Chapter 8
KAREEM
Mermaid and I had been working for seven hours straight. I knew her little ass had to be tired as I watched her sitting in the middle of her walk-in closet surrounded by clothes.
“Why do yo’ little ass have so many clothes, anyway?
Where the hell you be goin’?” I asked. I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me, but I was ready to spazz the fuck out about the smallest things when it came to her.
She thought I was playing this morning when I asked who she had cooked for.
The thought of her cooking for another nigga had me ready to go shoot a block up—any block.
Someone had to die behind the thought alone.
I knew I needed to get my crazy ass emotions under control when it came to her.
“I really don’t go anywhere. Mariah and Sloane might drag me to brunch sometimes, but for the most part, I go to work and come home. I don’t even know why I have all these clothes.”
She looked sad, but I already had a solution for that. I checked the time on my phone before putting it back into my pocket and saying, “Pick out one of those cute ass outfits and get ready. We got somewhere to be.”
“Wait, what?” she asked, and then her eyes bounced all around the closet at the clothes all over the floor.
“Mama, we already got the kitchen and the bathrooms and the living room together. We can call it quits tonight and tackle everything else tomorrow.”
She stood up slowly and stretched. “That’s fine, but where do we have to go? I’m ready to get my ass in bed.” She yawned as if to emphasize her point.
“Pull some energy out of yo’ ass for me, please. You need help getting dressed?” My eyes swept down her body. She had on some black shorts and an oversized yellow shirt, and she looked the fuck good. My dick twitched like it was being woken up after a slumber.
I could tell she knew what the look in my eyes meant. She bit her lip as her gaze landed on the print in my gray sweats.
“As much as I would love to say yes, I’m curious about where we have to go, so I’m good.”
“Smart lady.” I walked out of her closet and then out of her room before I took a seat on the new couch that was delivered today.
She still had a few more pieces of furniture coming over the next few days, but the place looked good.
I loved her style. It wasn’t too girly at all.
In fact, it felt homey. The furniture was all black, but there were pops of aqua blue and gold through the apartment.
I liked that she kept everything the same instead of each room having its own theme.
Arielle seemed like an organized woman who knew what she wanted, and I loved that about her.
It didn’t take her too long to come out dressed in some tight ass jeans and a white crop top with a pair of casual gold heels. My dick bricked up, and I ran a hand down my face as I counted to ten before I stood up.
“What’s wrong?” I heard her soft voice ask.
I held my finger up to let her know I needed a second. Finally, I stood and gathered her in my arms. This woman had no idea that she was literally my dream. From her ebony skin to her curvy hips and juicy booty, down to her French manicured toes.
I kissed her forehead before I grabbed her hand. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong, baby. Let’s get out of here.”
I held her hand the entire way down to my car. After I made sure she was situated in the passenger seat, I hopped into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the parking lot.
My phone connected to the Bluetooth in the car, and R&B played through the speakers.
Arielle hummed softly to the songs as I rested my hand on her thigh.
I enjoyed the ride to our destination more than I would have expected without any words exchanged between us.
Most women would have asked a million questions by now, but my baby was okay with vibing, and I loved that.
It made me want to surprise her every single day because she wouldn’t make it hard.
When we pulled up to a restaurant off the beach, her brow rose. Still, I didn’t say anything. I got out of the car and rushed to her side to help her out.
Inside the cozy restaurant, an instructor greeted us and guided us to a table.
“Grab one of each item and then choose your table. Sit across from each other and get started when you’re ready.
You can scan the menu on the cards left on each table and order right from the link if you’d like any food or drinks.
I’ll be walking around to give pointers, but please let me know if you need anything. ”
As soon as the instructor walked away, Arielle clapped excitedly. “A sip and paint?”
“Yeah, but we paintin’ each other,” I replied as I grabbed two canvases, two water cups, a roll of paper towels, two packs of brushes, and two packs of paint.
“Oh, this should be good.”
Her smile stretched across her face. I wondered if she knew how beautiful she was as I followed her to a table. We sat across from each other. I couldn’t see her canvas, and she couldn’t see mine. The instructor came over and helped us set up before we got started.
“Better make sure you do a good job too,” I teased.
I’d never done no shit like this before. Hell, I’d barely taken a woman on a date before, because it normally made them read more into the situation than what it really was. This was new for me, but it felt right. It felt like this was exactly where I needed to be.
She kissed her teeth. “Boy, please. I know what I’m doing.”
“Yeah, aight. We gonna see. You want anything to eat or drink?”
“Let me see what they got,” she said as she used her phone to scan the code on the table. I did the same, and after a few minutes, we decided to share a pizza and get some wine.
Once that was settled, we got to work on our paintings.
I studied her face and knew there was no way I would be able to capture her beauty.
I wasn’t an artist. I actually wasn’t even creative.
Denise got all those genes out of the two of us.
Mama had her little arts and crafts and shit.
Pops and I were more into sports or counting money, real talk.
It didn’t take long for our food to come. We put our paintings to the side while we ate, and I teased her about her painting, though I couldn’t even see it and knew mine was failing. She looked more like a scary doll on my canvas than anything, but I would never admit that.
“You must not know I know how to draw.” She giggled and then took a sip of her wine.
“Stick figures don’t count, Mermaid.”
She tossed an olive that had fallen off her pizza and onto her plate at me.
“Aye, she over here dirtying up the place,” I shouted.
Everyone in the room looked startled at my deep voice. Shit was funny to me. God forbid a Black man have some bass in his voice. I lived to make people uncomfortable. They’d better look at their fuck ass paintings and stop looking at me before I really caused a scene.
Arielle burst into laughter. “You are too much.”
No lie, I loved the fact that she didn’t get annoyed by my outburst. Her amusement for my antics was why she stood out to me in the first place. She was different from any woman I had ever encountered.
The instructor walked by, and I chose that moment to loudly say, “You was sayin’ my dick was too much last night too.”
“Oh my . . .” The instructor scurried away, and Arielle giggled.
“I absolutely was not. I’m a big girl. I was taking it just fine, thank you very much.”
“Yeah? That’s what you think, mama?”
“That’s what I know.”
Her confidence turned me on, and she wasn’t lying. She took my dick like the big girl she was, and that only made me like her more. I shook my head. Tonight wasn’t supposed to be about sex. We connected well in that department. This was supposed to be about getting to know her better.
I picked up my paintbrush and went back to my painting as I asked, “Tell me about you. What don’t I know?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m a homebody.
I work a lot. You know that already. I have an older brother and a younger sister, Mariah, who you met.
Sloane is my best friend and really my only friend.
I have some work friends, but my circle is really small.
My parents live right off the coast in the home I grew up in.
They’re probably why I’m a hopeless romantic.
I see that true love is real through them. My favorite color is blue.”
She added that last thought as an afterthought. Funny enough, I already assumed her favorite color was blue because she had that color all through her apartment.
“My parents are still alive and married too. Funny I ain’t ever really thought of marriage though.
” Until now. Something told me to keep that thought to myself, though.
I knew I was already bullying my way into her life.
I also knew her ass liked to run when things got too real, so I made the decision to play it as cool as I could, which truthfully wasn’t even all that cool.
“Really?” she asked as her brush went across her canvas. “Why not?”
“Guess I just ain’t found the right one to inspire me.” Until now. Again, I kept that to myself. I think she caught on to my thoughts, though, because she caught my eye after I said those words, and I could tell her cute ass had to be blushing under that pretty chocolate skin.
“Do you have any siblings?” she asked, and it wasn’t lost on me that she wanted to change the subject.
“Yeah, an older sister. We’re super close. My whole family is. Outside of my nigga Snax, the dude who was wit’ me yesterday in the office, they’re really the only people I have.”
“You sound like me,” she commented.
“Yeah, twin. We just alike.”
She giggled. “I just know ya mama had a time with you when you were young.”
I chuckled. “She still do. Fuck you mean?”
Arielle grinned. “I’ll pray for the poor lady.”
“Pray for yourself, Mermaid. I’m yo’ problem now.”
“Is that right?” I nodded. She hummed as she tapped the end of her paintbrush on her chin. “I’ve had worse problems.”
I grinned at her cute ass before I got back to my painting. Soft tunes filled the space as we worked, and I really liked the vibe, despite other people looking at me crazy for simply being me.
When I finished, I flagged down the instructor. “Aye, lady. Come tell this woman I know what the hell I’m doin’ wit’ the paintbrush.”
I knew I was setting the instructor up for failure. This painting was atrocious, but I wanted Arielle to think I had skills, even just for a second.
The instructor made her way over to our table. When her eyes landed on my painting, she choked. On what? I had no idea. Her spit, maybe? The damn air? Shit was wild.
“Well . . . it’s certainly . . . unique?”
“I ain’t ask you to ask me no fuckin’ question, did I? Talkin’ ’bout it’s unique with a damn question mark. I told you to tell my lady over here that I know what the hell I’m doin’ wit’ a paintbrush.”
I didn’t really like repeating myself, so this lady needed to get with the program.
“You know what you’re doing,” she mumbled as she fidgeted, switching her weight from foot to foot.
“You gotta take a shit or somethin’?” I asked, confused. She was making me nervous with all that fidgeting.
“What? I . . . no.”
“Oh. Aight, well, tell me what you like about my painting,” I demanded. I sat back and watched her struggle. There was literally no reason why I was like this. Sometimes I got bored, and this was my form of entertainment.
“Well . . . It’s, uh . . .”
“Kareem, stop bullying that lady. Ma’am, you don’t need to come back over to this table. We’re about to leave anyway. Thank you for everything,” Arielle said.
The instructor scurried away as I gave Arielle my full attention.
“What I do?” I looked at her with my best puppy dog eyes that used to work on my mama a long ass time ago.
“You know what the fuck you did. You ain’t stupid,” she scolded with a smile dancing on her lips.
“Let me see your shit then since you ain’t wanna hear that lady’s praise over my masterpiece.”
“Fine. I’m done anyway.” Arielle flipped her canvas, and my jaw dropped. That nigga on the canvas looked just like me. From the fade to the dark skin tone to the angular jaw. She had my image all the way down.
“Well, damn.”
“Yeah, nigga, now let me see yours.”
“It ain’t dry yet.”
She laughed loudly. “It don’t gotta be dry for me to see it, Kareem. Let me see it.”
“It ain’t ready.”
“Yeah, it is. Let me see,” she urged.
“I gotta fix somethin’ on it,” I replied as I picked up my paintbrush, knowing damn well not even God could fix this shit.
“Tell you what. If you show it to me now, I’ll suck your dick all the way home.”
My eyes widened, and I quickly flipped my canvas over so she could see it. My dick thought for me at the moment, and I was no longer ashamed of my atrocious painting.
Arielle gasped, but I paid her no mind. I stood up and cleared the supplies from the table.
“Kareem! That looks nothing like me,” she complained as I moved around her and continued cleaning. I located the trash can on a mission. When I got back to the table, Arielle spoke again. “This looks . . . creepy, baby. This is what I look like to you?”
I stopped and looked at her like she was crazy. “No.”
I continued cleaning up while she stared at my painting with an open mouth.
Good. I’m about to put somethin’ in that pretty mothafucka, Mermaid.
I grabbed her hand and then grabbed my painting before guiding her out of the restaurant.
Once we were in the car, she still looked offended and confused and a little bit like she wanted to burst out into laughter . . . or tears. I wasn’t sure.
I started the car and then looked at her. “You ready?”
“Huh?”
“You said you would suck my dick all the way home,” I reminded her.
She shook her head and giggled before she punched my arm. “You don’t deserve no head after that shit.”
It was my turn to look offended. “So, you goin’ back on your word?”
She eyed me and then smiled brightly. “Nope.”
Without warning, she leaned over and pulled my dick out of my sweats. I pulled out of the parking lot and nearly crashed into a parked car when I felt her tongue on the head of my dick.
“Shit, Mermaid.”
“Hush, Kareem. I’m gonna suck your dick, daddy, just like I promised.”
“That’s a good girl,” I encouraged as I pulled into traffic.
She popped up with a smirk. “I didn’t say I would let you cum, though.”
Her mouth wrapped around my dick again, and I groaned as I contemplated whether or not I should let her continue if she wasn’t about to let a nigga cum.
I decided to let her rock. Her little ass didn’t know two could play that game.
I couldn’t wait to get her back to her house.
I just prayed we made it there in one piece as I used one of my hands to guide her head down the length of my dick.