11. July
ONE MONTH LATER
“My hair’s gonna be a mess after this,” Abril shouted over the wind as it rushed by us.
“Just hold on, baby, and all you have to worry about is a little bit of sand and water.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Your ass is gon’ fall off when I hit this turn and be in the ocean blue with all them sharks,” I shouted back as I hit a turn on the jet ski.
She pressed into my back and held on tighter.
It felt good having her this close to me.
The salt and sun clung to her skin and mixed well with the fresh honey magnolia scent that cloaked her.
This vacation relaxed Abril in a way I’d never seen her before.
It allowed her to let her guard down, and helped me see the woman I wanted, the one I deserved.
We had spent the day hiking and visited the Omurana Falls, a 2,957-foot waterfall. Afterward, we returned to the resort and rented out jet skis. Her friends and my friends were paired up. It had happened effortlessly. Nina and Nick were together, Yamika and Evyn, and Kamaia and Thad.
Their personalities all fit perfectly well, as well as the way they looked together.
It couldn’t have happened better if we had handpicked them for each other.
While Abril and I were only casual fuck partners, I was hoping for more from her.
My feelings for her had started growing the night that I saw her down about her ex when I visited her.
It had taken two days for Abril to come out of the funk she’d been in when she spotted her ex at the mall with his new wife.
When she finally did, I let her know that I wasn’t down with being used to expunge her feelings about another man, even if we were just casually sexing.
She apologized, and we found our flow again.
A week after that, I overheard a conversation between her and her girls when she was at my place chilling. They were all on LiveTime chatting about an upcoming vacation to Sorrel Island, a little island off the coast of Georgia.
I had casually inserted myself into the conversation, to her friends’ delight and Abril’s dismay.
She objected that she didn’t want this to be odd with her and I being coupled up and her girls being single.
Her best friend, Yamika, interjected that if I had some friends who were willing to come along, she could see it being a “friends’ trip,” and Kamaia shouted, “It’s on. We’re ’bout to have a baecation.”
Things quickly were pulled out of Abril’s hands once Nina joined in, and I was on the phone making plans with my boys. I even paid to have their villa upgraded to accommodate my boys and myself.
We played on the jet skis for another twenty minutes before we headed back in. Our friends had already staked out their places on the beach.
“Damn, girl!” I chuckled when Abril jumped on my back as I kneeled to pick up a seashell.
“I’m tired. I don’t feel like walking back,” she whined.
“It’s all good, baby girl. I gotcha,” I asserted, grabbing her legs that were wrapped around my waist. Her arms casually hung over my shoulders as I walked back. “Here, this is for you.”
She took the seashell from my hand as we neared the spot our friends selected. “It’s beautiful, Juju.” She had begun using my nickname after becoming accustomed to hearing my friends use it so often.
“It’s an abalone shell.” The seashell was a rainbow of purples, golds, blues, and pinks, with an iridescent bluish-green swirl.
“Aww. I’ll always treasure this as a memory of our time here on the island.”
“Hopefully, we can make many more.”
Her arms tightened around me, but she grew quiet. I knew Abril was afraid of being hurt, but I knew deep in my soul that I would never hurt her.
“Look at them all cuddled up, taking selfies,” Abril observed as I let her off my back.
We sat on our beach towels in the sand. Our friends had moved back out into the water.
“See, I told you it would be fun.” I bumped Abril’s shoulder, and she rolled her eyes as she dragged her finger over the decorative colors of the shell.
“You just invited yourselves on our little vacation. I know ya mama raised you with better manners than that.”
“Girl, get outta here with that. You know you happy that I’m here to chase away all them bitch made niggas. And ya li’l friends happy too. Look at ’em. Out there taking selfies with my boys. Bet those captions gon’ claim them niggas as their men.”
“My girls are not claiming them. Trust.”
“Wanna bet?” I asked as I saw Yamika walking away from Evyn with a smirk as she typed something on her phone.
Abril’s eyes twinkled with excitement, and her lips curled up in a slow smile. “Sure. I’ll bet. You think I don’t know my girls.”
“Not saying you don’t. But I know how women get when men come around, especially if they’re attracted to them.”
“Boy, stop. Your boys were attracted to my girls, and my girls are taking pity on them.”
“Your girls begged me to bring my friends.”
“It was a pity move ’cause they felt sorry for your thirsty ass begging to come along.”
I laughed. “A’ight. Pull up your li’l phone and check ya girls’ Sociogram pages.”
“Hol’ up. What’s the wager?”
“You gotta let me get it in the water.”
Her eyes widened. “Boy! You’re not fucking me in the water. I might get all kinds of sea urchins in my cat.”
I laughed so hard my eyes grew wet. Abril shoved me. “It’s not funny.”
I was still snickering as I replied. “If you’re sure about ya girls, you gots no worries, baby girl.”
She sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “Fine. If I win, you have to pick up the tab for the rest of this trip.”
I leaned in closer to her. Brushing my lips against hers, I whispered, “I’ll gladly do that anyway, even if I win.”
Abril cupped the back of my head and pressed deeper into the kiss. She opened her mouth for me, and I gently sucked on her tongue. She tasted like the rum sour she ordered at the pool bar before we walked down to the beach.
Nina and Nick walked up. “Thought you didn’t want a baecation, boo.”
Abril pulled back and wiped her gloss from my lips before she replied, “Don’t you need to be getting your cave swept, friend? Quit denying that man what he’s been after since we landed three days ago.”
Nina gasped when Nick smirked and commented. “Told ya, girl. Ain’t nothing to it, but to do it. Now let me get them draws.”
Nina walked away, but she broke out into a run when Nick chased her. Her squeals of laughter were giddy and loud.
“You don’t get off that easily,” I commented and pointed at her phone.
“These heffas betta not make a liar out of me.”
I watched as she pulled up her phone and turned it slightly away from me. I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her onto my lap. Abril tried to hold her phone out of my reach.
“Nah, nah. Don’t chicken out now.” I tickled her underneath her arms and around her rib cage, until she jerked her arms down and close to her sides to protect herself. When she did, I took her phone from her hand.
“Ohh, yeah. This is good.”
“What?” she asked. “Lemme see.”
“‘Daddy’s been good to li’l baby. He ’bout to clap these cheeks. #baecation #mymanmymanmyman #summerlovin’,’” I read.
“It did not say that,” Abril disputed, wiggling her fingers for her phone.
I handed it to her and watched in amusement as her face reddened and fell.
“Told you.”
“Damn. But that doesn’t count. Yams always act out. She probably saw someone in his comments and wanted to make the girl jealous.”
“A bet is a bet, baby doll.”
“Come on, Juju. Pulleeez.” She pouted with puppy-dog eyes.
“One more chance. If either of them does the same thing, that’s ya ass.”
“Okay,” she replied.
While she scrolled through her phone, I searched Nick’s and then Thad’s pages on my phone. I found both my guys tagged in a similar post as Yamika had posted about Evyn. Abril’s shoulders sagged, and she sighed in resignation.
I took pride in reading their comments. “Nina says, ‘No longer in the market. I found the one my heart desires.’”
“Ugghh! I hate my friends. Nina always gotta be a romance girlie.”
“Oh, let’s not forget Miss Kam. ‘Y’all better pray we’re not about to make this couple a threesome. And I’m not talking about another woman or nigga. My baby don’t believe in pullout, and I didn’t bring a Plan B on our #baecation. #Masterofmyheart #Icallhim sir #FutureMrsMasters.’”
“Okay. I get it. Dang.”
“Only thing you ’bout to get, Ms. Severs, is this dick in them guts. Get in that water, baby girl. Daddy ’bout to clap them cheeks.”
She jumped off my lap and ran. It was only a matter of seconds before I scooped her up, squealing, and ran into the ocean with her in my arms.