34. Yes. No. Maybe – Mar
CHAPTER 34
YES. NO. MAYBE
MAR
Sihn begrudgingly left when my mother caught me straddling his lap and said she and my father wanted to have dinner with me tonight. It’s so unlike them to want to have a family dinner. Something very important must be on their minds.
Now that POW! is no longer, I promised Sihn I’d come over Friday night—his usual match night—to hang out.
While I’m getting ready for this dinner, a text comes through on my phone.
Verdi: Any reason your ’rents have requested my presence at dinner?
Me: Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve been summoned as well.
An hour later, I’m seated across from my parents at the finest restaurant in town. It’s nestled on the river, and they serve evening cocktails before they allow you to order your main course. Tonight’s special is a Tomahawk ribeye for two.
I sip my Cosmopolitan as I watch a barge make its way down the river. My parents are talking about their friends—people I care to know nothing about.
Verdi walks in as I finish my drink. She’s wearing a floor-length flowy maxi dress—the colors blending beautifully with her skin. Her hair is up and whisps the frame of her face. I gesture for her to take the empty seat next to me. “I went ahead and ordered your drink…”
She takes a sip before replying, “Thanks.” She nods at my parents. “Nice to see you both.”
My father is all business.“It’s unprofessional to be late.” Then he looks at Mom and says, “How can we trust they won’t run the business into the ground?”
Mom clasps her hands and places them on the table in front of her. “Dear, they can do it.”
“Wait, what are y’all talking about?” I ask.
The waiter chooses this time to ask for our dinner order. Dad orders two of the Tomahawk ribeyes for two, medium rare.
When she is gone, I ask again, “What are you two talking about?”
“Your father and I want to move to Florida. We like the weather. We found a villa on a golf course, and Ellory is in heaven. I’m quite fond of the pool. We put in an offer.”
“Wait, what?”
“We close on it in about a month. We invited you two to dinner because we are offering you the coffee shop—the both of you. If after six months you haven’t run it into the ground, we’re gifting it to the two of you. Mar, you will receive sixty percent share and Verdi, forty.”
I twirl my fingers in my lap. “I’ll be taking over as director of the library this fall. It’s not that I don’t want the coffee shop, I just don’t know that I can dedicate the time it needs.”
Mom leans forward. “That’s where Verdi comes in. She runs the place essentially now, and then she’ll own part of it too.” She turns to give her attention to Verdi. “If you want.”
Verdi nods enthusiastically. “Oh, I want. That’s like a dream.”
“And you can start doing those open mic nights you’ve been asking about.”
“I think they would be great for business,” Verdi explains.
Verdi talks business with my parents while I zone out and contemplate how this is going to affect my life. After a while, I ask, “Are you giving me the house, too?”
Mom says, “Yes, of course. We will come in from time to time, but we can take the guest room then. The house will be yours now. It’s been in your name for a few years now, anyway.”
“Really?” This is news to me.
“You’re our only child, and our finance person said the older you get the more likely you are to keel over at any time and to go ahead and move assets into your children’s names. We only have you…”
These last few days have been a whirlwind. I’ve been training at the library with Miriam during the day and in the evenings, I’ve been learning how to do the books for the cafe from my mom.
Mom assured me she’d only be a phone call away and that she wouldn’t let me mess the books up and run the cafe into the ground, but I’m still scared.
Verdi’s already made up posters announcing that we will begin having Open Mic Nights every other Thursday evening and a way to contact her if they are a local artist interested in playing on Saturday evenings. Right now the coffee shop closes at six on Saturdays, but if we had a reason to stay open later, we would.
I’ve let both Mom and Verdi know that we need some more help, besides Jackie Sue, someone who could potentially do some light cooking. We posted a Help Wanted sign, but so far we haven’t had any luck.
It’s Friday evening, and I helped Miriam lock up the library a few minutes ago. I wanted to go home first to freshen up before heading to Sihn’s, but he suggested I just take a shower at his place. Less stops sounded perfect, so I’m on my way to his place now.
Dad insisted that I could no longer drive my car. He helped me find a new-to-me vehicle online in my price range. We’re picking it up tomorrow. Today I am driving my dad’s truck. It’s entirely too big and a gas hog. He doesn’t even raise a farm or anything, so I’ve never understood why he needed a big-ass truck. Right now I am thankful to have anything I can drive on my own so that I don’t have to keep asking for rides to and from destinations.
I park the monstrosity behind Sihn’s Altima. I grab my purse and head up the three stairs to his front door. I knock lightly and cover the peephole with my hand. Before opening the door, Sihn says, “I know it’s you, Pretty One,” then he turns the knob and invites me inside.
Once I’m inside, I ask him, “How did your interview at the factory go? Which one was it?”
“Okay, I think. The one off Route 7.”
“My dad retired from there. I can ask him to call some people if it’s really something you’re interested in…”
He laughs. “I don’t think your dad likes me.”
I drop my purse next to the end table near his couch. “He just has his guard up because I’m his little girl, but I know he’d put in a word if you want.”
“Have you eaten?”
I turn to face him and shake my head no.
“What are you in the mood for? There’s a taco place around the corner, and they have really good pinto frijoles refritos .”
I have no clue what he just said even after three years of Spanish in high school. “Sure, why not?”
“I’ll go grab those while you shower. I cleaned it.”
“Did you clean it for me?”
“Sort of. It needed it, and I felt bad for all of the times you’ve used it and it was nasty.”
“If your place was clean, I’d be concerned you had another woman around.”
“You’re the only woman, and my laundry pile still looks atrocious, so if you’re feeling insecure, look behind door number two.” He laughs as he grabs his keys from the hook near the door. “Oh, almost forgot.” His arms scoop me up at the waist and unconsciously I wrap my legs around his hips. His hands find the bottom of my ass, and I help hold my weight by circling my arms around his neck. He kisses my lips gently, before saying, “You’re making my knees so weak, I’m gonna have to spread yours.”
I exhale. “Please.”
“Fuck the burritos.” He walks us over to his couch, and he sits back, leaving me straddling him.
“My legs are spread, but not in the way I thought they would be.”
“Oh, they will be, but first I want those gorgeous lips all over me.”
His lips clash with mine, and he’s sucking my bottom lip, then he’s intruding my mouth with his tongue. I let out a moan. I’ve never moaned while kissing before him. Maybe the other men didn’t know what they were doing or maybe they weren’t the right man for me.
My hips move in rhythm with his kisses as I rub the back of his neck. When he breaks the kiss and looks at me with love in his eyes, I move to his ear and whisper, “I love you, Sihn,” before licking it, which causes him to moan. I don’t know if it was my words, my tongue, or the mix of the two, but I am so turned on.
“Pull your shorts off and sit on the edge of the couch for me,” Sihn requests. I do, as well as removing my shoes and then he says, “Tell me what to do.”
I cross and uncross my legs. Then I let out confident Mar. “I want you to kiss and lick all over my legs until you’ve made it to the top of my crossed legs.”
He drops to his knees and licks from my ankle all the way up my outer thigh. I let my head drop back, cross my legs the other way, and feel while he mimics the same to my other leg.
Once he’s made it to the top, I let him part my thighs and then I move his face above my panties. I rub his nose up and down the middle. I can feel his hot breath on me.
“I want you to make me explode all over your face.”
He slips a finger between my wet panties and me as he pulls them off using only one hand. It’s hot. With my panties around my ankles, he dips his head between my thighs and sucks on me until I’m writhing under him. He places one hand on my abdomen to stop me from moving, but it doesn’t work. “Whatever you’re doing. Don’t stop.”
He stops.
“I was almost there!”
“I thought you asked me to stop.”
“You know damn good and well I said don’t stop!”
He gives a big, toothy grin.
“You little fucker.”
“I’ll let you orgasm on one condition.”
“What?” I’ll do it myself if I have to.
“Move in with me, Mar.”