Charisma #2
“Don’t knock it ’til you try that shit, lil’ lady. And for you, the only payment I need is your heart.”
My head fell back onto his chest since there was no room between us. “OMG, that sounds like something a demon would say.”
“Nah, the woman that get’s me is getting something special just like I’m getting.
I don’t have anything to do but wait for your ass to catch up.
I know you smarter than this, Charmy. They said kids get their smarts from their mama and I can’t have my kids fucked up and behind the eight ball before they’re even born. ”
He was calling me slow but he did it so hilariously I couldn’t help but laugh and it echoed back to me as we continued our trek through the trees.
I denied what I was feeling but there were reasons.
None of them seemed presently good enough but the reasons were there, nonetheless. “Here you go with that again.”
“Gotdamn right. Until your ass catches on, this is where we’re gonna be at.”
“Nathaniel.”
“Charisma.” He scrunched up his face and put his voice into a higher pitch mocking me.
“Shut up, Nate.”
“Come on and let me show you this place. Give you some inspiration since you’re going to be doing portraits for the family and such.”
“Did you really create a position just to give me something to do?”
“No. I created a way for you to earn income, surprise my family with something they’ve wanted for years and keep you close to me and out of trouble. This seems like a win for everyone don’t you think?”
“I guess.”
“Guess? Charmy, I will dump your pretty ass in a cow pie if you keep downplaying my amazingness.”
I shrugged because I knew he wouldn’t do that shit for real. “It’s my job to keep you humble.”
“You can do that in the daytime. When that sun goes down, I’ll have way too much fun showing you ain’t a damn thing you can do with my dick but praise it.”
“She’s a tyrant every time I ride it—”
“Are you offering?”
“No, dammit. Intrusive thought. You don’t ever do that thing when someone says something and it reminds you of something else and you just…can’t help but say or sing or repeat the thing that you heard?” I’d been hiding it for weeks but now I didn’t care about letting him in on my weirdness.
“Nah. It sounds like something you might need medication for.”
“Nate, shut the fuck up. Besides, I might have ADHD but I’m also creative as fuck. I don’t want some government bullshit to interfere with that.”
“We got herbs and shit that can probably help.”
“How do you know that?”
“Uh… I guess you missed the Seminole part in the Black Seminole ancestry.” He lifted up the long ass braid he was sporting before allowing it to drop down his back.
“Oh. Well I didn’t know if the Black part had it covered or not. Folk medicine and long ass hair was us too.”
“We the original people, everything is us. But yeah, I got a double helping on it.”
“You might not want to go asleep around me, Nate.”
“Why not?”
“All this pretty hair would make some fire bundles.” I was itching to run my fingers through his hair and I wasn’t joking when I said I’d take his shit straight to the wig shop for a buss down.
“And I’d give it to you too. But know this: You wear my hair, you’re definitely my wife.”
The easy way he spoke that edict had me pausing. “Is this a thing?”
“Hair is sacred in a lot of cultures not just native ones. You have to remember that so much of what we know about ourselves has been bastardized. Shit, even our brothers in the motherland have had their minds warped by colonialism.” His comment looked like it depressed him slightly.
“This is true. But I wasn’t serious about your hair. I would never ask you to cut it. If you ever do though, I’d be making that shit into a buss down the same night.”
“I haven’t seen my hair shorter than my shoulders since I was in twelfth grade.”
“And why was it short then?”
“The school decided that despite the number of credits I had I needed to take another elective in order to graduate. It was some shit that they tried to do to all the kids from the Valley.”
“The Valley doesn’t have its own high school?”
“Nope, it’s too small to support one for just in town. A large number of people homeschool their kids because so many folks are planters or travel because of their businesses. I wanted to be more social and with my friends so I opted to go to traditional school when I got older.”
“And the haircut?”
“Some punk ass kid thought it would be funny to cut my braid.”
My jaw fell open because I just knew that boy had ended up in traction. “Oh no.”
“Yep. It wasn’t nearly this long but it was enough.”
“What happened to him?”
“Before or after I beat his ass?”
See.
“Nate!”
“Damn school tried to suspend me until my folks threatened to sue them for discrimination and harassment. His people tried that shit too until he was hit with an assault charge and a lawsuit.”
“This has Mrs. Maureen’s name all over it.” I was grinning because she and my mama had no qualms about their mama bears roaming free.
“You damn right. Never had another problem out of his ass again.”
“Let me guess he’s some prick that’s like an executive out in Dallas or something.”
“Hell nah his lame ass is a janitor at the same school. Nothing wrong with honest work, but his daddy got caught insider trading or some shit and they lost it all.”
“Karma comes quick.”
“My ancestors are from the most grounded people on earth. They don’t play about me at all.”
“You speak about spirituality so easily. You don’t ever have people look at you funny for it?”
“Why would I? Churches have rituals, Christianity in America is basically a cult and altars are accepted for everyone else but Black culture. I be damned if I let my opposers’ view of what they think I should be shape who I am. I’d be haunted for the rest of my life and nobody wants that.”
I chuckled as Nate maneuvered us closer to the trees. “I’d have to get the hell away from here if you’re pissing off spirits.”
“I’d do all I could to keep them off your ass. Even if that meant breaking my own heart by sending you away from me.” He guided us to a spot and got Pistol to stop. It was a large open field and I assumed he was going to let Pistol graze while we walked around.
Nate hopped off the horse and then reached up for me.
I was thankful I was wearing boots with my leggings so it was easy to maneuver off the saddle and into Nate’s waiting hands.
When I was back on solid ground I felt slightly unsteady but still turned to Pistol who was more focused on something in the grass.
“Thank you for a great first ride, Pistol. I shouldn’t have doubted you.” The horse paused his rooting around in the grass and then threw his head back nodding like he agreed with me.
“What the hell?”
“Swear that nigga can understand English. But ignore him, we still have stuff to explore.”
“You said nothing about exploring, only riding.”
“Would’ve ruined the surprise if I would’ve done that.”
We walked through flowers and Nate was pointing out the native flora that I might want to include in any of my artwork.
I thought about his suggestion that I paint a portrait of his family and I couldn’t help the way my mind had latched on to the idea.
Have something for each part of the family and then one big portrait.
It would take a good amount of time but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t already been sketching the man walking next to me.
Everything about his face and form pleased my eye.
The time when I’d catch him and Pistol out in the pasture racing as I watched him train was akin to watching art in motion.
He looked otherworldly, perfectly in sync with his animal and his normally jovial face a mask of focus and determination.
“What’s something about yourself that you wish you could change?”
I’d been so lost in my thoughts of him that I’d forgotten that he had something he wanted to talk about.
That was the problem with Nate; he snuck in under all my defenses and made it so easy for me to think he was genuine.
Scratch that, I knew he was genuine, which was why it was so hard for me to deny him what he asked.
“I wish that I could stop letting what they think of me dictate how I feel about myself.”
He whistled as he settled his body against a massive tree that I happily joined him under to get out of the sun.
“That’s heavy. You wanna talk about it?”
“I told you I have a boyfriend back home.”
That situation was complicated enough without Nate trying to push his way into my life. Hell, he’d already done so much I felt like he was already a permanent fixture, which again happened so damn easily.
He huffed at my words that mild look of distaste etched into his normally calm features. “I still find this boyfriend story hard to believe.”
“Why does that feel like an insult to me? Am I not girlfriend material?”
His eyes narrowed at me and I couldn’t help but laugh at the you got me fucked up look he wore.
“You know that insulting you is something that would absolutely never happen. And hell yeah, you’re girlfriend material.
Alpha and omega around this bitch. Why you think I want so badly to give you that title and then expand it even more? ”
“You don’t know enough about me to think that I’m girlfriend material, Nate.”
“I know enough about you to know that I would love you for ten thousand lifetimes and never get bored finding you and falling for you in each one.”
Those eyes were seeing past mine and straight into my soul. Like he was willing me to believe him. To allow the last tethers that were my loyalty to Trent to snap so that we could give this attraction between us a fair shot.
If only he knew that I wanted that same thing and then some.
“That was…oddly poetic for—”
“A cowboy?”