5. Talia
TALIA
The Southern Grit is the place to see and be seen, but is it the place to eat? From the beautifully plated dishes to the elegant décor, taking a picture and posting it to the Gram is a must. As a matter of fact, some people come to take the pictures without even stopping to eat.
Could that be because of the food, or is it simply an oversight on the part of would-be patrons? This newly-opened restaurant on the Southside of Cherokee Springs was opened by June Johnson and Jeremy Spriggs nine months ago. Nominee for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant, they are setting the bar high in the Southern cuisine category.
With old Southern charm and familiar dishes like fish and grits, their smoked salmon drizzled in maple and honey-infused jalapeno cheese grits were a hit with my palate and my tummy. The slightly sweet, nutty, buttery taste from the smoked gouda in the grits sang in my mouth. The creaminess of the grits was the perfect texture to combine with the soft but firm flakiness of the salmon.
Their signature cocktails and drink beverages are top notch, and kudos to all their bartenders who serve with a smile and create an entire show out of serving drinks. The outside patio provides the perfect view of the springs at the end of the street.
I won’t rave about the service; however, I did learn later that the server who was assigned to me was in training. I can pardon someone being in training and not knowledgeable about what they are doing, but that can never be an excuse for rudeness.
This establishment is simply one of the best in the city, but it only ranks four silver spoons on my review until the service is addressed.
Chef’s Kiss,
T.
“I’m not cooking that, Zae.”
“Why not? What’s wrong with oxtails?” he asked, holding his arms out with a pack of oxtails in each hand.
“I’m not eating nobody’s damn tail.” I could barely complete the sentence without laughing.
Izael licked his lips and said, “I ain’t got no problem eating tail.”
I quickly turned away from him because I had never been good at hiding the blush when it colored my skin the way that it did. My light, coppery-brown skin reddened easily whenever I was embarrassed.
“You’re nasty, Zae.”
“What?” He chuckled.
Since the night I cooked the gumbo, I avoided him as much as possible. That night, I had gone into his bedroom to ask if he wanted apple pie or cookies for dessert.
I had no idea he was still in the shower because his bedroom door wasn’t completely closed. When I knocked on the bathroom door, I accidentally pushed it open just a little, and that’s when I heard him.
He was moaning, and I couldn’t ignore it. He sounded so damn sexy that all I wanted was to go in there and watch the show he was putting on. My nipples tightened and ached, and my pussy grew moist. My panties were so wet just from listening to him that I wondered if I had cum at the sound.
But when he called my name and said, “I need that pussy,” I was done. I actually did cum in my panties. It shocked me so badly that he was fantasizing about me that I backed up into his nightstand.
I heard something fall, but I was too scared to look back, afraid that he was about to catch me peeking. I turned around and ran my ass out of that room so fast and closed the door behind me. By the time he came out of his bedroom later, I was hiding safely in mine.
I stayed in there for a while until I had to check on the food. When I did come back out, I made sure I was on the phone with my best friend, Eve, who was a yap master. Later, when the food was finished, he was nowhere in sight. I fixed my plate and ran back to my room.
After that, we barely saw one another. But today, Izael decided to join me as I went to go grocery shopping.
“Chè.” Izael called out to me as I walked away, pushing the shopping cart.
“What, Zae?” I muttered, trying to ignore the fluttering of my heart in my chest.
He gripped my shoulder and commanded, “Hey, slow down.”
I stopped and turned around to face him. “What?”
“What’s with the tension between us lately?”
“What?”
“Quit acting like your li’l ass didn’t hear me.”
“I don’t feel any tension, Zae.”
“It’s been there ever since you were in my room that night.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He narrowed his eyes and smirked at me. “A’ight. Are you gonna cook these oxtails or not?”
“Not.”
“How the hell am I supposed to eat them?”
“Cook them yourself, or get Cee-Cee to do it.”
He chuckled. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were jealous.”
“I have nothing to be jealous of.”
“Then why are you hating on ol’ girl?” he asked, walking beside me and then stopping at the breakfast meat section.
“I’m not hating on her. I know that you still talk to her quite a bit. It seems like you’re getting back with her. Maybe you could get her to cook for you.”
“Is that what you think? That I’m still getting with her?”
“I don’t know what you’re doing. Besides, it’s not my business anyway. You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“I don’t have a problem answering any questions you might have about what’s going on with me, baby girl. You know that, right?”
“I do. I’m just wondering why you’re still talking with her all the time if you’re not with her.”
“You mean the way that clown keeps calling you?”
“I can’t help that he’s being an asshole. I don’t know what it’s gonna take for Ricky to get the message.”
“You can help it. Change your damn number,” Izael replied in an irritated tone.
“Why I gotta change my number, Zae? I’m not inconveniencing myself because he’s a dumb ass.”
“Then block his ass.”
“I did that, but he always calls from a different number.”
“Next time he calls, let me answer the phone.”
“What’s that going to do?” I asked, picking up a couple of packs of chicken sausage and tossing them into the cart before I moved to the opposite aisle to grab some items from the frozen foods section.
“Don’t worry about all that. Just let me handle it,” he stated, gripping the edge of the cart to stop my forward motion.
I rolled my eyes and then sighed. “Fine. You’re almost as bad as Tahj. You know that?”
Izael lowered his voice, and his tone became personal.
“I’m nothing like Tahj, Talia, trust me. I don’t see you the way Tahj sees you, don’t think about you the way he thinks about you, and I damn sure don’t feel about you the way that he does.”
“Oh, really?” I challenged.
Izael pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and stared down at me.
“Ya li’l ass need to quit playing with fire.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Excuse me, baby,” an elderly woman stated. We turned to look at her. “Do you mind giving me some hashbrowns from that top shelf?”
“Sure, ma’am.” Izael grabbed a box and handed it to her.
“Thank you, son. Ooh, you two make such a cute couple,” she complimented, looking between the two of us.
“Oh, we’re not?—”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Izael remarked, speaking over me and grabbing my hand.
He tugged me out of that aisle with one hand while pushing the cart with the other. As soon as I could, I pulled my hand free. The way I tingled down low, the way my heart sped up, and how my mind conjured possibilities made it difficult for me to think clearly.
“What did you do that for?” I asked, mushing him on the shoulder.
He chuckled. “Relax and calm your little feisty ass down. I still want my oxtails,” he stated.
I rolled my eyes. “It makes no sense to spend that type of money on something that contains no meat.”
He sucked his teeth. “Yeah, whatever.”
I pushed the cart back to the meat section, grabbed the oxtails, and tossed them into the cart.
“You satisfied now?”
He grinned and winked at me, and it went straight to my heart. Why did I have to fall so deeply in love with a man who was taboo for me to have? There was no sense in torturing myself with fantasies when I knew I could never have Zae.
* * *
I pulled the whites out of the dryer and tossed them into the laundry basket. I paused when I came across a shirt that was too large to be mine. In fact, it was a plain white T-shirt, something I didn’t possess.
I briefly wondered if it was something that belonged to Ricky that I’d accidentally taken with me. But too many months had passed. Surely, I would have spotted it long before now. Besides, how did it get into my items when I knew I hadn’t worn it?
I pulled it out of the tangle of clothing and held it up. Looking at the tag on the inside, I noticed that it was a 2XL. I smirked. It had to be Izael’s shirt.
I pressed it against my nose, inhaling the fresh, crisp scent of the laundry detergent, scent beads, and dryer sheets combined. Despite using bleach and the laundry detergent and beads, there was still a hint of his scent on the shirt. My hands smoothed over the warm cotton, imagining it stretched out over Izael’s body.
I crumpled the shirt in my fingers, imagining my hands were gripping his back.
“Hey, Chè, the pizza’s here!” Izael shouted from the living room, causing me to jump.
I hurriedly tucked his T-shirt into my basket underneath my other whites.
“Okay,” I responded as I grabbed the basket and stepped out of the laundry closet.
He stood at the breakfast nook, balancing two pizza boxes and a large soda.
“You want help with that?” he asked, bobbing his head at the laundry basket in my arms.
“No. I’m good,” I muttered and rushed to my bedroom.
I knew that he hadn’t seen me, but somehow it felt like he had. It felt like he knew that I was in there sniffing his shirt and imagining myself in an intimate moment with him. I shoved the basket onto the floor beside my bed. I would fold the laundry later when I could take it out all alone and inhale his shirt. A smile tilted my lips as I walked out of my room.
“What’re you smiling about?” he asked as he set two glasses on the coffee table in front of the leather sectional.
“Nothing. Just happy to be eating. I’m starving,” I lied. I was not about to tell him that I would be sleeping in his T-shirt tonight, hoping to dream about him.
Instead, I plopped onto the sofa and grabbed the remote along with the paper plate with two slices of supreme pizza on it.
“You don’t get the remote this time,” Izael stated.
“Excuse me? This is my place,” I countered.
“Yeah, and I’m a guest. The last two times we watched a movie together, you chose.”
“That’s because I have great taste in movies.”
“I beg to differ. All of your movies read like some sappy romance. Boy meets girl or girl meets boy. Boy chases girl. Girl gives in. Boy does some dumb shit, and girl leaves boy. Boy goes over the top, kissing her ass to make up for the perceived wrong. Girl gets sappy and forgives boy. The end.”
“This isn’t a Jane and Dick book set, Zae.”
I pulled a magenta and cream throw pillow from behind my back and threw it at Izael. He caught it while it was still in the air and winked at me. I wondered if I would ever get over my body and mind’s natural reaction to him when he did things like that. Probably not.
“How’s the house hunting coming along?” I asked, handing him the remote and changing the subject.
A strange look crossed his face, and he shook his head.
“I mean, I’ve seen some potential ones, but I’m not jumping on the first shit that I see. I’ll know it when I see it. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? You ready for me to go?”
“No. Just wondering how it was going.”
“You wanna go with me?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t have the time honestly. My schedule is hectic.”
He bobbed his head and turned his attention back to the TV. Izael sat on the chaise portion of my sectional on the left of the couch, and I sat on the chaise portion on the right. He drug his hand over his low-cut fade while he channel surfed. I took advantage of the opportunity to take in his features. Wide set, slightly hooded, chocolate eyes turned back my way as I stared at him.
“You sure you good? I mean, if you’re gonna evil eye me all night, I’d rather watch a chick flick with you.”
I pulled my blanket over my thighs to cover them up and nestled deeper into the sectional.
“I wasn’t evil eyeing you. Just wondering what you’re going to select.”
“Whatever it is, I can promise it’ll be good,” he replied and turned his attention back to the TV.
Izael had a broad nose with wide nostrils set over full, pink lips. His top lip wasn’t quite as full as the bottom one, which gave them a sultry look. Although he kept his hair and mustache cut low, he kept his thick, full beard well groomed. He didn’t have any split ends, and the black hairs glistened all the time.
I could tell that he also had a serious skin care regimen aside from mostly eating healthy and drinking lots of water. His amber-brown skin with notes of yellow underneath radiated healthily.
His body was tattooed from his neck down to his waist, and he had a tribal tattoo on his left leg as well. Although I’d copped a glance of him in the shower jacking his dick off a week ago, I wasn’t certain if he had tattoos on his hips or ass because I was too mesmerized by the size of his schlong and watching him cum at the thought of wanting me. Later on that night, I slipped into my bathtub and rubbed one out until I came again.
Izael had been muscular for as long as I had known him, even as an eleven-year-old boy. But these days, his broad shoulders, arms, and chest were perfect for holding a woman and making her feel protected. His back looked like he went to work when he fucked, and those legs were sturdy as hell too. His slightly bowed legs looked like he never skipped leg day during his workouts.
“What’s this?” I asked as he clicked into a movie.
“ Don’t Move. It’s about this woman who’s grieving, and the man who stumbles across her. She thinks he’s this cool guy until he injects her with a paralytic agent. She’s only got so long to fight, run, and hide from him before her body shuts down on her.”
“Damn.”
“You good with watching it?”
“Is it scary?”
“Nah.”
“Are you sure?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be here to protect you.”
“You promise?” I teased.
He winked. “I got you, baby girl. Come here.” Izael patted the seat beside him.
And though I knew I should have kept my ass in place, I couldn’t help it. I got up and crawled across the couch in his direction.
“You might wanna put them things away before you put somebody’s eye out,” he stated, bobbing his head to gesture at my breasts.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, getting embarrassed as I tugged my tank top up.
“Don’t be.”
Those two words sent a shiver down my spine as I scooted in beside him. Izael wrapped an arm around me, clicked the remote to turn off the lights, and then the other one to play the movie.
We ate pizza, drank soda, and pigged out on cookies and Starburst while watching the movie. I felt like a kid again, and I told him so.
“Remember when we used to watch movies as a kid at my parents’ house, and they would let us all go to the store and choose two snacks each?”
“Yeah, and our asses would eat as much candy as we could until one or all of us got sick.”
“I never got sick,” I replied.
“Yes the hell your little ass did. Remember that night you threw up all over Tahj, and he was pissed as hell?”
I laughed. “I forgot all about that. Okay, the one time.”
“Yeah, it was once. That nigga Tahj always got sick. But I can’t cap. I did my fair share of it, too, from time to time. How didn’t your little ass ever get sick?”
I looked up at him and smiled. “Didn’t you know?”
“Uh uh. Tell me.”
“Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. How could I be allergic to what was already in me?”
He smiled, winked, and slapped me on the thigh. “You got that damn right.”
I smiled and nestled underneath his arm before I turned my attention back to the TV. I could get used to cuddling with Zae like this every night. If only...