Chapter 6
Christian
“I’ve been thinking that we should start dating.”
I glanced at Angel, who was kneeling in front of Belle’s stroller, putting the pacifier back in her mouth. When she finished, she stood, and I continued pushing the stroller.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yeah, I heard you.” Her voice was quiet.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“I mean, what do you want me to say?”
I stopped the stroller and turned to look at her. “Just want to hear what you’re thinking.”
“No, you don’t,” she stated, pasting on a fake smile.
“What’s going on? I told you, . . . you can talk to me, Angel.”
“I don’t want Belle to become attached to you because you’ve been coming around a lot or . . .”
“Or what?” I pressed when she stopped.
“I don’t want to get attached to you and then you just stop coming around all of a sudden.”
“So, I’m good enough for you to fuck but not to date?”
She frowned. “Where is all this coming from?”
“Every time we’re on the phone or together, you’re flirting, making sexual innuendos, teasing, and touching a brother. You keep coming on to me like you want me to come at you some type of way. But when I mention something serious, ya li’l ass gets skittish.”
She sighed and, in an exasperated tone, replied, “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to play games, Chris. It’s just hard for me to take anyone seriously.”
I grabbed her hand and stared into her warm, chocolate brown eyes.
I wanted to ease her pain and make her forget all about that nigga.
I intertwined our fingers and refused to let go when she tugged.
There was something about her that made me want to touch her every chance I got, and so I found reasons to do so.
“Angel, I’m not Jeremiah. I know that we agreed to stop bringing him up, but it seems like you’re kinda stuck back there. ”
“It’s hard to get past, Chris. And let’s face it, you haven’t exactly had a squeaky clean past. You just pop back up and want to date me? Why?”
“You know why. I always cared about you. Let’s not act like you couldn’t see it.”
“Okay, maybe I could. But that was then, and this is now.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I don’t want us to try and recreate something off what we might have imagined things to be like back then.”
“So, you’re saying you fantasized about me too?” I teased, bumping my fist under her chin.
“Forget about it.”
“I never could. Not about you, Angel.”
“You seemed to have forgotten about me these last few years.”
“I couldn’t find you, Angel. You moved, changed your number, and blocked all of us on your social media. I wasn’t gonna push up on you. I respected the boundaries you set and the fact that you didn’t want to be found. But now that we’ve reconnected, I would never kick you to the curb.”
“You might when you find a new girlfriend.”
“What if I said that I didn’t want a new girlfriend? I only want you and Belle,” I replied. My heart ached at the thought of not having the two of them around. It hadn’t been that long since we reconnected, but the thought of her not being around again depressed me.
She was my boy’s ex, and the last thing that I wanted was to be caught up in her, but I couldn’t help it. I was falling hard for this girl. I couldn’t even say that I didn’t want to be attracted to her because it was too late for that. The attraction happened years ago and never dimmed.
She nodded. “You’re saying that now, but another woman might come along without all the baggage and turn your head.”
“Never that, beautiful.”
“Or a wealthy man might come along and turn mine,” she replied with a wink.
“If you did find a man you’d rather be with than me and a stepdaddy for Belle, let his ass know that I’m still coming over.”
She giggled. “Aren’t you the same one who said that you didn’t want your woman to have male friends?”
“I did, but this is different.”
“How so, sir?”
“It just is,” I grumbled. My voice had grown thick with emotion. I didn’t like the thought of her being with another man or Belle having a stepfather. I liked even less the thought that I wouldn’t be allowed in their lives anymore.
“Whatever. Can we please find your suit?” she whined.
“Your ass thinks you’re slick. You just wanna change the subject. That’s cool for now. So, you said I needed to have something that matched your fly, right?” I asked, changing the subject to appease her.
“Exactly.”
“Girl, when I finish, you’re gonna have to step your game up a notch. Your dress ain’t ready for my fly.”
She giggled and punched me in the arm as we stepped into Silk Ties, a gentleman’s store. We walked around the store, checked out a few suits, spoke with the store clerks, and she even convinced me to try on a couple of suits before I was ready to go.
“What’s the problem? I saw plenty of nice suits in there,” she stated as we stepped out of the store.
“They don’t match my fly, baby girl. I’ll have to go to Wood’s Men,” I stated, referencing a men’s dress boutique that specialized in men’s formal wear. “Wynter is the best when it comes to dressing men.”
“Who is she? An ex or a woman you dated?” There was a genuine curiosity in her tone, but there was an underlying hint of jealousy too. I kinda liked that energy from her.
“What if I said she was?”
“Mm.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I chuckled.
“Nothing.”
I grabbed her shoulder and stopped her from walking. We stood facing each other, and I could see one of those red flags she warned me about waving. She was trying to shut down on me. “Don’t tell me that you get jealous over your male friends like you do over your man.”
“Not unless I want that friend to be my man,” she replied in a soft voice as she glanced at me from underneath her eyelashes.
“And is that what you want?” I asked, closing the distance between us.
Angel opened her mouth, and I prayed that what was about to come out of it was what I wanted to hear. But she didn’t get to say anything before I heard another voice screech, “Christian! Is that you?”
Aww shit!
I slowly turned away from Angel and saw Kyra Brown, a girl I used to mess around with. I hadn’t seen her in about six months. It figured that she would pop up when it was most inconvenient.
“Hey, Ky. What’s up?” I greeted her.
“Nothing. I was just thinking about calling you the other day.”
I turned to look at Angel. “Angel, this is a friend of mine, Kyra. Kyra, this is . . .” I stared at Angel for several seconds to see what she would say. I wanted to say that she was more than a friend, but she didn’t give me the approval.
“Hi, I’m Angel, an old friend of his.”
I swallowed my disappointment and pointed to the stroller, “And this is her daughter, Belle.”
Angel smiled and extended her hand, but Kyra nodded and ignored her hand. Kyra asked, “So she’s not your kid then?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, hating the tension that Kyra was creating. I wasn’t feeling the disrespect that she was showing Angel.
“Hey, we were about to head out. You be easy, a’ight?”
“Why don’t I call you tonight? Maybe you can come through later.”
I didn’t bother to respond but took Angel’s hand and pulled her away. She tugged her hand free of mine.
“What’s up?”
“I can walk without you holding my hand, Chris. I’m not a little kid who needs to be led.”
“I was just trying to pull us up out of that moment, okay?”
“Christian!”
“Damn,” I muttered as I heard another voice call out to me.
I turned to my left to see another girl I used to mess with, Faye, coming in our direction.
Before I could stop her, she ran to me, wrapped me in her arms, and kissed me on the cheek.
“Ohmigosh! I’ve missed you so much! You haven’t returned any of my calls.
Where have you been? I’ve been going through a dry patch lately, and I haven’t been able to find you.
You know I’m like a dope fiend when it comes to you!
” Faye’s words gushed forth like water from a spout.
I managed to untangle myself from her hold. “Hey, girl. How’ve you been?”
“Do you need to ask? It’s clear she’s been missing you,” Angel muttered beside me.
“Oh, you’re having a family day. I’m sorry,” Faye apologized, looking embarrassed.
Rather than correcting her, I stepped back and grabbed Angel’s hand again. “It’s all good. But you have a Merry Christmas, all right?”
I turned and pushed the stroller with one hand while clinging to Angel’s hand with the other. I didn’t bother to look back.
“Would you slow down?” Angel fussed.
“Nah. Let’s get the hell out of this mall before I run into someone else. Aw damn,” I grumbled. I saw another woman heading my way. The last thing I wanted to do was get caught up with Lexi’s ass. She was full of drama. We made eye contact, and I shook my head.
“Another one?” Angel asked.
“Don’t ask.”
“Must be the day for all your holiday hos to come out and play.”
I stared at her crazily but didn’t bother to respond until we were safely in the car and pulling out of the mall parking lot.
“Can we get back to what we were discussing earlier?” I asked after driving for a while.
“After getting a glimpse at what it would be like to date you? Pshh. I guess everything Jeremiah said about you was true.”
“Rather than judging me on hearsay, why don’t you ask your questions?”
“Not judging you. Just stating that what I heard and what I observed seems to align.”
“Fine. What did he tell you?”
“That you were involved with a mother and daughter at the same time; you had one girl stalking all these other girls; and you went through an entire group of friends within six months.”
I chuckled. “That boy wild. That’s all lies except for the mother and daughter.”
“Chris!” She shouted my name with a condescending tone.
“I didn’t know they knew each other. They were actually stepmother and stepdaughter, and they were only seven years apart.
None of us were exclusive, and the stepdaughter found out when she visited a restaurant I was at with the stepmother.
The girl’s dad married someone much younger than himself, and when I learned about it, I quit fucking with both of ’em.
Contrary to popular opinion, that shit’s weird. ”
“Why did you even have to be that way, though, Chris? I mean, just out there like that.”
Although lots of people had opinions on that time in my life, I never cared. But it bothered me that Angel felt some type of way about it. “Let’s just say that a woman dogged me. After what I went through, I didn’t trust women to do anything but ride it or suck it.”
“Well damn.”
“Sorry, but that was my reality for a while.”
“I was hurt, too, Christian, but I didn’t do that.”
“It’s different. You’re a mother, Angel.”
“I wasn’t back then.”
I sighed and looked over at her as we pulled into the lot of Wood’s Men.
“I would change my stripes. I don’t like dating multiple women, and I’m honestly a man who wants to be settled in a relationship and thinking about building a family. I just haven’t found the right woman who wants what I want and who has the same feelings that I have. Maybe someday.”