitude except Ma and Kay. Ol’ dramatic ass nigga.”
I laughed. “That you’re right about. Maybe I should be calling Kay to translate this fool’s moods.”
“Yo, fuck both of y’all.” He finally cracked a smile, following me to my computer.
“What’s the name, grouchy goober?” I looked from my software to Aroyal.
“Detective Jordan Oaks,” Bry responded, making me look in his direction as well.
“Isn’t the detective Unc had me look up?” I asked, looking between the two of them.
“That name sounded familiar.” I looked from him to Brysheer before back at my computer. “She’s cold case. What did she come to one of you about?”
“She came by the restaurant talking about Bryden and his disappearance. I had no ties to that, but she started talking about how people just don’t disappear, that the shit was fishy,” Bry responded.
Aro shook his head. “Shorty is bored as fuck, ever since I had that lil conversation with her for Unc. I’ma have another one with her soon. She’s gonna fuck around and become a cold case sniffing around cold cases.
I shook my head. “Be careful.”
Aroyal laughed. “Ain’t I always?”
I nodded. “Nope. You have moments. As a matter of fact, I’ll go with, just let me know when you go.”
Bry and Aroyal looked at one another. “Yo, you sure?” Aro asked.
“Bet. Let me know when you do and don’t be on no short-tempered shit. You know when people don’t understand you the first time you be ready to swing.” Brysheer’s words had me looking in his direction.
“You got us mixed up. I’m levelheaded.” I pointed to my chest. “And he’s the lunatic.”
“Nah. Even though y’all aren’t the same age, y’all are just as fucking lethal as them niggas in that movie, the Smokestack twins. Where you think you have patience, you don’t. The moment somebody says what you don’t like, you’re putting a motherfucker down, just like him.”
I shook my head. “Not even.”
“Denial.”
I spoke with them for a while longer before they left. Then as soon as I got rid of them, my mother was calling.
“You’re moping, mi hija.” She spoke into the speaker of my phone as I moved through my kitchen to the back patio with a blunt to my lips, my favorite torch, and my piece. I wasn’t stupid enough to ever get caught lacking.
“I’m not, Mama. My brain is just tired. I’m not sleeping well.” I half told the truth knowing she’d see through any lie I told.
Once I had the wintergreen, thick, knitted blanket around my half-clothed body, I took a seat in the chair and set my things down.
“Why?”
I shrugged as if she could see me. Then I torched the end of my blunt to light it. “If I knew, Mama, I wouldn’t be awake so often.” I didn’t mean to be so curt.
“Don’t sass me. Come home and I’ll make you sleepy time tea before I knock your ass out for that smart ass mouth of yours.”
I cackled. “Nah, I’m okay, seeing about something a little stronger, Ma.” I pulled from the blunt and allowed my head to fall back against the headrest. I was indeed exhausted, but not sleepy. My mind raced too much for me to rest.
“Sure. I know what that means. Come see me tomorrow and we’ll talk.”
“Okay, Mama. I love you.” Unease filled my body, like this sudden bout of anxiousness came over me before we could even hang up the phone.
It wasn’t until I saw the headlights pulling into my driveway that I knew why I felt this way out of nowhere.
Why in the hell was I so in tune with a man who wasn’t mine? Shit, he was no one’s man.
The sound of my wooden gate being unlocked from the outside, then his voice, filled my eardrums. “What I tell you ’bout this shit, Rim?” His weighted voice destroyed my peace, creating a frenzy of obsession and need through me.
“I don’t know. What did you tell me?”
He sucked his teeth at the same time the wind decided to blow, forcing the aroma of him closer to me than his frame. “Sitting your ass out here half clothed in the dark.”
“Sitting in my peace, Reminisce. Now, why are you here?” I didn’t bother looking at him because I knew he looked good.
When did he not? Something about those heavy eyes, that broody existence, and those tattoos on the side of his face ingrained on his chocolate skin always did it for me.
It had since the first day I laid eyes on his moody ass.
“’Cause I wanted to sit in your peace too, can I do that?” Him asking clashed with the way he took my blunt from my lips without asking. When I finally opened my eyes, he was pulling from it and looking directly at me.
“Where is Romance?”
“With her people. Now get up and bring your ass in this house. Sitting out here like you won’t fuck around and get sick.”
I got up and grabbed my cover, tightening it around my body before I moved into the house. I knew he’d grab what I left, so I didn’t trip. It wasn’t until we were in my house that his rude ass snatched the cover from me.
“Reminisce.”
“What? You wanna be half clothed. Don’t half do it on my account.”
I sucked my teeth, turning to face him in just my underwear and a tank top. “Why are you here, Reminisce?”
“I can’t just come see you?” he asked, eyes glossing my figure before finding my eyes again. Of course, his smug ass licked his lips.
“Come see me? Had I not seen your ass in the store, then you wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t see you.”
He chuckled. “Not true, ’cause I saw you. Had I not wanted to see you, then I would’ve just walked off. But I wanted to see you, Karim.”
“For what? Why? What do you want?” I sighed, crossing my arms and glaring at him.