Chapter 30 Herb
?Azalea?
Five days now that we've been 'not together' anymore. Six days of not having slept in the same bed. No kisses or anything and I'm proud of myself. He's tempting he's so tempting. Especially when he's behaving himself. Which he has been doing.
He's so kissable. And he just sits there waiting for me to make a move on him. He's got 'kiss me' eyes and I'm struggling to hold myself back.
Just as he's doing right now.
"What?" he asks.
"You're the one looking at me," I shrug. Even though I'm looking at him too.
"So?" he scoots closer to me. His intoxicating smell makes me want to put my face in his chest.
"So don't," I lick my lips and his eyes trail down to them. They stay in that position, looking there and not moving.
"Stop looking at my lips," I warn.
"I can't kiss you so I'm imagining it, leave me alone," he dismisses my warning.
"And other things," he mumbles. I scoot away from him and turn my head before I give in.
"Are you harassing her?" Jai's voice questions as he shows up at our table.
"Yes he is, call the po-po," I nod to Jai.
"I thought y'all broke up?" he questions.
"We did," I confirm, "but it's hard."
"So am I," Grey mutters under his breath and I feel my eyes widen just a tad bit. I peek over at him and he's not-so-subtly looking down my black v-neck silky tank top.
"If you're still sitting here by the time Abby gets here I'm gonna pitch a fit and you'll never hear the end of it," I assure Grey as two o'clock quickly approaches, the time we agreed to meet up at.
He shrugs like it's not a big deal.
"Abby, huh?" Jai takes a seat across from us, "she cute?"
"She's very pretty," I nod and he nods too, a smirk on his face.
"Shit, I'm single now too, might have to do something with this girl," Grey grumbles, and I turn my whole body toward him.
"Do not try me Grey Alexander," I warn, "I will end you before you can even blink."
We're only haphazardly broken up. We can't get with another person. We just can't.
"I wouldn't do that, Lilah," he throws an arm around my neck, pulling me into him. He kisses the side of my head and I melt into him.
Oh wait, we're not together.
"You better not," I grumble, looking up at him. He looks down at me, our faces close. His lips part a little bit as his eyes search my lips.
"Kiss her," Jai whispers across the table. I pull away and Grey's jaw tenses as he sends Jai a scary glare. He raises his hands in surrender before deciding it's best to just get up and leave. I check my phone and see that it's one fifty-seven.
"Why don't you go over there," I point to a table across the floor, "and think about things because she'll be here any minute."
"One kiss," he says. I shake my head. There's no point in being broken up if you're still going to kiss the person.
He grips the front of my pants and slides me closer to him.
"Five days," he reminds me of how long it's been since I've let him kiss me.
"Then you should have never talked to me like I meant nothing," I raise an eyebrow.
"I know," he says defeatedly. In a flash, I place a swift kiss on his cheek.
"Now go," I shoo him away and he licks his lips before slowly getting up and mosying over to the table I pointed for him to go sit at.
Hardly two minutes after his nice booty sits in his seat, Abby joins me at our table. A guy Grey introduced to me as Roman now sits with him at his table, the two of them going through random files. Roman's the gun guy. The one with the gun in his butt. Or his pants, whatever.
Jai comes and takes our drink and food orders as we begin on a conversation about different things ranging from how many pillows we need to sleep with during the night to the name of her goldfish she had when she was fifteen.
We get our food and even while eating we chat.
"How's your boyfriend?" she questions, eating on her fries.
"We broke up," I smile and her eyes furrow. Oh, I smiled.
She's going to think I'm having a psychotic episode.
"And you're happy about it?" she questions. I laugh and shake my head.
"It's only temporary," I assure her but she still looks confused.
"Are you really confident about getting back together or is there something I'm missing?" she asks.
"Oh, I broke up with him, and I tell him when we're going to get back together," now saying it, it makes me sound totally and completely controlling. But that wasn't the situation.
"That sounded terrible," I admit, "it's more complex than that, I promise. I'm not mean to him. Our situation was just, that was what we needed and he understands that. I promise you I'm not mean to him."
Even though he won't stop bothering me and asking when I'll take him back and quote "kiss me on the lips again."
"Do you love him?" she questions before taking a sip of her drink.
"I do love him," I smile. It would be impossible to not be in love with him by now. I find it hard to believe that he's never been officially with someone before. Who would want to be strangers with him?
Well, actually, I could understand why someone would want to remain strangers with him. His facial expressions hardly ever range from appearing mad.
"That's sweet," she smiles happily, moving her shoulders up in excitement. I move my eyes over to Grey's form where he sits watching me like I'm a steak dinner.
So sweet.
"This place is really nice," she looks around and I take a big sloppy bite of my cheeseburger. It hits the freaking spot. A drop of ketchup falls off the end of my burger and onto my chest, rolling down in between my gosh darn chesticles. She laughs at me and I look around for a napkin.
I catch Grey's eyes though. He holds his head down, his hand gripping onto his hair as he mouthes a curse word. Abby hands me a napkin and I take it gratefully, wiping the ketchup off my chest.
We resume eating and only a little while goes by before Abby gets quieter.
"Do you know those guys over there?" she nods her head to where Grey and Roman sit, looking directly over at us. Roman's trying to be less obvious about it but Grey has his freaking chair turned in the exact direction of me. Good Lord.
"I don't," I shake my head, furrowing my eyebrows like I don't know my crackhead who sits over there. She turns back toward them and Roman looks away, turning his head the opposite way of us but Grey, of course, continues to look at me, his bottom lip rolled into his mouth.
"I think the guy with the tattoos has a thing for you," she lightly pushes my arm, "he's gorgeous."
"Oh yeah, but Roma-the other guy was looking right at you," I give her a smile and her eyes widen a bit.
"Really?" she questions, looking over at him shyly. I give her a nod.
'Stop it' I mouth to Grey and he shakes his head. I narrow my eyes at him and he tilts his head down, his eyes shining in amusement.
"He's the local crackhead, the one with tattoos," I tell Abby, turning back to her. Her eyes widen a bit.
"Really? I would've never thought. He looks really well-put-together," she tells me, tucking a dark strand of hair behind her ear.
"He does crack at night, not during the day," I shrug.
"Is he known around here for that?"
"Yep. His name is...what is it?" I try to think hard for a perfect name.
"His name's Herb."
"Oh wow."
"He's also got eight kids," I nod, sipping on my sweet tea to hold back my smile.
"He looks young to have that many," she says, exasperated.
"Well he had them all around the same time, but with different women," I make a yikes face.
"Does he want you to be his baby mama now?" She gasps, leaning forward to me.
"I think he does," I nod, "he's been looking at my goodies since I got here."
"Y'all would make beautiful babies though, on a serious not," she tells me honestly and my eyebrows raise on my forehead.
My phone dings and I peek at it.
'Stop fuckin staring at me' Grey's message reads.
I ignore the message and bite my cheek to keep the dumb smile off my face.
"He's got a nice phone for a crackhead," Abby speaks curiously and I let out a bark of laughter.
"That's because he sells crack too."
"I might have to get me some," I gasp at her words and nearly tear up. I think we're meant to be friends.
I catch Roman's eyes and he raises his phone to me. I get a text a second later.
'Give her my #' it reads.
I'm gonna punch Grey in the clavicle for giving my number to him.
'No do it yourself loser' I respond and watch from the corner of my eye as he reads it. Grey chuckles when he shows him my response.
I put my phone down and turn it off. It's rude to text when you're having lunch with someone. It's not lunch though because it's after two but it's before dinner. It's dunch. I laugh a little at my own joke.
Jai comes back to take our empty plates after we've finished and Abby takes out her wallet.
"Oh no," I shake my head, "I'm not allowed to pay so you don't have to either."
She looks at me like I just lied to her face.
"Where'd you hear that?" She tilts her head.
"A crackhead told me."
"That crackhead?" She nods to Grey.
"Yes."
"Ew," Jonas passes our table on the way to Grey's.
"Come again fella? Walk away small peepee guy," I call after him.
"Little bitch," he rolls his eyes.
"Keep talking and I'm gonna punch your nose off," I raise my fist just a tad. He saunters off, flicking me off behind his back.
"I'm confused," she laughs.
"He's a donkey," I explain to her.
"Hey baby doll," Oaklee leans over into our booth and kisses the top of my head.
"Look at you sitting there all sexy and stuff," he leans over. He peeks over at Grey who sits glaring scarily at him.
"I'll go before mama bear punches me in the dick," he ruffles my hair and I scrunch my nose at him.
"Is that your boyfriend, or ex at the moment?" She questions
"No," I shake my head, "that's Oaklee, he's crazy."
"Um, Azalea," she whispers, "the crackhead and the other guy are coming over here."
"Oh Lord, here we go," I mumble as Grey slides right into the seat beside me and Roman leans against the side of the table.