Chapter 17
Meadow needed air.
Not a full escape, just a little space where nobody needed anything from her for five damn minutes or hours. She wasn’t complaining though.
She walked past the cart shed, past the last row of sprinklers that didn’t really work but Ray loved to run them as if the water bill wasn’t already one of their biggest expenses.
It was why she’d used the watering plane to do it this time.
That water was collected rainwater and it was free.
The sun was sliding down, painting everything in soft golds and beautiful oranges that made a Black girl’s skin glow even more.
Fireflies were already flickering low in the grass.
It was quiet back there…hidden…warm, a good pocket of the world to breathe in.
Meadow dropped down onto the thick patch of grass, legs stretched, curls falling forward. She finally let out a long breath and unlocked her phone.
Tia answered the FaceTime quick. “Oh bitch, I been waiting,” she cackled before Meadow even said ‘hello’.
Meadow snorted, adjusting the camera so she could get comfortable. “Calm your nasty ass down.”
“NO!!!” Tia yelled. “Tell me what the hell happened because your texts earlier were real chaotic. You talkin’ about you dumped water on somebody, and Zaire was involved, and I been sitting here like a mother waiting on test results. Run it back.”
Meadow folded over laughing. “Girl… okay - okay, wait. Lemme get comfortable.”
Tia adjusted her own screen, getting serious and ready for the tea.
“So boom,” Meadow started.
Tia clapped giddily. “I love a ‘so boom’ story…continue.”
Meadow told her everything.
The night at the bar, Brent being annoying…
Zaire doing the absolute most with those damn Backwoods.
Her dumping water on him and Rena because they stood too close.
Zaire’s face…Rena’s scream.
Her own petty ass satisfaction.
Tia screamed into her pillow hysterically. “MEADOW! You are an agent of chaos.”
“She shouldn’t have been standing that close,” Meadow shrugged. “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
“And Zaire didn’t cuss you out?”
“Nope.”
“He didn’t get mad?”
“I haven’t talked to him since he fucked me delirious.” Meadow chewed on her lip, knowing she just dropped a bomb…the real reason for the call.
It had been just as many days since she’d talked to Tia. Like, she knew her girl would always drop what she was doing to talk to her but Meadow wanted Tia to enjoy her new life and her new man. So, she tried not to be so needy anymore.
“Wait a minute! Meadow, you fucked him?” Tia kicked her legs like a child.
Meadow bit her lip. “Tia, when I tell you that man…”
“Oh God.”
“No, listen-”
“I’m listening but I already know this about to be inappropriate.”
Meadow leaned back in the grass, grabbed her phone with two hands, and whispered like she didn’t want the trees hearing. “Tia…he handled me.”
Tia blinked. “Define handled.”
“Tia…he folded me up like a church program.”
Tia screamed so loud her screen shook. “STOP PLAYING WITH ME!” she yelled. “MEADOW RAIN, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
“Bae, you good?” Blain yelled.
“Yes!” Tia responded quickly, not wanting him to rush upstairs to make sure. “I’m on the phone with Meadow.”
“Tell her, I said ‘hello’,” Blain said, making Meadow snicker when Tia waved him off even though he couldn’t see her.
“Keep going, girl…I’m locked in.”
Meadow nodded, fighting her own grin. “Tia he had my knees to my ears, talking all low with that sexy ass Cali accent.” She fanned herself, her pussy heating up from the memories alone. “He stroked me slow at first…I’m talking love making… after he ate my pussy off the bone, of course.”
“Oh, he licked the cat? That man is about to wife you up. You know rich niggas claim they only go down on the girls they like.” They both hollered.
Meadow’s heart fluttered like the wings of a lone firefly that kept flapping around her.
“I doubt that…but it was the best head of my life and the dick was out of this world.” She looked at the setting sun. “His dick filled me up so good and he kept telling me not to run but how was I supposed to be still when he was ruining me?”
Tia stopped her with a raised hand. “Hold on…Hold on…Did his chain hit your face? That’s important.”
“Yes.”
Tia fell out the frame.
Meadow laughed so hard she had to wipe her eyes. “Girl, pick your ass up.”
Tia came back on screen, out of breath. “I’m so happy for you. I am…I truly am. In this moment, I want nothing but blessings for your coochie.”
“Thank you,” Meadow said sincerely.
“And his stroke game?”
Meadow lifted a brow and sat up straighter. “Oh…let me show you.”
“YES, show me, ‘cause I’m trying to picture it but I need confirmation.”
Meadow placed the phone against an old stump, angled it back so Tia could see her whole body.
“I was like this.” Meadow lay on her back, legs wide and to her ears.
She switched positions, pretending to be Zaire.
“He was like this…strumming my pain with his dick,” she sung off key while stroking the ground.
Tia hollered, falling to the side.
“Tia, stop!” Meadow laughed too.
Tia shrieked. “MEADOW! STOP!. I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WAS DOING ALL THAT.”
With pursed lips, Meadow nodded, never stopping her rendition of Zaire.
“How you was throwing it back when he put you on all fours,” Tia said, wanting all the vulgar details.
Shaking her head, Meadow giggled. “He didn’t…but when he does, this how I’m gonna be.” She got on her knees in the grass, one hand on the ground for balance, and pulled her lower body back slow, arching deep, switching the tempo…just showing out.
Meadow kept going, dropping low then pulling it up again. “Girl, when I tell you-”
Mid-demonstration, a shadow stretched across the grass.
Tia blinked hard, eyes widening. “Bitch…don’t move.”
Meadow froze but didn’t look behind her yet. “Why?”
Tia covered her mouth. “Because that man is right behind you.”
Meadow’s stomach dropped. “Tia, don’t play - ”
“I WISH THE HELL I WAS PLAYING. MEADOW HE SEEING EVERYTHING. TURN AROUND.”
Slowly, Meadow turned her head, smiling too hard.
Zaire stood there, hands in his pockets, tatted forearms flexed, vintage watch catching the last of the sunlight. He looked good in a way that should be disrespectful and illegal. His expression was calm, but a ghost of amusement glowed in his eyes.
“Don’t stop on my account,” he said, voice deep enough to slide down her spine.
Meadow’s soul left her body. “Zaire-”
He tilted his head. “You was doin’ all that for her…but not for me?”
Tia was on the screen crying, laughing. “OH MY GOD…I gotta go…I gotta go…this is too much.”
Meadow lunged for the phone. “Tia, hang up!”
Zaire smirked, “Nah, let her stay.”
“NO,” Meadow snapped, hitting end before Tia could make it worse.
Silence washed over them. The soft, warm, dangerous kind.
Zaire stepped closer, close enough for her to feel the heat off his skin. “So…that’s what you was tellin’ her about me, cuh?”
Meadow grabbed a fistful of her curls. “Lord, just kill me.”
Zaire chuckled. “Mmhmm…I didn’t know you talked about me like that.”
“I don’t,” she lied.
He hummed. “You really gon’ lie to my face?”
She pushed his shoulder. “Why you sneaking up on me?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t sneakin’. You just wasn’t payin’ attention.”
She tried to stand but he caught her wrist gently, not pulling her in, just keeping her there. His eyes softened in that slow, careful way he did when he wasn’t trying to impress anybody.
Meadow gulped, her eyes locked on his hand around her wrist. His touch wasn’t tight. It was just steady enough to make her pause.
“Sit down,” he said.
She eased back onto the grass. Zaire dropped down beside her, one knee bent, the other leg stretched out. His chain slid down his chest when he leaned forward, elbows braced on his thighs. “You mad at me?” he asked.
“No.”
“You avoiding me?”
“No.”
“You lying?”
“…Maybe.”
A small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
Meadow looked away, twisting a blade of grass between her fingers. “We just…haven’t talked.”
“We’re talkin’ now.”
“That’s ‘cause you caught me showin’ out,” she muttered.
“Don’t act shy now,” Zaire said, voice low but clear. “You damn near broke your back for the camera.”
She covered her face again. “Please stop reminding me.”
“Nah. I fuck with it.”
Her hands dropped fast.
Zaire held her eyes. He didn’t smirk…didn’t joke. He spoke calm and certain, like he knew exactly what he was saying and wasn’t backing down from any of it. “I like watchin’ you be yourself,” he said. “You always trying to be everything to everybody here. You don’t get to be Meadow for real.”
Meadow’s breath froze between her ribs.
Zaire scraped his palm over his fade, thinking. “We ain’t talked in four days.”
“I’ve been busy,” she said quietly.
“That ain’t it.”
She sighed. “Fine. I didn’t know how to talk to you.”
“Why not?”
She hesitated, picking at the grass near her thigh. “Because that night…I don’t know what it meant to you.”
Zaire leaned back on one hand, the muscles in his arm flexing. “Why you think it ain’t mean nothin’?”
“You didn’t say a word about it.”
“You didn’t either.”
“That’s because I didn’t wanna look stupid,” Meadow confessed.
She liked to pretend she was a man-eater but the truth was, romance made her heart dance and her soul smile.
Yes, she’s hooked up with men just for the nut before, but Zaire was more than that.
She liked him. Yes, it started off as physical attraction but talking to him and just watching him, Meadow could admit, she wouldn’t mind seeing if they could be more.
Zaire stared at her nose. It fit her face perfectly. “You could never look stupid to me.”
Her chest did a small flutter she tried to ignore.
He scooted closer. “Look, I wasn’t sayin’ too much ‘cause I wanted you to move how you needed to. You home. Your people watchin’. I ain’t tryna disrespect your space.”
Meadow let that sink in.