Chapter Six #2
Micah shakes his head with laughter. “You don’t have a lick of sense. Acting like your dick’s gonna fall off if you don’t slide up in something every damn day.”
“Aye, bruh. Don’t knock me because I got a healthy libido.”
“Yeah, aight. You keep letting your dick run your life, you gon’ be the one who ends up fucked.”
Christian’s jaw drops at that and I burst out laughing. “Ayooo, I’m not even gonna respond to that.”
“Nothing you can say really.” Micah shrugs.
I don’t even know why Christian is surprised at this point. Micah has always gotten on Christian for his “ there’s plenty for everyone ” ways ever since we met in college. We’re just lucky that he’s not dumb on top of having no taste, or else he’d probably have more children than Nick Cannon.
“Man, anyway, what have you been up to this week, Micah?”
“I’ve been working.”
“Working? The fuck? Nah, you know what? That tracks.”
“Exactly. Act like you know me.”
Micah is an artist, a painter specifically, specializing in the realistic art style.
His stuff is dope as hell. He’s painted portraits for several celebrities and politicians, which has made him a household name.
He now owns a gallery back home that only features Black artists, giving them the platform needed to kick off their careers.
He picked up photography as a hobby because he wanted to be able to go home and paint the things and people he saw while traveling.
He could afford to have some kind of traveling studio so that he could bring his art wherever he went, but he wouldn’t spend that kind of money on himself.
Only his parents and younger sister would get him to spend the big bucks, and they would never even ask for it.
If he says he’s been working all week, I’m sure he and his camera have been going hard.
“Where’s Arnold?” I ask, knowing he can’t be with Amerie because she’s with Janelle.
“Getting some business calls done while Amerie’s busy and can’t get on his ass,” Christian offers.
The bartender brings out our food and Christian can’t help but to flirt with her as she fills more drink orders for the waiting servers. When he gets up to go to the bathroom, Micah turns to me.
“So, you’ve been busy this week with a certain Cross sister.”
“Since when are you into tea? That’s more Christian and Arnold’s lane.”
He holds up his hands in surrender. “I’m just wondering how much longer I gotta keep running interference for you every time somebody comes looking for you or her.”
The day I took Janelle out on the boat, he was the one who kept everyone occupied so no one would notice both of us were gone, and several times he stopped Amerie from coming to Janelle’s room looking for her.
“Per our arrangement, this is over as of tomorrow night.”
He hits me with an incredulous look. “And you believe that?”
“Hell no. I spent a lot of time running from Janelle. I’m not about to do it again so this next week is about to be an interesting ride.”
“Well shit, let me get ready for the storm.”
A little while later, I’m walking to my room and I see Janelle walking toward me. A wide smile graces her face and I swear I’d spend my life trying to keep it there.
That thought knocks me back a step but it stays there, taking root in my mind.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
I look behind her and then pin her to the wall, leaning so I’m hovering over her with my hand resting above her head.
“Were you coming from my room?”
“I may have been looking for you.”
“You found me. I thought you were busy today.”
“I was and am. But I had some free time and I…” she cuts herself off.
“You what, Janelle?”
“I just wanted to stop by.”
“If you missed me, let me know something, J. Don’t let me be alone in the shit.”
“Aww, you missed me?”
“What I tell you about the games you play?”
She places her hand against my chest, drumming her finger up and down my chest. “Okay, okay. I missed you and wanted to say hi. Better?”
“Much. How much free time you got?”
“Hmm, well, I…”
“Yo, Romey-Rome!” Her words are cut off by Arnold’s voice behind me.
She drops her hand to her side, but I don’t rush to move from my position. Number one, I don’t want to, and two, it would look more suspicious if I jumped away.
“What’s up, Arnold?”
He daps me up when he reaches me but furrows his brow at Janelle. “Hey, Janelle. I didn’t see you there.”
“What’s up, Arnold?” She mirrors my greeting.
“What y’all up to?”
“I just ran into Rome on my way to my next task, so we were catching up.”
“Oh okay. Well, speaking of tasks, Rome, I need a big favor.”
“What’s up?”
“I was supposed to go to this shop in town to pick up these candles Ri wanted for the ceremony days ago, but I forgot. She wants to see them and approve them today, but if she sees me leave to go get them at this point I’m a dead man. Could you please go pick ’ em up for me?”
“I mean, yeah, I can, but how am I gonna get ’ em to you without her seeing?”
“I can just bring her with me to your room to pick ’ em up. I’ll tell her I gave them to you to hold on to.”
“Bet. I’ll go right now.”
“It’s you plotting to lie to my sister in front of me for me,” Janelle mocks with a gleam in her eye.
He has the sense to look chastised. “Come on, Janelle. You know your sister. I don’t wanna ruin any of this for her.”
Spoken just like Janelle. Everyone seems to tiptoe around Amerie and that irks me.
“My lips are sealed.”
“I appreciate that. ” He slaps my hand with his, pulling me into an embrace.
“Thanks, Rome, I’m just praying they have what she wanted because she wasn’t able to order ahead so we’re at the mercy of what the shop has in stock.
Now I just gotta keep her distracted ’til you get back.
It shouldn’t be too hard, or maybe it should.
” He laughs at his own joke and then turns to look at Janelle with remorse. “Sorry, Janelle…I…”
She holds up her hand to stop him. “Arnold, please. Get over yourself. ” She turns back to me. “Actually, can I go with you? I need to go to town anyway.”
“Of course.”
Arnold looks between us with an unreadable expression before he nods and heads back in the direction he came.
Janelle waits until he turns the corner to let the corners of her mouth tip up again. “Guess you got me for a little bit longer then.”
Exactly how I want it.
We head to the concierge desk to pick up two bikes and then make our way to town.
The streets of Tulum are paved with palm trees and fairy lights. The cars are bumper to bumper so I’m glad we opted for bikes instead of driving. We pass by several storefronts selling things from oranges to clothes to scooters.
Once we get to an empty stretch of sidewalk, I pick up the pace to ride alongside Janelle instead of behind her.
She reaches her left hand out to me, keeping a tight grip on the handlebar with her right. I match her and take her hand in mine. We ride in silence with our hands intertwined for three blocks before we come up on a mother and son walking down the street and need to separate.
I get her to pull over with me because I need to grab my phone and look up the place Arnold sent me. We stop at a stand selling guava and some other fruit.
“I think my legs are about to fall off,” Janelle says, bending over at the waist and grabbing her knees.
“J, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. If someone hadn’t tried to kill me earlier with fucking Bulgarian split squats, I’d be a lot better.”
“Ah, we back to that, huh?” I drop to a squat, rubbing my hands along her legs.
Her eyes drift close. “We never left that. Who the hell voluntarily does Bulgarian split squats?”
I shrug and stand to my full height, hovering over her. “Me?”
“I’m never working out with you again.”
“You gonna act like you didn’t like our workout?”
She peers up at me through her curvy lashes. Her lips fall open slightly. “I mean, I didn’t say all of it.”
Not wanting to resist anymore, I lean down and kiss her.
“Disculpe,” one of the men working at the fruit stand interrupts. Janelle tucks her head against my chest in embarrassment before looking at him. “Fruta?” he asks.
“Oh, um, well. ” She walks over to the line of fruit, observing the guava but taking an interest in the fruit next to it. “Um. Oh shit, how do you say it? Qué es eso?” she asks, pointing to the fruit.
He tells her it’s a tuna fruit and rather than trying to explain further he simply grabs a pair of gloves and one of the fruits. He grabs a knife from his cart and slices the ends off the fruit then carefully peels back the skin. He slices a piece and hands it to her and she eats it in one bite.
Moaning around it, she looks at me with wide eyes. “This is so good!”
The man behind the cart looks pleased and offers her another piece which she shares with me.
“Quieres comprar uno?”
“Should we get some?”
“Is that what you want?”
She wrinkles her nose and looks carefully at the fruit. “Yeah, it is.”
“Then it’s yours.”
She tilts her head from side to side and then bows her head. When she pulls her backpack around to her front and pulls out her wallet, I put my hand on her wrist. “Janelle. Don’t insult me.”
“I can pay for some fruit, Rome.”
“I know you can, but when you’re in my presence you should never be reaching for your wallet.”
“I give you one romance book and you don’t know how to act.”
I smirk and put her backpack back on her shoulders. “I would never take pointers from Jharrel’s corny ass. But you wait ’til I get my hands on book two. You done fucked up now.”
I give the man the seventy-four pesos he asks for in exchange for a bundle of the tuna fruit and put it in Janelle’s basket.
When we get to the candle store, we’re inundated with candles in all different styles and colors.
Some are shaped like tea kettles and mugs.
Others are shaped like basins, trinkets, and even faces.
An overpowering scent of vanilla fills the space, canceling out all the scents from the different pieces.