Chapter 5
I yanked my door open and lifted my eyebrow. Stone winked at me. I cut my eyes at him and he grinned as he lifted flowers. I resisted the urge to smile at the sight of not only them, but him, which was wild considering I had been ducking him on purpose.
I’d seen him at work, and besides a few lingering looks in my direction or winking at me, he hadn’t changed his behavior. But when he texted this morning, reminding me of our date tonight, I’d immediately told him I was sick.
Was I?
No. I mean, maybe sick in the head, but physically I was fine. I just had commitment issues and didn’t want to spend enough time with him to get attached. I’d seen what loving a man unconditionally had done to a woman and that would never be me.
“If I knew you were going to stalk me I wouldn’t have let you know where I lived.” I crossed my arms over my chest and poked my hip out.
“Don’t be a pain in my ass, Selle.” He chuckled. “We have a date, remember?”
“Do we?” I lifted an eyebrow.
“That’s right.”
I blinked up at him. “What if I’m contagious?”
“You don’t have to leave the house.” He lifted several grocery store bags.
“I can still get you sick.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to reschedule?”
“Nah. Let’s be for real with each other, Selle. I’m not going to lie to you, so I’d prefer you don’t lie to me. I know you’re not fucking sick and I’m not about to give you a get out of jail free card because if you didn’t want to go out with me you shouldn’t have agreed to a damn date.”
“Well, I’m taking my yes back right now.”
“Nah ’cause you shouldn’t have given me that pussy either and you can’t get that shit back, so move.” He breezed past me, heading inside my place. I exhaled but slammed the door and locked it behind him.
Honestly, I liked that he was pushing this date thing instead of agreeing to just fuck my brains out but I refused to fall all over myself when it came to him just because he was tall, handsome, and fucked like a professional.
I also felt like he was getting finer by the day and liked when he tried to put his foot down when it came to me. I was so used to him being nonchalant, having him care enough to stand on something made me feel special.
“So, since you’re not backing down, what’s the plan?”
“Dinner inside and maybe board games or something.”
“You’re going to cook for me?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah. I figured it would look good on my boyfriend and future husband application.”
I laughed without meaning to. “Whatever, Stone.”
He grinned as he walked toward my counter and took things out of his bags.
“You’re laughing and I’m dead fucking serious.”
“That’s why I’m laughing,” I admitted. “So, what are you making?”
“That’s up to you.” He looked back at me.
“I brought what I needed to make soup just in case you actually were sick. I ain’t want to be an asshole and come over here and accuse you of lying if you actually didn’t feel well, especially empty handed.
” He offered me one of the bags and I peered down at the cough drops and tissues inside. “Or I can make a mean surf and turf.”
“Surprise me. I’ll eat either one.”
“Surf and turf it is.”
“Okay. Well, while you get started I’m going to check my phone and tell my other man not to show up since you’re here.”
“Nah. He can come. Just be ready to watch him get dropped on his mothafuckin’ neck.”
I wasn’t sure why that shit was as sexy as it was but I closed the space between us and Stone grinned when I threw my arms around his neck.
“Why do I believe you?”
“You should.”
He gripped me by my ass and yanked me closer and I moved in to press my mouth to his for a slow kiss, the first one we’d shared since the night we’d slept together.
“You want to be my boyfriend so damn bad,” I teased.
“Want to be?” He chuckled. “Fuck out of here. I’m yo’ man and you know that shit, Selle.” His hands drifted from my ass to my bare sides, due to the crop top I wore. “Go text that nigga you busy for the night with your real man.”
I snickered and kissed him again before slipping out of his grasp.
I went to my bedroom to get my phone and paused to look over my reflection and touch up my hair.
I pushed it all back in a hair clip but grabbed little pieces on both sides to frame my face, checked my teeth, and made sure my body looked great in my crop top and athletic shorts before heading back out.
When I got to the living room, Stone was standing near my couch holding my college graduation picture and staring at it.
“Snooping?” I checked.
“Nah. But I needed some stuff and didn’t want to just start digging,” he said. “This your brother?” He gestured to the picture.
“Yep. That’s the one and only Rene.”
“Rene,” he repeated. “Y’all close?”
“Yeah. We are actually.” I walked over to the kitchen and collected the flowers he’d gotten me. “What about you?”
“Nah. I don’t know his ass.”
An unflattering laugh forced its way out of me as I grabbed a vase from above my refrigerator.
“Do you have siblings, Stone?” I clarified.
“Yeah. I’ve got five of them annoying ass niggas.”
“Y’all close?” I repeated his question.
“I think so.” He shrugged. “They’re a little annoying but I love them and I’d die for them if it came down to it.”
“You’re one of the older ones, huh?”
“What makes you think that?”
“I’m sure Rene says the same thing about me.” I yanked a drawer open to grab scissors and went to work cutting the bottoms of the flowers.
“Second oldest,” Stone said.
“How many boys and how many girls?”
“All boys.”
I whistled. “Damn.”
“Yeah. I know.” Stone scoffed, set the picture down, and plucked up another. “You close with your parents?”
“Not really,” I confessed. “I mean, I love them and I know they love me but we’re not super close.
They had me and Rene young. Our mom worked at a grocery store, three to eleven at night, so with bedtime and school, we never saw her.
Our dad was a serial cheater. He was the breadwinner and he provided but wasn’t abusive or anything. He just wasn’t around often so…”
“And they’re divorced now, right?”
“Thankfully.”
Stone set the frame down. “I feel you.”
I lifted the flowers to look at their heights then set them back down to fill the vase with water.
“Are you close with your parents?”
“I’m not close with my dad. My mom died a while ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s cool. I don’t really remember her.” Stone walked over. “You got it?”
“Yep. I’m just about done.”
“A’ight.”
Stone walked over to my stove and opened each of my cabinets, taking a quick inventory of where each dish was until he found where I stored my pots and pans.
“Do you need help?” I asked. “I’m good at taking instructions.”
“Man, we both know that’s a lie.” Stone chuckled.
I rolled my eyes. “You want my help or not?”
“You can just keep me company and sit there looking pretty.”
“Well, I do love doing nothing but looking pretty.”
I smirked but surveyed what he’d unpacked and decided I’d be a little helpful anyway. I got a big bowl to put potatoes in and got to work peeling them. Stone did a double take but didn’t argue with me and instead prepped the steak, shrimp, and scallops he intended on cooking.
I’d only gotten four potatoes peeled when I grabbed my phone and put on music so we didn’t have to work in silence.
“Can I ask you some real shit?” Stone asked after a while.
“Sure,” I responded, without looking up at him.
“What made you get into sex work?”
“You want the long answer or the short one?”
“The long one,” he said without hesitation.
I exhaled. “I was raised super Catholic by my parents and had all of these ideals beat into my head my entire life. When I turned eighteen, I got engaged to my high school boyfriend, and because there was a ring on my finger, I slept with him.” I sighed.
“It didn’t work out. I didn’t even make it down the aisle and it kind of fucked me up.
I was really depressed and struggling with my self-worth and he was my entire world.
I hadn’t thought about going to college, a career, or anything.
I just knew I would be a wife… and then I wasn’t.
Of course it was that year that my mom won the fucking lottery and divorced my dad. ”
“No shit?” Stone looked back at me and I met his gaze.
“I swear. She won the fucking lottery while she was working at a grocery store, took the full payment, handed my dad thirty percent for a clean divorce, put five percent apiece for me and my brother in trusts my grandparents set up, and ran off to enjoy her first taste of freedom in her entire life and I don’t hold that against her or anything.
My dad locked in once she left, which is amazing in some ways and disgusting in others, because he became this great parent that he actually could have always been if he wanted to.
” I scoffed. “Anyway, six months after she left, Rene and my dad got tired of me sulking and sat me down and were like ‘People are fucking, Jiselle. Get over it.’ So I did.” I chuckled.