Chapter 14
E’Levyn ‘Lev’ Laurent
Marv was smiling too damn much, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen that nigga sit through an entire dinner looking around the room for the next bad decision or finding some random chick to flirt with.
Tonight, he hadn’t done none of that shit.
Every joke and every story he’d told somehow found its way right back to Navy, and every time she laughed, he’d look at her like he’d accomplished something.
That was the first thing I noticed and the second was the fact that she looked at him the same way.
She wasn’t like one of these females running around Miami looking for somebody to pay a bill.
She actually listened when he talked and cut her eyes at him whenever he got carried away with a little smile on her face.
She would touch his arm without even realizing she was doing it.
It was the little shit most people would’ve overlooked if they were too busy trying to hear the conversation and I wasn’t.
Watching people had become second nature a long time ago.
Half the deals I’d ever closed and half the problems I’d ever solved had nothing to do with what came out of somebody’s mouth.
It was always the shit they didn’t realize they were doing that told the truth, especially being in the streets and in prison, a wise man watched muhfuckas.
By the time the waitress cleared the last of our plates, the restaurant had already started changing around us.
The servers were now sliding empty tables toward the back wall to open up more floor space while another crew replaced the candles with bottle service menus, and the DJ stopped playing the slow shit and turned it into rap.
People eventually started drifting away from their tables with drinks in their hands, and every few seconds a new crowd of people were walking through the door like this was what they had been waiting for.
Marv looked around the room before grinning. “Shit… they ’bout to get this bitch jumping.”
“I can tell,” Navy laughed, following his eyes toward a group of women making their way across the floor in heels that looked painful as hell.
“You dance?”
She looked back at him and shrugged. “It depends.”
“On what?”
“Who asking.”
Marv grabbed the center of his chest like she’d offended him. “Damn, that one kinda hurt.”
“It was supposed to.” She winked at him.
He laughed right along with her before reaching for his drink again, and I found myself looking away for a second, letting my eyes brush across the room out of habit more than anything.
Security had doubled since we’d first sat down.
Since dinner over, the shift changed too and now two new faces stood near the front entrance pretending they weren’t watching everybody coming through the doors, and another one was near the hallway leading toward the restrooms which was good positioning.
When I looked back toward the table, Navy was saying something to Marv that made him throw his head back laughing while holding his side and whatever she’d said must’ve been funny because she was laughing just as hard by the time he answered.
She wasn’t forcing it either and I could tell she had gotten comfortable and completely relaxed in the atmosphere
That caught my attention more than anything.
The nurse I’d met at Jackson carried herself like somebody who was waiting for life to throw the next punch but this version of her looked like she’d finally remembered what it felt like to breathe and have fun, and for some reason I couldn’t stop wondering what happened in between.
Marv glanced down at his phone before snatching it up with one hand. “Man, hell nah,” he laughed, shaking his head while reading whatever had popped up on the screen. “These niggas done made it already.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Ant and them, they downstairs talking ’bout hurry up before all the sections gone.”
“They should’ve reserved one then.”
“You know they hardheaded.”
“They get that honestly.” Marv smirked before looking over at Navy. “You mind if I go see what these fools talking ’bout? They probably done started an argument with security already. They wild as fuck.”
“I’ll survive,” she teased.
“Them niggas don’t know how to act when they get together.”
“I believe it.” she said.
“I’ll be right back.” He pushed his chair back and disappeared into the growing crowd before I looked over at Milan. She’d been staring at her phone for the last couple of minutes, looking like she has an attitude every time another notification popped up on her screen.
“You good?” I asked.
She sighed. “I forgot I volunteered to cover breakfast tomorrow.”
I looked at my watch. “What time?”
“Seven.” She laughed to herself before locking her phone and slipping it into her purse. “If I don’t leave now, I’ma hate myself in the morning.”
“You want me to have the driver take you?”
“I already called an Uber.”
I gave her a serious look. “When you with me, that’s an insult to call an Uber. That’s what I have drivers for. You’re good when you’re with me. Cancel the Uber.”
Milan slowly licked her lips and smirked. “Damn Lev, I was trying to be considerate.” She nodded before standing, straightening the front of her dress with both hands. “Y’all have fun. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
I sent a text to the driver letting him know that she was heading out and to make sure she got home safely.
“Aight.” I simply replied to her before adjusting my Glock in the small of my back making sure it was secured.
I wasn’t fond about being in overcrowded places because that’s when the most shit popped off so I had to always make sure that I wasn’t caught slipping.
After hugging Navy goodbye and giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, Milan disappeared toward the front entrance, leaving an empty chair between us that neither one of us moved to.
For a few seconds, we just watched the room.
The DJ had officially yelled over the mic now as a birthday celebration erupted across the floor as two bottle girls carried sparklers through the crowd while people standing from nearby tables started to clap and record.
The waitresses squeezed between dancing bodies like it was second nature, and what had started as dinner had officially become another Saturday night in Miami’s party life.
“You come to places like this a lot?” Navy asked, turning the stem of her glass between her fingers while looking around. “This is my first time here although I heard about it. It kind of reminds me of Tootsies Cabaret.”
“It depends.”
She smiled. “On what?”
“Whether I’m working or enjoying myself.”
“And what about tonight?”
I looked over her. “I ain’t decided yet.”
She kept that smile on her face before she took another sip of her drink with her eyes drifting back toward the dance floor. “I don’t think I’ve been out like this in…probably over a year.”
I didn’t answer right away, instead I kept listening to every word and every little hesitation that came before she decided how much she wanted to say. “I used to work so much, then…” She stopped herself, giving a small shrug before forcing a smile. “Life happened; I guess.”
Life happened, I thought to myself. Other people would’ve let the conversation die there, but I wasn’t most people. “I’ve learned that’s usually code for a story.”
She looked over at me for a second before letting out a deep breath. “It usually is.”
I made sure I gave her my undivided attention. “But you ain’t ready to tell it.”
She stared in my eyes for a few seconds before slowly shaking her head. “No…not yet.”
I nodded. “Fair enough.”
I didn’t push because I didn’t need to. People volunteered information when they were ready. My job was simply paying attention when they did. I could tell everything about my presence made her nervous.
Navy took another sip of her drink while her eyes followed a chick near the edge of the dance floor who had been trying to teach her man the same two-step for the last five minutes.
The nigga kept moving in the wrong direction, nearly stepping on her toes every time she pulled him closer, and Navy finally laughed when the girl gave up and pushed him away.
“See, that’s why everybody don’t need to dance,” she blurted, turning back toward me with her glass still raised near her mouth.
The liquor had started settling into her by then.
I could see it in the way she sat with one leg crossed over the other instead of keeping both feet planted beneath the table, and in how she no longer paused before everything she said.
Even her smile came easier now, staying on her face instead of disappearing the second she remembered she was around people she didn’t know that well.
“He probably paid for that section, so she better let him finish embarrassing himself on his dime,” I told her, looking past her just in time to see the same nigga grab her waist and try again.
Navy laughed harder, turning her head as if she couldn’t stand to watch, and the side of her shoulder brushed mine when two women squeezed behind her chair on their way toward the bar.
She didn’t immediately move away from me either.
She stayed there for another second, close enough for me smell her perfume before she eased back into her own space and reached for the straw in her drink.
Deep down, I could tell she was a little goofy and liked to laugh, it was just something about her that had her reserved and it wasn’t just because I was sitting here either.
“Money really makes men think they can do anything,” she said, stirring the ice around as her smile slowly faded.
“Not just men,” I answered, and she looked at me as if she wanted to disagree, but whatever she was about to say got lost when the DJ switched records and half the room yelled the lyrics to ‘Spend Dat’ by Young Miami.