Chapter Ten
CHAPTER TEN
A Virgo and a Sagittarius Walk into a Bar
“W hen’s your birthday?” she asked with a smile as he neared the bar. She could see the sign of the establishment in the near distance.
“You tryna figure out my zodiac sign, aren’t you?” He chuckled, looking directly at the road as he prepared to make a left hand turn at the light.
“Yeah.”
“It’s December 24 th . I was born on Christmas Eve at 11:11 P.M. Almost on Christmas day.”
“Oh, my goodness! That’s so cute!” She knew she was squealing like a little kid but couldn’t help herself. How adorable.
“My mama called me her Christmas gift. I was a surprise. She didn’t even know she was pregnant until the end of her second trimester, she said.” He laughed as he turned into the bar parking lot.
“Do you know what sign you are?”
“I’m a Sagittarius.” Bright purple and blue lights lit up the swank, posh place.
“Yes, but there’s more to it. You’re on the cusp, actually.”
“Oh. I never really looked into that or studied astrology much. I just know the bare minimum.”
“I don’t either, but I know a bit about it. That’s definitely a cusp. You’re a Sagittarius, but have a lot of Capricorn in you, too. That makes perfect sense. Half fire, half earth.”
“Isn’t that just scorched earth?”
She smirked at him. “Sagittarius people have no filter, which you’ve proven time and time again. Y’all are fun, silly, free-spirited, spontaneous, and adventurous. Can be class clowns. Energetic and a little wild at times. Capricorns are about business, though. Ambitious. Career and money oriented. Disciplined. No nonsense. You’re a great blend of intelligence, a desire to learn and experience new things in controlled environments, being grounded and yet open-minded. In some ways, Capricorns and Sagittariuses are opposites. You having that blend makes you well-adjusted. That’s a great balance. A great combination.” This man is tugging at my damn heart…
“Okay. I learned somethin’ tonight. What’s your sign?” he asked as he turned off the car. Purple streams of light bathed his face as he looked at her, making his eyes glow like exquisite, mysterious orbs. Music beats drifted from the bar and filled her chest. She was drowning in his eyes… the man dripped sexiness. He was so manly, facetious, easygoing and smart, too. “Hello? Callin’ Genesis to the front of the room.” His lips curled in a silly grin.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I started daydreamin’. I’m a Virgo.”
“Ohhhh, shit. Nooooo. Not a Virgo!” He cackled.
She could do nothing but bust out laughing at that. “Now what’s that reaction for? What’s that supposed to mean? I thought you didn’t care about or pay attention to astrology?”
Grinning, he exited the vehicle and came around to open hers to help her out. Once inside the bar, they were seated in another room that was decorated in the color gold. Genesis had never been to this particular spot before, but by first impressions, it didn’t disappoint. Roman slapped hands with a few guys—jock looking dudes. She didn’t miss how a couple of the men he spoke to briefly eyed her curiously. He seemed to know so many people around town. After he was finished rubbing shoulders with a few gentlemen he knew, he took her hand, and she followed behind him to a door in a hidden spot.
“This is the Gold Room,” he announced as a discreet door opened and someone ushered them inside, closing it quickly behind them. There were a few other couples inside, and the lights were low. It smelled amazing, like fresh air, linens and that all too familiar scent of five-star hotels. Bottles of liquor glowed. Wizkid’s, ‘Piece of My Heart,’ featuring Brent Faiyaz, played in crisp tones. She swayed to the music as they approached a couple of gold chairs.
“They have a bunch of different brandies in here. Calvados, Cognacs, Piscos, you name it. Are you ready for a private tasting? I know I am.” He rubbed his hands together like a fly. After scooting her chair away from the bar, he helped her into her seat. He sat right beside her, then flexed his long ringed fingers and ran them along her ear as he mouthed the words, “Time for a taste of the good stuff… my mouth is watering.” Her heart nearly stopped as his eyes seemed to search her soul. She caught his innuendo loud and clear. “Are you excited?”
“Yes.” Honestly, she’d barely heard his question.
They got comfortable, and soon a well-dressed bartender approached them and explained the various beverages available for the evening.
“This right here is a blackcurrant flavored Italian brandy…”
“Mmm. This is delicious.” She took a dainty sip, though really, she wanted to guzzle it down. She was sitting next to an intriguing broad-shouldered, towering man. This was one of her brother’s best friends… a man she’d heard about for years but had never seen until fairly recently. She’d heard the crazy stories, even eavesdropping on their phone conversations plenty of times when she still lived at home, but nothing could have prepared her for him. Nothing at all.
Roman was talking to the bartender about some sort of liquor they used to have a year or so ago apparently, but she was barely paying attention. She found herself rolling her hips from side to side, trying to re-situate herself due to a bit of unforeseen precipitation inside her panties. Why didn’t I wear a pantyliner? The better question is, why am I turned on and this man ain’t even put the moves on me yet? Hell, it’s just his ways… his voice… his swag.
Sitting straight, she now paid full attention as the bartender explained some other choices for them to sample. Three hours later, all buzzed, she was laughing so loud she became self-conscious. She placed her hand over her mouth.
“Am I loud? I feel like I’m talking too loud.” She looked around, but no one seemed to pay them any mind. “I get silly when I drink sometimes.”
“You are loud as hell. You sound like a tea kettle whistlin’ while tied to a leaf blower, and both of them are turned on full blast, being played through a megaphone.”
“You are full of shit!” They both burst out laughing, playfully swiping at one another, their giggles booming. When the laughter died down and the bartender stepped away, she caught Roman staring at her.
“What?”
He slowly set his drink down and swiveled on his barstool to face her. Hooking his fingers under her chin, he leaned forward and pressed his soft, full lips against hers. Then, circling his hand around the back of her neck, he pulled her close. The warm spiciness of his breath had a sweet, smooth finish. He pulled away for a brief moment, looked into her eyes, then kissed her again, urging her lips apart with the tip of his tongue. He was so right. Braggart be damned. This man was an excellent kisser, indeed.
He gently broke the kiss to finish his brandy. She rested her hand on his thigh as they talked about Tony, and his desire to open another coffee shop in another part of Houston. That conversation morphed into her reaching for her purse, taking out her phone, and showing him her jewelry creations. His compliments of her work seemed sincere when he noted how he loved the colors and attention to detail. Roman tossed ideas her way for her website, and he even indulged her questions regarding stocks and investments.
“Yes, that makes perfect sense. So, I hate that I might sound stupid, but I—”
“No, no…” Roman waved her off. “It’s good to ask these questions because most people don’t understand things like this. Financial literacy has just recently been introduced to high schools, and I’ll be the first to admit that some of this is in fact not easily explained. So basically, regarding your earlier question, let’s say you have a store—a jewelry store, right?”
“Right.”
“It’s called, ‘Genesis’ Oasis of Jewels.’”
“Ohh, I like that!” She laughed.
“And at first you are sending out like five, maybe ten orders a month. Somethin’ you can easily manage and keep up with. Then one day, someone sees your creations, blasts you on social media about how amazing your merchandise is, and your exposure and sales explode. Now you’re regularly getting five hundred orders a day. You can’t cover that. You don’t have the materials, and you’re only one person. You don’t have the money to hire anyone, and you can’t afford to buy thousands of dollars of inventory. To get those orders created and out the door, you need more money comin’ in, right?”
“Right.”
“So, in order to do that, you realize you need a legit company. Let’s say you decide then to form a corporation and sell shares of your business so you can get the capital. First, you’d get a permit to allow you to sell shares. That comes from the government. Then, you go to the bank and speak to an investment banker. You show them proof of your past sales, and the new orders that just came through. You explain that you need to expand your business so you can cover all of these new orders comin’ in. Business is good, but you need help.”
“Yes, I understand that.”
“Okay, so, after you get approval from the I.B., you go to a place called the Securities and Exchange Commission. The S.E.C. This agency was created after the 1929 Wall Street crash. They’re basically like the law enforcement of this sort of business.” She nodded in understanding. Roman was fascinating. Beautiful to look at, but more amazing was that he had an even more beautiful mind. “So, after you tell them that you are bein’ upfront, and everything in your reports and what you’re tryna do is on the up and up, they say, ‘Okay Genesis, you can do your thing, but if we find out you’re up to any funny business, or ripping people off, there’ll be legal consequences.’”
“Like I’d be going to prison for lying about my business model, or true intentions regarding my business. Go on.”
“Right. So, after that, and things are in the clear, the Investment Banker gives you the capital, okay, and the money up front basically. That’s what you needed to move forward. They give you that in exchange for some shares in your company, too.”
Roman went on explaining how all of this worked, what he specifically did in his line of work from start to end.
“It’s not exciting, but it’s what I do, and I’m really good at it. My clients trust me. That’s important. To some degree, I’m holding their financial future in my hands.”
“Well, you made it sound exciting.” She patted his hand. “You could be a teacher for this sort of thing.” He gave a sheepish grin… it was cute. “I’m serious. You really get to the bare bones of the information. I love how simply you break this complex stuff down and explain it. I mean, I knew some of it, but you make it easier to understand.”
“Good. If you have any more questions, let me know.” He tossed her a wink.
“You really love your job, don’t you?”
He put his hand up in order to stop the bartender from offering either of them another drink, then turned back to her.
“I do. That, uh, that brings me to something I want to tell you.”
“Yes? What is it?” She rested her chin on her folded hand and looked at him.
“I’m not, I guess, an emotional person. Like, I’m not the type that’s going to spill my guts and start cryin’, things like that. I don’t normally put all of my cards on the table this soon when seeing someone, either, but you’re Tony’s sister, so,” he shrugged, “the information is already floatin’ around out there. You’ve known about me for years… I’ve known your brother since I was nineteen, and your parents, too, which makes our situation a bit unique. Anyway…” He sighed. “Omission of the truth is deception. At least that’s what my daddy used to say. He was an addict, but he gave good advice, sometimes.”
She nodded in understanding. Clearly he felt the need to prepare her for some bomb he was about to drop. She braced herself.
“So, not sure if Tony told you, Genesis, but when I was a child, I was in foster care for a little while. Around that same time, I was getting into trouble for fightin’ and stealing, as a juvenile. I had some problems.”
“No, he never mentioned it. Did something bad happen to you during that time?”
“In foster care? No. Thankfully not. I had some anger issues afterwards, though. I felt like my mother didn’t want me… that she cared more about our father, then me and my brothers, and I ended up in juvenile detention a few times. I became violent. Fighting all the time with other boys. I was also a thief. I realized quickly in life that I had the gift of gab, people liked me and trusted me. I used that to, uh…” He looked away, then down at the floor for a moment. His complexion deepened as if he were ashamed. “To hurt some people that I shouldn’t have. So, anyway, later on, I graduated high school. I joined the Marines, and some shit happened while I was there. I was a good Marine, don’t get me wrong. I was trained in combat, did really well for a while, but then, I got into a bit of trouble.”
“What happened?”
“I had a reputation for ripping people off. That’s not why I was dismissed though. No one could prove I’d done these thefts, but they suspected it. I did steal, let me be clear, but of course I never admitted to any of it. This guy, another Marine I had beef with, made up a lie about me one day. Said I basically committed fraud. Took private documents off base. I hadn’t. It was him. Though, I had already been suspected of some petty thefts I had committed, which were just me takin’ some pocketknives, food, things like that. I never stole people’s money, but I would take things . So, because of all of that, I was an easy patsy. Usually, I didn’t steal because I needed those things I took. It was the high of gettin’ away with it, and the adrenaline rush attached to the act of stealing that I craved. None of that mattered though. I lost everything and was kicked out, over a lie.
“I kinda fell apart after that. A deep depression. I had no money, no plans, no prospects. I did allow a couple of mature women to kind of serve as sugar mamas, but that got old real quick. It’s not my style to take advantage of women in that way. I didn’t want to be with these women, damn sure didn’t want to fuck them. They deserved better—someone who actually cared about them. I was just using them, and in some respects, they were just using me, too. It made me feel worse.” As Roman spoke, layers of his facade wore off. He did in fact have a complicated understanding of women. It seemed that he struggled between wanting to protect women and prey on them out of necessity. The odd part, however, was that he was acknowledging it in his own way, and he seemed to have no desire to go back to the way things were.
“For me, life had to get better, but I didn’t know how. Anyway, I was barely able to afford my horrible studio apartment at the time. I had gotten rid of my benefactors, so to speak, and was workin’ odd jobs, just like my father used to. I used to watch him steal in stores when I was a lil’ kid, and learned how to do it, too. He stole stuff then sold it to people in order to support his drug and drinkin’ habit though. I thought about my life, and how messed it was. Then, one day, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, Genesis. I got to thinkin’ about what I wanted in life, and I hatched a plan to make my life better. I used my skills to get my hands on some cash, and basically started over.” He took a deep breath, then waved the bartender back over. Fresh drink in hand, he tilted his head back and gulped it down. “I was ready for somethin’ new.”
“What was the final straw?”
“Fear I’d end up like my father. The bad parts of him. I hated myself. I remember lookin’ in the mirror and thinking, ‘You’re going to end up just like him.’ I decided to go to college. To me, that was the only answer. I prayed I’d get in. And I did. I was accepted into the University of Texas in Austin. I was a double major: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, another degree in Economics, and I took my Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, also known as—”
“… FINRA.”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “Then I got my Master’s in Business Administration. I took that, the Series 7 and Series 63 exams and passed with flyin’ colors. I also had an internship with Goldman Sachs, and that’s where I built my career from the ground up. I make an amazin’ salary, I own and live in a beautiful loft penthouse downtown. I’ve worked damn hard to get to where I am. I earned it.” He looked down at the now empty glass, then locked eyes with her. “I’m not a perfect man but I try to do right by people who do right by me, Genesis. I’m greedy, and a little possessive of my shit… like my cars and what not, but I don’t mind sharin’ with people that I love, and they love me back. In fact, I insist on sharin’. I’m sharin’ this stuff with you, this information about my past, things I don’t particularly enjoy discussing, because I want this to start off right between us.”
“Honesty is the best policy.”
“Yeah. I don’t want you findin’ out something through the grapevine. I want you to get it straight from the source. I really like you, Genesis. You’re special. I know every guy says that to a girl he wants to smash, but I’m being for real. Of course your brother is protective of you… Tony knows how special you are, too.” She hung her head, and her cheeks burned with heat. “So, that’s why I’m doing something that’s not easy for me to do right now. I’m showin’ you my ugly side. I’m not going to hide it from you. If I really want to get to you know like I claim I do, and take this somewhere, then I have to be candid. I just came to the realization that I don’t… I don’t trust easily. Especially when it comes to love.
“Everything for me has been hard. An uphill battle. Love is hard for me, too. I’ve never expected it to be easy, but I kinda need that… I need somethin’ that I don’t have to slice my wrist open for to have. Hey,” he tossed up his hands and laughed mirthlessly, “I saw a toxic kinda love growin’ up.” She stretched her leg forward, allowing their feet to touch. “I never saw two healthy people in a marriage or even a relationship for that matter. My grandfather has like six or seven ex-wives… a bunch of kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. He’s not even married right now, and most of my grandmothers live far, far away. The ones who are still alive that is.
“My grandfather’s father was some kind of big-time outlaw. He was dead way before I was born. Most of my cousins have had troubles, and my brothers are goin’ through their own shit, too. I don’t know how to do this shit right, but I’m willin’ to learn. Anything I put my mind to, I can do. You’re a good woman.”
“Thank you.”
“Naw, no thank you required. Being a good woman and a good man should be more common, but it’s not. My parents weren’t bad people, they just weren’t good together. It was always fightin’, drugs, accusations of cheatin’.” He sighed. “I never planned to discuss this tonight, but seeing as how we seem to be… I dunno, gettin’ closer… gettin’ flirty, and things may escalate, I wanted you to know who I really am. No surprises. After all this shit I’ve told you tonight, I don’t blame you if you never wanna go out with me again. You probably want someone who’s more put together.”
“You’re put together. You’re only admitting that you have things to work on. That’s a step in the right direction. Besides, to be human means we’re flawed,” She glanced at her empty glass, but her heart felt so full.
“You already said money don’t impress you much, and you’ve proved that. Money is one of the ways in which I show people I care. Sharing, like I said before. It’s something I never had and always wanted. I respect money because of all the beautiful things it can do. I respect it because I know how it can grow. I know how to get more anytime I want, too. But, I realize that I want somethin’ money can’t buy. I want more than just money in this lifetime.”
“What else do you want?”
He leaned a bit closer, and his lips curled. His eyes sheened ever so slightly, long lashes folded, then expanded as he blinked in slow motion.
“I want… I want somebody to love, and for her to genuinely love me back.” He took her hand and intertwined their fingers. “I know this is kinda heavy and I might be soundin’ like a damn fool but, why in the fuck are you so quiet and polite tonight?”
“Well, I—”
“I don’t get this. Whenever we’ve been out on dates, we talk for hours. On the phone and in person, you ask a million and one questions, and sometimes I can barely get a word in. But not tonight. Why are you doin’ this to me, Genesis? You see I’m dyin’ here!” He laughed, but his face was bright red as if he were embarrassed beyond belief. “This shit I’m telling you makes things awkward enough, as is. I’ve confessed to you that I stole shit, struggled with anger issues as a child, got kicked out of the Marines, lied, cheated, don’t trust people, love money more than I probably should, and a bunch of other crap that puts me in a bad light, and you’re just sitting there looking at me like a deer in headlights. Why?”
“…Because you need somebody to just shut up and listen right now. Sometimes people just need to unburden themselves. I don’t mind being of assistance and offering a listening ear. I don’t need to be the center of attention. I can be in the back and still show my love.”
“And that’s what makes you more desirable to me. I can tell you don’t need me. But you want me.”
She smiled at that. “I do, huh? You think I want you, boy?”
“I know you do…” He drew close to her ear and whispered, “You keep movin’ around in your seat. Squirmin’ like a little bug…You tried to readjust your underwear in the front without me seeing. But I saw you… you’re wet for me…aren’t you?”
“Mmm hmmm.” Her face flushed with heat.
“You kept touchin’ your hair as you looked at me. A tell-tale sign of attraction and desire. Rubbing your ankle and leg along mine. You loved it when I kissed you… I could hear your breathing get faster. That’s how I know that you want me in a more, shall we say, intimate way now.”
“I like you a hell of a lot, Roman. You’re a mystery. I like solvin’ puzzles.”
“I’m not easily understood, but I do want you to show me how much you like me, then. Give me some sugar.”
She’d only heard her grandfather who’d recently passed away say that, and coming from Roman it sounded comforting—a balm to her soul. Their lips met, and lightning filled her chest, struck down to her core, and her panties soaked with sweet rain. She begrudgingly pulled away and checked the time on her phone.
“You have some breathtaking eyes, Genesis.”
“You don’t care about my eyes right now. You want to fuck me, don’t you?” The words tumbled out of her mouth, and there was no way to corral them back. The brandy had loosened her tongue, made her languid and horny.
“It would be my pleasure. I’d like nothin’ more than to tear your clothes off, suck your titties, eat your gushy, wet pussy like a savage, and fuck you long and strong, all gotdamn night long, while I pull your Goddess braids and make you my personal Venus. You said I’m not humble earlier, and no, I’m not. I’m not about to pretend I am. I’m not modest or shy about my abilities in the bedroom, either. I can fuck incredibly well. Would you like to try me out, baby? To find out how this thick and plentiful inches of masterfully choregraphed and hard-hitting dick feels deep inside of you?”
She chewed her lower lip as a flood swept down her thighs.
“…I sure would.”
He stood so close to her, their bodies were practically crushed together. He grabbed her hand and placed it on his crotch. Her fingers twitched against his groin.
GOOD LORD . His dick was ridiculously long and fat, and she could tell he was semi-hard. There was more to cum. He looked into her eyes, gave her a peck on the lips, then waved the bartender over to bring him the check…