Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
PHOENIX
“Tonight we will be having a cookoff, you two versus me, I have been married for over 40 years and my wife and I did this often to spice it up and keep life fun. Phoenix since you are the one with the most experience here, you will be telling Kendrix what to do and he’ll follow your instructions to the best of his ability. A relationship is like a recipe you have a way that you have always done it in the past but every now and again, you will have to change things as your taste buds and mindset changes. Think of this as an exercise on your communication skills, I love seeing young couples in love.” Chef Jean won a few more points in my book .
“Wow 40 years is a blessing, when did you become a relationship expert?” Kendrix jokingly said.
Chef smirked and answered truthfully about him having a feeling that we needed that pro-life tip from him.
“Kendrix first you want to clean the meat, firmly clean it with the half of lime. Rub the lime as if you are scrubbing it. Then rinse them and repeat until the water is clear in the bowl.” Kendrix did as instructed and we continued to go through the steps of making our meal.
This was easy for us because we did this growing up at Gran’s all the time, early morning and some midnight snacks were spent with us in the kitchen cooking together. We learned how to communicate in the kitchen and it took us no time to be finished with the task.
“It smells really good Chef; can you tell us about your dish?” Chef Jean asked staring at me but I smiled at Kendrix for him to do the honors.
Kendrix looked unsure but always best under pressure he went on to explain how we braised the meat and the time we took to pour love into each step of the process.
“Phoenix is the first person to teach me how much love goes into a dish, when I was a kid I only saw my mom cook out of fear and intimidation, it didn’t seem like something she truly enjoyed. But the first time I saw the joy in Phoenix’s eyes when she stepped foot in the kitchen it changed my outlook on things.” The whole time he spoke he stared straight into my eyes and I kissed him lovingly, he made my heart feel things no man ever had.
Chef Jean smiled at us and someone else entered the kitchen and by the pride shining in his eyes, this must have been someone important to him.
The woman had on a red wrap dress with fringes going symmetrically down the side of her body. She was taller than me and the kiss she placed on Jean’s lips was as passionate as the one I gave Kendrix.
“Hi I am Maria this man’s wife, you two are such a beautiful couple. Now down to business because I am sure that you two would love to spend the rest of your evening alone without the extra company am I right?” Maria asked, grinning at us. They were such a force to be reckoned with.
“I have the pleasure of taking this amazing woman out and it would be inappropriate for me to share all my intentions for her tonight.” I smacked him with the dish towel and he gave me his most charming smile that I could never stay mad at.
“You heard the man sweets, taste this food so we can have our own fun tonight.” Chef Jean said with a wink that made her blush. Now I saw how they stayed married for 40 years, the love in their marriage kept them young .
Maria went to the sink to wash her hands, once she was ready to go my nerves started acting up again. Kendrix made it possible for me to sit and learn underneath this man. We talked about this all the time in college, I thought he forgot all about it. There were plenty of nights of us awake in bed wishing and planning out every detail of our dream life together. My goals were to travel around the world like Jean did and study different cultures to infuse them all in my cooking. While I did get to explore a bit after college, I never made it too far from home. Kendrix talked about joining the FBI and fighting against bad men like his father.
“We got this baby, give me a good luck kiss.” Kendrix didn’t wait for me to agree, he gave me a kiss that declared him a winner in my book already.
Pushing him off of me slightly, I turned to put all my focus on the contest because clearly someone wasn’t focused.
“Here taste ours first ma’am, I believe we did an amazing job together.” Maria picked up a spoon and tasted the soup. She went back for thirds moaning at the flavors.
“Hold on woman. Let me taste it, you’re making me jealous.” Jean came up beside her and Maria fed him a spoonful and he groaned in delight. I did a mini happy dance with pride shooting through me at the hard work we put in together; we made such a great team.
Maria took one last bite before going over Jean’s dish, and she devoured it too. I thought we had this one in the bag, but maybe not.
“Sweets, what is your answer?” Maria stared back and forth at both meals with a torn look on her face.
“Baby, you know how much I love you but… they are the winners. That meal was mouthwatering and we need some of that tonight.” Maria took two bowls from the cabinet and put enough in for the both of them.
Kendrix grabbed me around the waist, and I snuggled in closer to him; Jean whispered something to his wife before walking over in our direction.
“Phoenix and Kendrix, it has been a pleasure to spend the afternoon with you both, Phoenix. I would love for us to see if we can do this again in the future. Kendrix, take care of this beauty, and you two have a great night.” Jean gave me a brief hug and shook hands with Kendrix before following his wife out of the kitchen.
Kendrix’s warm breath tickled my neck, “are you ready to eat love?” I nodded, and he took my hand, pulling me out of the room.
The dining area had one single table in the middle, the sun was setting at this time and the windows encased the place made my heart melt. This was turning into one of my favorite dates of all time. Kendrix prayed over our meal and we got down to it. Though this wasn’t the first time I cooked with Kendrix it was one of the best meals we’ve ever made together. I should have known his need to be exceptional in every aspect of his life would pour over into this friendly competition.
“Baby, what are you thinking about over there?” Kendrix sat his spoon down next to his nearly empty bowl.
I blushed at having his full attention, it was stupid because when he was present with me there was nothing that could take his eyes off of me.
“Nothing important, we make a good team, that’s it. How does it feel to be almost 33 years old in less than 24 hours?” With everything else going on in our world Kendrix thought he wouldn’t have the party he deserved but I do have one surprise up my sleeve for him.
He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips to kiss, my blush deepened at the want he awakened in my body.
Kendrix smirked, “You’re ready to get out of here already? I can smell how much she needs some attention.” The flare in his nostrils was evident.
“Stop it, I had to go without extra protection because of the cut and make of this dress. You will not me making a mess of my outfit.” He released my hand and slid his chair closer to mine.
“I have almost everything I want right before entering another decade of my life. This will be my best year yet, especially with you by my side. Now enough about that for now, finish your food so I can move on to dessert.” I felt his fingers follow the slope from my calf to my inner thigh.
KENDRIX
“Thank you man. You’ve been a great help. I got it from here tonight though. Take the rest of the night off.” I slid in an extra tip for him.
Since we did come here to celebrate my birthday especially with everyone, the rest of the crew were inside waiting for us.
Phoenix’s skin was still flushed from my craving of her inside the restaurant.
“I know how much you probably need to dance all that pent-up energy off so here we are. But don’t have me in here about to mess somebody up because you think you can dance with someone else. You’re lucky the last time we came here I didn’t snatch up the guy you tried to make me jealous with.” Club Frenzy was a staple for us. We came here as soon as we were legal and the owners were good friends with Lucy.
Phoenix bit her lip to conceal a smile. Yeah she thought I didn’t catch on to that but the minute she pulled him to dance with her, she never took her eyes off of me. That shit was torture, watching the way she let his hands hold her waist. I should have fucked him up, but Levi talked me out of it.
“Yeah, well, you weren’t my man, which meant as a single woman, I did what I wanted with who I wanted. You are lucky that the person is you this time around.”
My eyes took one slow glance from her hair that was now caressing her shoulders all the way down to the heels that were on my shoulders 40 minutes ago.
“I am the luckiest man alive Jewel; you’re damn right about that.” I grabbed her hand and escorted us to a private room.
Brian sat there with Makayla in his lap along with Asha on the side sipping on some fruity drink.
“Finally, you two made it, and you have that freshly fucked look on your face. See, you owe me $20 Bry Bry, I told you that’s why he was late.” Asha hollered out over the music. Leave it up to them to bet money on us.
“Oh whatever Ash, take your chump change,” Brian grumbled, throwing the money right into her awaiting hands .
“Yeah, it wasn’t chump change when you suggested it was it? That’s just like black people to be upset about giving you money that they owe you. Come on girls let’s go dance and before you two start to act like you can’t live without them, I need my time with my sisters.” And then they were off to the dance floor.
Brian offered me a drink and I vowed to nurse just one for the entire night. I wanted to be as levelheaded as possible while I waited to take Phoenix to our last destination of the night.
“How are you Ken, things have been so busy for us especially with everything else going on we haven’t had a chance to sit and talk in a while.”
If Levi was the father of the group, Brian was the older brother which left me as the baby. I do not take for granted the men that God has placed in my life to help guide me along the way. There was always a huge emphasis on women needing each other, but men need each other too. These two had pulled me out of many dark moments in the past.
I took a deep breath and thought about it for a second, “My heart is happy that things are great between Phoenix and I, happiness is a foreign feeling for me because it was always clouded by the disparities of outside forces. Happiness may not be the right word because it is fickle, it can come and go as the wind does. I am joyful but still afraid that when I blink it’ll be gone. My heart knows that shit has to go up before it comes back down, the storm isn’t over yet… it’s brewing. Now I know the fear that you must have been feeling when it came to Makayla and everything she went through, Phoenix doesn’t deserve anything that is coming to her. I haven’t told her yet but I had a dream that scared me, she came out the battle alive but not without wounds. How did you do it? How did you not lose your mind knowing that the woman you love has to go through something that you can’t save her from?” If anyone knew exactly how I felt it was my best friend. Brian took one more sip from his drink before he responded.
“You know me Kendrix as I do you. We can’t fight every battle for them but we can prepare them for it. We can pray, train, and love them through those hard times. God is the only one that can and will be there with them in the fight but we give them a reason to fight harder. A love to come back home too, the minute Makayla walked back through that door when she was attacked, guess whose arms she fell back into. Mine. Black woman go through some of the hardest traumas that we as men won’t ever have to experience, but we can be their soft resting place. You can create a space that won’t make her feel as if she has to fight out in the world and fight when she gets back home. That’s the best thing you can do for her and once we find out who this person is, you can make sure that they never get a chance to hurt her again. Do you understand that Kendrix?”
“Yeah man I sure do.” I hugged him and he patted my back in solidarity.
We chatted for a few more minutes talking about the latest thing that Genesis has been up to. I got up when I heard loud cheering over the bass of the music. Looking down towards the dance floor, a smile wanted to blossom at the sight.
The girls were out there doing some dance routine and the whole club was hyping them up. The song Crazy In Love by Beyoncé was blasting and when I looked closer at the girls they seemed to be battling another group of women. One woman pulled out the sprinkler dance move and it instantly reminded me of where they got this routine from.
“I know they are not doing the damn dance battle from White Chicks, what is wrong with them? Why they always have to act like this when they get together?” Brian said coming up beside me shaking his head in mock anger.
“I think the real question is, why is it that we love these goofy girls? Come on down here because when they are done dancing I need to get my turn.”