Chapter 14
I whistled as I stepped into Kiano’s house and looked around. I was immediately met with a big ass open space and a staircase to the right of me. It looked big from the outside, but damn, it looked even bigger inside.
We’d been somewhat officially together for three weeks now and it was cool.
Kiano came to the bar damn near every other day and we all left together, whether it was just to get food or go back to Jiselle’s place since she lived the closest. The three of us surprisingly hadn’t fallen into bed together which was a little weird but I liked it.
Jiselle wasn’t trying to fuck her feelings away and I was getting to know Kiano better.
Even though we’d agreed on tapping Jiselle’s phone, I made sure I’d gone ahead and paid somebody to track Kiano’s too.
“And you live here by yourself?” I looked at Kiano while he shifted Selle’s bag from one arm to the other.
“As of right now.” He nudged his head toward the stairs. “Come on.”
He led me and Jiselle upstairs to the first door on the left. He pushed the door open.
“This will be your room, Stone.”
“Nigga, what?” I chuckled.
“You heard me.”
“How the fuck do I have a room?”
“Look, I want you and Jiselle here as much as possible, and sometimes people want their own space, so I made sure that you have it. Take a look around and let me know if there’s anything you need in here,” he said. “We can redecorate or get you new furniture or art or whatever.”
I looked around. It was a nice sized room with a king-size bed and a nice ass television mounted on the wall.
“A’ight.” I threw my bag on the bed and Kiano looked at me like I was stupid.
“Nah. Don’t put your stuff in here. We’re bringing it to my bedroom.”
I chuckled, shook my head, and picked my bag up.
“Then, why the hell did you bring me in here and tell me this was my room, Kiano?”
“So you know it exists and it’s an option.” He nudged his head toward the door. “Come on.” He led me and Jiselle down the hall to the room on the opposite side of the staircase. “Jiselle, this is you.”
He pushed the door open and we both peeked inside. It was set up the same way as mine except there was an extra window I didn’t have and a bigger closet although the bed was smaller.
“Three separate bedrooms is insane.” Jiselle sighed.
“We don’t have to use them.” Kiano gestured for us to follow him and led us down the hallway, showing us a bathroom before we reached his bedroom.
My eyes widened at its size. I was almost positive my living room and kitchen could fit in this bedroom.
He kept walking and we followed him to one of the biggest bathrooms I’d ever seen with a large jacuzzi bathtub and a huge walk-in and sit-in shower along the wall.
There were two doors inside the bathroom as well.
The first one was the toilet and the other was a closet the size of my bedroom.
There were three dressers lined against the closet wall. One side of the closet had suits, dress pants, and dress shirts hanging, all color coordinated with a series of shoes lined up above them.
In the center of the room were several cases filled with ties and expensive jewelry.
“This shit is insane,” I mumbled.
“Thanks? I think?” Kiano chuckled as he walked further inside and tossed Jiselle’s bag on top of a dresser.
“You each have your own dresser to fill and I cleared this back space and the other side. But if I need to get the closet made bigger, I can, unless you want to store clothes in your personal bedrooms, which is an option too.”
“How much shit do you think we’re bringing here?” Jiselle asked seriously.
“He’s trying to move us in,” I said simply.
Kiano nodded. “That’s right.”
“That’s a big step,” Jiselle sang.
“Yeah, well, I already told y’all I don’t do shit in halves. We’re doing this, so I want to do it all the way.”
“That’s sweet, baby.” Jiselle grabbed his face and kissed him.
“Unpack your stuff and let's get ready for dinner.”
“Okay.” Jiselle kissed him again.
Kiano’s phone beeped and he pulled it from his pocket and answered immediately. He quickly excused himself from the room and Jiselle and I unpacked our things then headed downstairs where Kiano was still on the phone.
“You already ran through his shit?” I asked.
“Of course. I’m not an amateur.”
“You find anything?”
“If I did I wouldn’t be with him.”
“Noted.”
“Alright. We axed dinner reservations and my parents are just going to have us over if that’s cool,” Kiano said as he pocketed his phone.
“Should I change?” Selle asked.
“No. You’re good how you are. Trust me. They’ll be dressed down too. It’s nothing serious. They just want to talk, and honestly, it’s about you getting to know them just as much as it’s for them to get to know you.”
“So when do you want to head out?” I asked.
“We can go now. It’s a two-hour drive one way and they already have the chef in the kitchen.”
“They hired a chef?” I asked.
“Yeah. They probably don’t want either of you to get food poisoning."
“You saying your mama can’t cook?” Selle asked.
“She didn’t have a lot of time to learn between me, Pops, double majoring, then starting the business. She’s good on side dishes, but if you want an actual protein with your meal, I wouldn’t trust it.”
Selle and I both laughed a bit. Selle grabbed her purse and Kiano made sure he had his keys and we headed out. Selle hopped in front with Kiano and I collapsed in the back, tilted my head backwards, clasped my hands, and closed my eyes.
I wasn’t sure how I’d ended up here, with both a woman and man, meeting the family of that man. Fuck. I had a man. I didn’t know what to think about that but I wouldn’t act like I wasn’t at least somewhat excited about Kiano welcoming me into his family and his family welcoming me in return.
When we got to Kiano’s family home, I’d expected to see something even bigger than Kiano’s house. Instead I was met with a cute, one-story, middle class home with a fenced in yard that looked like it was smaller than the bottom floor of Kiano’s spot.
Kiano’s parents were outside when he threw his car in park and his mother opened Selle’s door while his dad jogged around and opened my door. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that but I climbed out.
“Ronald.” He offered his hand.
“Stone.” I shook his hand.
“Nice to meet you.”
He gestured for me to head toward the front door. Kiano’s mom hugged Selle then Kiano and smiled at me.
“I’m Mika.” She closed the space between us and I froze when she hugged me.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Stone.”
“Is that your actual name?” she asked.
“Yeah. It is.”
“It’s unique. May I ask what made your parents name you that?”
“Well, my mom was a crackhead, so…” I shrugged.
She nodded once. “Well, it’s a good strong name regardless.” She hit me lightly on the shoulder. “Come on.” She gestured for us to head inside.
Kiano fell back and nudged me with his elbow.
“You good?”
“Yeah.”
“My mom asks shit without thinking sometimes. It’s not on purpose.”
“It’s cool.” I gave him a small smile. “I’m not offended, I promise. Dinner is gon’ be cool.”
“Yeah. It will.” He reached over and linked his fingers in mine while we trailed his parents who had Selle wedged between the two of them.
Mika and Ronald walked us around, showing us where the bathroom was. They talked to us about Kiano’s childhood a little bit then led us outside to the picnic table beneath an awning in their backyard.
“What can I get you two to drink?” Mika asked.
“Well, damn.” Kiano chuckled.
“You’re not a guest, baby. You can get your own drink.” She waved him off.
Ronald snickered. “Well, I’m going to have a glass of scotch. One of you has to drink with me.”
“I’ll have a beer,” I offered.
“So you’ll have scotch?” Ronald asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, man. That’s what I said.”
He grinned. “Perfect. You want to walk with me to my office to get it?”
“Sure.”
“Dad—”
“Ay,” I cut Kiano off. “I’m a grown ass man, Kiano. I can talk to your pops on my own, I promise.” I hit him on the back.
He exhaled. “Yeah.” He looked from me to his dad. “Alright.”
I followed Ronald out of the kitchen, across the house to his office.
I looked around the room as I stepped in and he walked over to the far wall where there was a line of different bottles.
He plucked one out and popped the top off.
I watched him pour two half glasses and he walked over and handed me one.
I watched him take a sip before I took one of my own.
I hissed as the liquor burned its way down my throat.
“So, what’s up?”
“I’ve looked into you, Stone.”
“I’ve met your son, so I figured you would.”
“Well.” He chuckled and took a sip from his glass.
“So, what do you want to know, Ronald?”
“What do you do?”
“Part-time hours at a mechanic shop and full-time hours at a bar.”
“And how’d you meet Kiano?”
“Through Jiselle.”
He nodded and took another drink.
“Can I ask you a real ass question?”
“Yeah. Go ahead.”
“Do you care about my son and does my son care about you or do y’all both just care about Jiselle?”
“I’d like to think we care about each other.” I swished my liquor.
“Have you ever outwardly dated a man?”
“Nah, but I’ve never secretly dated one either.”
“So Kiano would be the first?”
“That’s right.”
“And how does your family feel about that?”
“I haven’t told them but it doesn’t matter honestly. I’m grown and I’ll be damned if I let mothafuckas I raised tell me what I am and am not going to do.”
“And your father?”
“I don’t talk to him.” I exhaled. “How are you and Mika taking it?”
“We’ve known for a while that Kiano likes what he likes.” Ronald took a drink. “We didn’t think he’d want to spend his life with two people but…” He shrugged. “There are much worse things our son could be than someone dating two people, especially when they know what’s going on.”
“I feel that.”
“What do you want to do with your life, Stone?”