Chapter 13 #2
I frowned. “A whole baby a mistake?”
“I ain’t mean for none of this shit to happen.”
“No,” I answered. “You just meant for me to keep accepting it.” I told him while sending Marv a text telling him to come park on the side because I was coming out of the back.
I then watched through the window as the headlights slowly turned into the apartment complex entrance. Instinctively, my eyes followed the black Mercedes as it rolled over the speed bumps before easing farther into the lot and heading to the side.
A slow grin spread across my face knowing that was Marv. He had barely pulled into a parking space before my phone buzzed with a text.
Marvelous
Marv: I’m outside.
I couldn’t help the light chuckle that escaped my lips.
“Who the fuck got you smiling?” Rome asked.
The smile stayed right where it was. “Nobody.”
“Navy…”
“I gotta go.”
“Don’t hang this phone up. I swear to God I’ll be at your door, and you know I don’t give a fuck.”
I grabbed my keys and I walked toward my back door. “I’m not your concern anymore Rome.” I spat.
“Navy!”
I ended the call and for a second, I just stood there with my hand resting on the doorknob, letting the quietness of peace consume me.
Then I looked through the peephole, seeing Rome approaching the front door as I slipped out of the back.
I took one deep breath to steady my nerves, straightened the front of my dress, and smiled despite myself because it was my first date in years.
Marv’s Mercedes sat a few parking spaces away on the side with the headlights still on.
The driver’s door opened before I could make it halfway across the lot, and Marv climbed out moving a whole lot slower than the last time I’d seen him standing, which, truthfully, wasn’t standing at all.
He shut the door carefully before straightening up, with one hand briefly pressing against the side of his abdomen like he thought I didn’t notice.
The stitches might’ve healed enough for him to leave the hospital, but his body was still reminding him every day that somebody had damn near killed him and yet here he was still trying to be a Mack.
I smiled before I could stop myself and shook my head. .
“Damn,” he laughed, catching me looking. “You over there smiling like you actually happy to see me.”
“I am happy to see you,” I admitted, stopping in front of him. “You actually look better.”
He looked down at himself. Tonight he wore dark jeans, a crisp white T-shirt, and a pair of black Dior sneakers that probably cost more than my monthly car note. He had on his thick gold chain, and although he looked good, I could still see the stiffness in the way he carried himself.
“So that’s your nurse assessment?” he joked. “You look better?’”
I laughed, shaking my head once again. “Don’t start.”
“Nah, I’m serious. I got dressed up and everything.”
“You didn’t get dressed up for me.”
“I absolutely the fuck did.”
I smiled as I gazed into his eyes. “You lying.”
He shook his head. “I ain’t.”
I folded my arms across my chest, studying him the same way I’d studied him every morning in that hospital room. “Marvelous…”
“What?”
“You’re still walking like your stomach hurt. You know this can wait right?”
He looked down instinctively before catching himself. “Damn… y’all really don’t miss nothing.”
“It’s literally my job.”
He chuckled under his breath and opened the passenger door for me. “Well, Ms. Nurse, since you off the clock, try not to diagnose me all fucking night.”
“I don’t make no promises.” I teased.
“You already breaking my heart.”
I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t stop smiling as I climbed inside.
The leather seat was cool against the back of my legs, and before he shut the door, he leaned down just enough to look at me.
“I ain’t gone lie,” he admitted with that crooked grin that always seemed one joke away from getting him in trouble.
“You prettier outside the hospital than you was inside.”
I laughed so hard I had to look away. I had to look away. “You play too much.”
“And that’s saying something,” he added, shutting the door before I could think of something slick to throw back at him.
Marv walked around the front of the Mercedes, and he caught me watching too because the second he slid behind the steering wheel, he smirked before reaching over to start the car.
“I already know what you thinking.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, buckling my seatbelt.
“Yep.”
“What am I thinking?”
He eased out of the parking space with one hand resting across the top of the wheel. “You over there telling yourself, ‘This hardheaded nigga should’ve stayed home another week.’”
A laughed again which is something I needed to get used to doing again. “I wasn’t thinking that.”
He glanced over with one brow raised. “Liar.”
“I was thinking you should probably still be taking it easy.”
“There it go.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” He pointed toward his stomach. “The doctor said walk.”
I raised a brow. “I doubt he meant all over Miami though.”
“Shittt, he didn’t say don’t.”
I relaxed as he pulled onto the main road.
The city lights bounced across the windshield while the traffic slide right past us in both directions.
For a few minutes neither one of us said anything.
The silence wasn’t awkward though. Hell, it actually felt comfortable, and I couldn’t remember the last time silence felt like that with a man.
He turned the music up and them immediately turned it down. “You allergic to anything?”
I laughed. “What?”
“I’m asking a question.”
“No.”
“What about seafood?” He asked.
I finally looked at him that’s when I noticed the gun underneath his shirt on his waist, which isn’t anything I wasn’t used to especially dealing with Rome. “No.”
“Nuts?”
I looked over at him. “Marvelous…”
“What?”
“You acting like you about to admit me to the hospital.”
“Nah,” he grinned. “I’m trying to make sure you don’t die on the first date, so I need to know what not to feed you.”
My head turned toward him again so fast I almost gave myself whiplash. “This a date?”
He looked genuinely confused. “I picked you up.”
“I know.”
“I opened your door.”
I nodded. “I saw that.”
“I’m taking you to dinner.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So…” He shrugged. “What else we calling it?”
I couldn’t help laughing and teasing him. “I thought maybe we was just going to eat.”
“Nurse…”
“It’s Navy.”
“My bad.” He smiled. “Navy… people don’t put on cologne that cost damn near a mortgage payment just to go eat and females definitely don’t spend two hours getting fine as hell just to have casual conversations.”
“I didn’t spend two hours.”
He furrowed his brows. “Hour and fifty-nine minutes?”
I folded my arms, trying my hardest to keep a straight face. “You just making up stuff now.”
“I ain’t making up shit.”
“You don’t even know how long I took.” I looked out the passenger window, shaking my head while trying to calm myself down. “You are so full of yourself.”
“Nah.” He shrugged. “I just call it how I see it.”
For the first time, I wasn’t thinking about Rome anymore.
I wasn’t thinking about Ashley, and I wasn’t thinking about divorce papers or hiding money or looking over my shoulder every five minutes despite the circumstances.
For the first time in what felt like forever…
I was simply enjoying somebody’s company.
Marv reached into the cup holder and picked up a small bottle of water before handing it to me. “Here.”
I took it. “Thank you.”
“See?” he nodded. “Already treating you right.”
I rolled my eyes. “You done? I know you flirt with every nurse that walk through your hospital room.”
He gasped dramatically before placing one hand against his chest. “That’s crazy.”
“It is?”
“Hell yeah, I only flirted with one.”
“Oh really?”
“Yep.”
“And who was that?”
He looked over at me with that same crooked grin. “You.”
I shook my head, trying not to smile, but he caught it anyway. He chuckled as he cut the wheel toward the valet entrance of an upscale waterfront restaurant overlooking Biscayne Bay. When he opened my door, he extended his hand toward me with a grin. “Come on, Nurse Navy.”
I slipped my hand into his, letting him help me out, and the second my heels hit the pavement, he leaned down just enough for only me to hear. “Aye try not to fall in love with me before the appetizers come.”
Marv held my chair while I sat down before walking around to the other side of the table.
The hostess had seated us near the back of the restaurant where the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the Bay.
It was the kind of place where people came dressed like money, and from the looks of the parking lot, most of them had plenty of it.
“You picked a nice spot,” I admitted as I unfolded my napkin across my lap.
Marv shrugged while reaching for the menu. “Only the best for my favorite nurse.”
I laughed. “Favorite huh?”
“Yep.” He nodded his head. “I had plenty, but you just the only one I wanted to see after I got discharged.”
I looked down at my menu, smiling to myself. “You really don’t waste no time.”
“For what?” he asked. “Tomorrow ain’t promised.”
Although Marv was rough around the edges and trying to be a gentleman it didn’t take away from the fact that he lived life on the wild side and was reckless; I could tell.
The waitress walked over with a bright smile and introduced herself before asking if we’d like something to drink.
Marv ordered his drink while I ordered a strawberry lemon drop.
Once she disappeared, he rested both forearms on the edge of the table and looked at me.
“So…”
“So?”
“You gone tell me something about yourself?”
“What you wanna know?”
“Shit, I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Something.”
I smiled. “That’s real specific.”
“It is.”
“You first.”
He laughed. “See… that’s that nurse shit. Every question I ask, you answering with another question.” He shook his head before taking a sip of the ice water the waitress had left behind. “Aight then, what you wanna know?”