Chapter Seven #2
Dani picks “When I See U” by Fantasia and Ri, Evie, and I act as her backup singers.
Micah takes his turn next. “ I believe in you and me. I believe that we will be in love eternally. Well, as far as I can see. ” He continues singing “I Believe in You and Me” by Whitney Houston for a few more lines and when he finishes, we all stand with slack jaws.
“Why y’all looking at me like that?”
“Where the hell have you been hiding that voice?” Evie shrieks.
“I haven’t been hiding it.”
“The fuck you haven’t. I haven’t heard you sing so much as ‘ Happy Birthday, ’ but you over here busting out Whitney and making her sound like Barry White?” Christian adds.
Micah wipes his hands down the front of his shirt with a coy smirk. “I’m a very right-brained individual. Y’all know this.”
“So that means you can just sing your ass off? Micah, I’m ’bout to throw my thong at you right now, stop playing,” Evie teases.
“You might sing better than you paint, bro.” Christian whistles.
Micah cuts his eyes over to Christian. “Watch ya mouth. I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit,” he says as he chucks the deuces up and walks away.
I’m up next and I decide to go with “Have You Ever” by Brandy. When I get to the line about needing something so bad you can’t sleep at night, I don’t even think Rome realizes that he nods along heavily.
Fuck.
Rome picks “I Gotta Be” by Jagged Edge, which cracks everyone up because he’s so into the song he performs the entire damn thing. Christian tries to cut him off but he stiff arms him and keeps going.
Since Ri and Arnold already have their wedding song picked out, they decide to sing “ ’ 03 Bonnie and Clyde” together to close us out.
We make our way to the patio where dinner will be held and there is a beautiful buffet display waiting for us. Arnold explains that he had the rehearsal dinner catered by Highly Catered, a private caterer that specializes in THC-infused dishes, as an extra treat for us.
Our hostess explains to us that the buffet is loaded with braised oxtail, Cajun lobster mac and cheese, jerk lamb chops, shrimp pasta, jollof rice, ackee pasta, and garlic-crusted broccoli.
She further explains that there are dishes with no THC in them in case anyone doesn’t want to participate or wants to eat more later but doesn’t want to keep eating the food with THC in it.
Ri asks Arnold to give a toast but he’s already making his plate, officially done with hosting us. I can’t blame him, the food looks and smells heavenly.
I load my plate up with some of everything, shoveling a big spoonful into my mouth the moment I sit down.
“Look, look, look. They’re synchronized,” I hear Christian say.
I peek at Dani and Evie, noting that all three of us are doing a happy dance as we eat the mac and cheese.
We all laugh, and I expect Evie to have something smart to say but she’s too busy stuffing her face to care what Christian has to say.
I hate to say this, but I think if I’m going to spend long periods of time with Ri for the remainder of this trip, I’m going to have to get her high first.
She’s been nothing but a giggling machine since eating and it’s the cutest thing. I can do no wrong in her eyes right now; everything I say is the funniest shit she’s ever heard. She’s just like a baby, so easily pleased.
“I just love pasta so much. I think if I could be any food, I’d probably be pasta. I’d be this pasta one hundred percent,” she rambles. “Babe, if I were pasta would you eat me?”
Dani hides her laughter at Ri’s antics in the crook of her elbow.
“I would a hunnid percent eat you if you were pasta, Ri. You’d be so delicious as pasta.”
“Right? I’d be the best pasta ever. ” She giggles behind her hand. High Ri is the best Ri.
She goes to fix a second plate, but I stop her. “You sure you wanna eat more of the THC food, Ri? You don’t wanna take a break and eat regular food for a minute?”
“I’m so hungry, sis. I’m soooo hungry.”
“I know, so you can eat the regular food if you want, but you’re sitting real nice with your high right now. I don’t think you should push it.”
She starts rapping the words to “Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa, making me wonder if she somehow snuck some alcohol that I didn’t see before. I guess we can chalk it up to the fact that she never gets high and let her have her moment.
“I think there’s…” she cuts herself off, turning to look at whatever imaginary thing just whizzed by her, and when she turns back to me, she must have forgotten she was speaking because she doesn’t say a word.
“Okay, go eat, Ri.”
She literally perks up at the use of the word “ eat ” and then piles her plate high with more infused food.
I shake my head, thanking God that Arnold is the one who has to deal with her tonight. I’ll take the fun Ri, not the past-her-limits Ri, nor the hungover Ri that’s bound to visit us tomorrow.
Evie leaves dinner without so much as a goodbye, but texts me that she was so sleepy and her bed was calling her so at least I know she’s safe.
With everyone impaired, no one pays attention to Rome and me, so we walk back to my room hand in hand.
“How you holding up?” I ask once he closes my door.
“I should be asking you that, your eyes are barely open.”
I chuckle, walking toward him until we’re face to face. “I’m feeling really good.”
“Good.”
“Mhm, I could feel even better, though.”
“How so?”
“A little birdie told me that you’re the reason I got to swim with sea turtles today. Is that the case?”
He shrugs nonchalantly.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Minimize the effect you have on my happiness. That made my day today.”
“Whatever you need and want, whenever you need and want it. I’m not gonna repeat myself again, J.”
His tone hits me right in my core, sending my need for him into overdrive. If tonight is the last night we have, I want to make the most of it.
“Well, what I want right now is to properly thank you for making today happen.”
He pulls me against his body, gripping my ass with both hands. “What’d you have in mind?”
“You like to play with the senses, so I thought I’d give that a try myself.”
“And what are you gonna do?”
“Don’t ask questions. Now, I’m gonna put my headphones on you so that I can get what I need without you hearing. And I want you to close your eyes.”
“What are you up to?”
“Oh, so I can repeat myself, but you can’t? I said no questions.”
“But…”
“Aht aht aht,” I scold. “My thank-you, my rules.”
“Yes, ma’am. I hear you, no questions.”
“Thank you. I’ll tap your arm when you can open your eyes so go ahead and close them.” He closes his eyes and adjusts my earbuds so they’re comfortable for him.
I rush to grab ice cubes from my freezer and put them into a cup, running them under cold water in the sink.
I take a minute to observe him, looking edible in his tan pants and blue polo, the imprint of his abs strong against his shirt.
I circle him, careful to step lightly so he doesn’t know where I am, and then I stand in front of him, so close our breaths mingle.
I can still smell the pecan pie Highly Catered served for dessert on his tongue.
I reach for his pants, taking my time to unbutton them and pull them down painstakingly slowly. Acting on instinct, he steps out of the pants, kicking them aside, narrowly missing the cup of ice I have on the floor beside me.
Popping an ice cube into my mouth, I hide the cup behind me, clamp my mouth shut, and tap his arm.
He opens his eyes suspiciously, but any unasked questions fall to the wayside when I sink to my knees before him.
I motion for him to take the earbuds out and without any further pomp and circumstance, I take him in my mouth.
The wet heat of my mouth mingled with the chill of the ice sends a shock to his system and he jumps in my hold.
“Ah fuck,” he groans. I use my lips to suction the ice to the base of his dick and trail it up and down.
His hands fly to the back of my head, his fingers stinging my scalp with a bite of pain.
I welcome it, knowing it’s his lifeline because I’m pushing him to the brink of insanity.
The ice starts to melt rapidly in my mouth so I let it pool there, taking him down my throat as far as I can.
I gag around him, some of the water dripping down my chin, and when I meet his eyes his knees buckle for a second.
“You’re a demon. Oh shit,” he groans, his head falling backward when his dick touches my tonsils.
When the rest of the ice melts, I swirl my tongue around his base before slowly pulling him from my mouth.
“You can take it, right, Rome?”
His teeth sink into his bottom lip as he soothes my scalp with the pads of his fingers.
I grab another ice cube from my cup, rubbing it along my hand.
“Damn, J.”
“Make me proud, Rome,” I tease as I grab the base of his dick with the ice still in my hand, massaging what doesn’t fit in my mouth.
He stomps his foot in approval, no longer bothering with words but his body tells me everything I need to know.
I alternate between sucking his balls into my mouth and massaging them with the ice, never letting Rome get comfortable with the sensation.
“J, I’m gonna come,” his warning comes through clenched teeth.
I take him to the base of my throat, not wanting to waste a single drop, and when his release coats my tongue I show him the evidence of what I did to him before I swallow it down.
He huffs out a harsh breath, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. “Now, that’s a thank-you I would accept from you any day.”
He bends down to scoop me up, and so begins the cycle of properly thanking each other.
“Shit, what time is it?” I ask, checking my phone to see it’s three a.m. We fell asleep tangled up in each other but the reminder of our impending doom jolts me awake.
“You got somewhere to be?”
“No, but I meant to give you your gift.”
He wiggles his eyebrows at the mention of a gift. “You gotta give me ten more minutes for another gift or thank-you, you took me out that last round.”
“Shut your ass up.” I shimmy from under his hold to grab the clay turtles from my bag. I climb back under the covers and present them to him with a bright smile.
“Oh wow, that’s so cool. It’s me and you,” he says, awestruck.
“That’s what I thought.”
He moves a rogue braid that fell across my eyelid. “And they’re together.”
“They could be mating. Then it really would be us,” I laugh.
“Thank you, J. I appreciate this.”
“You’re welcome. I wanted to get you something to tell you how much the past week meant to me. I thought this would be a great goodbye gift.”
He sits up in alarm, the bedsheet falling off his naked torso. “Goodbye gift?”
“Yeah. Today is officially wedding week.”
He laughs though his face remains unsmiling. “Right.”
“Rome. We said one week.”
“No, you said that.”
“You agreed!”
“Because it was that or nothing! I’m man enough to admit I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have agreed to one week when I really wanted two.”
“It’s just not possible.”
He huffs. “Of course it is. You’re just too scared to go for it.”
The truth of that draws the line in the sand between us. I’m too scared and he’s not scared enough so there’s nowhere else for us to go.
He waits for me to say something, anything, but I don’t have anything to give. Nothing I say in this moment would change where we are. If we stand any chance of not damaging all the wonderful memories we made together this week, the best thing I can do is stay silent.
Realizing I’m not going to be the one to break the silence, he gets up from the bed and starts putting his clothes on.
“You don’t have to leave,” I say, panic seizing my bones.
“Yeah, I do. We’re back to being friends, right? I wouldn’t be in your room at three in the morning as just your friend so it’s best I go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He gives me one final forehead kiss and stops in the doorway on his way out. “Thank you for the turtles.”