Chapter 11 Never Too Much #3
“You look like your pops, but those eyes are your mama’s.” Heavy grabbed the picture from her. “The same ones Harlee looks at me with.”
“You’re a natural with them. Makes me look like more of a shitty person for keeping you from them.” She fidgeted with her hands and studied them.
Heavy sat up and placed the frame back on the table where she retrieved it. Clasping his hands together, he finally turned his head. Trapping her beneath his greedy copper-green irises, he drank her in carefully.
“I’m really trying to go about all this the right way. I don’t know shit about being a parent. I just know half the job is showing up. We could argue until the end of time about our choices and bad decisions, but what good does that do anybody?” Heavy shrugged. “Not us, and damn sure not them.”
“True,” Giselle agreed.
“I’mma head out.” He slid his hands down his pants legs before standing.
“Okay. I guess I’ll see you later.” She yawned and rose from the couch so she could let him out.
When he reached the doorway, Heavy turned. Giselle’s five-foot seven stature against his six three was a bit much, but she loved how he towered over her.
“Tomorrow. Brunch or something. Bring them by the shop. I’m working on a car for a client, so things will be shut down. We can talk to them there and try to explain what’s going on.”
“Okay,” she agreed, a smile toying with her plump lips before nodding.
“Ok, G. You did not have to come in here showing out like that!” Maisie greeted her, Lou, and Gem from behind the bar.
When the three of them stepped in together, all eyes naturally drifted to them.
Lou rocked a tight, strapless black dress that clung to her wide hips and big ass, while Gem chose a simple pink strapless dress with little cut out designs along the side.
Giselle slid up to the counter, admiring the club in her burgundy satin sleeveless bodycon dress and gold leather Giavito Rossi heels from Saks.
A pair of simple diamond earrings sparkled in her ears, one of few pieces of jewelry she kept when she left Leawood.
With her hair braided in front and to one side, the rest hung in thick curls draping past her shoulders.
“Thanks.” She eased onto a bar stool. “This place is nice, Mais.”
“Thank you. I’m pretty proud of it.” Maisie nodded and took in the neon lights flashing over the dance floor as people swayed to “Hungry for It” by Fivio Foreign. “What y’all drinking?”
“I’m here for the infused drink.” Giselle placed her hands on the counter.
“G, I’m telling you, be careful with Mais and her concoctions,” Lou warned. “They are not for the weak.”
“Well, this is the first time I’ve been kid free in who knows how long, so I am prepared to get lit.”
“Okay, be careful what you ask for.” Gem eased onto the stool beside her.
“Indeed.” Lou peeped the crowd over her shoulder and rocked to the beat beside Giselle. “I’m tired of being the third and fifth wheel. Where are the niggas looking for a good time?”
“How about you focus on school? These niggas ain’t going nowhere.” Maisie voiced.
“Whatever.” Lou rolled her eyes. “Just because you been married since the third grade don’t mean that’s what the rest of us want. I’m mingling.”
“Don’t be talking shit about me and my man.” Maisie poured them all green drinks in a tall glasses over ice and slipped a straw in it before serving them.
It almost looked like a potion when Giselle picked it up to examine. She took a sip. The lime-apple flavor lingered on her tongue with just a tinge of THC in the after taste.
“Mmm, tasty.” Giselle nodded, bringing the straw to her lips again.
“Don’t run up on it like that, G,” Maisie advised. “It’s meant to be sipped.”
“Did you reserve a section for us?” Lou queried, picking up her glass.
“Yeah. The usual.” Maisie picked up a towel and wiped down the counter. “Everything you need should already be in there. I’ll come over once I’m done making my rounds.”
“Bet. Come on,” Lou urged Gem and Giselle.
“Damn, baby.” A deep, rugged voice pulled Giselle from her stride across the club.
The handsome, brown skinned man was covered in tattoos and draped in platinum and diamonds as he reached for her arm. She peered down at his hand on her wrist.
“My bad, sweetheart.” He released her and put his hands up like he was surrendering. “I’m Aurel. The homies call me Rel.” He placed a hand against his chest and introduced himself.
Her gaze swept over him. He wasn’t bad to look at; she just wasn’t interested in entertaining anyone tonight. This wasn’t what she came out for.
“Well, Rel, what can I do for you?”
“Shit, give a nigga a minute. You looking like wifey in that dress.” He licked his lips.
“Thank you.” She smiled.
“Tell you what, I see you with your girls and shit, let me get your number. Maybe we can go grab something to eat after we leave here,” he suggested, holding his phone out.
A familiar tatted hand reached out smoothly, surprising them both. Heavy grabbed the phone and pushed it against Rel’s chest, his eyes piercing Giselle when he did so.
Rel grabbed his device and peered up at him with wide eyes. “What’s up, Heavy?”
“Move around,” he instructed, grabbing Giselle’s waist and turning her toward the section where Lou and Gem were already posted up.
She had to catch her breath during the interaction because he had her moving swift. With his hand on the small of her back, he nudged her along, and she almost tripped over her own feet.
“My bad, bro. I ain’t know that was you.”
Heavy didn’t respond, instead he stayed on Giselle’s ass, watching it wiggle with each step. The twins had damn sure hooked her up with the grown woman body. Her hips had spread a little wider, and that ass had a little more bounce than he recalled.
“You had to come in here showing out in that shit,” Heavy said in her ear, sending a rush of flutters to her belly and making her clit throb.
“What’s wrong with my dress?” Giselle peered down at herself.
“Don’t get nobody fucked up in here, princess,” he said, scanning the crowd as they stepped into their section.
She hadn’t realized that Oz, Solo, and Crew had also arrived. The three of them sat around the table with Gem and Lou laughing and passing a blunt around.
“So, y’all just gon’ leave me out there?”
“Oh, we saw Heavy come in. Nigga had a radar on or something because he migrated right over to you.” Lou exhaled and squinted at her cousin through the smoke.
Giselle dropped onto the couch beside her, and Heavy dapped Oz up before taking the space next to her.
His cologne wafting up her nostrils was intoxicating.
He’d changed since earlier. Distressed black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a red, long-sleeved button up shirt with two pockets cloaked his frame.
On his feet were a pair of black leather Prada boots.
His curls were juicy and tight on his head, and his beard smelled like the oil he liked to use on it.
The minute he stepped inside, he searched the crowd and spotted her in a sea of people.
The body was on point, immediately drawing him in her direction.
When he saw Rel put his hands on her, his trigger finger itched.
There was a possessiveness he felt over Giselle that he couldn’t explain, but he didn’t want anybody sharing her space or being swept up in that aura she had.
She was the kind of woman who could have any man eating out of the palm of her hand if she wanted to.
“Y’all trying to dance?” Maisie strolled in with a tray of infused drinks to add to the spread of champagne and tequila.
“Hell yeah!”
Giselle sipped more of her drink, and Gem and Solo moved closer to each other as he showed her something in his phone.
The two were very comfortable as their arms touched.
She tilted her head closer to his shoulder with a soft smile as he pointed at something on the screen.
Giselle reminded herself to ask her what was up with that.
Solo was cool, though. She’d seen him a couple of times since being back.
He didn’t live in Southwick, but she couldn’t tell with how much he’d been around lately.
The only thing she did know was that he, Crew, Oz, and Heavy were in business together.
“I’m down.” She set her glass on the table and stood.
Heavy was in a trance. She had smooth, buttercream skin decorated with little moles you could only see if you were close to her and smelled like vanilla and a YSL scent.
The way the curls shaped her face was sexy too.
He told himself he liked this look on her better than when it was straight. It was softer.
“Come on, Gem.” Giselle grabbed her sister’s arm and yanked her from the couch.
“Hey, I was in the middle of a conversation!” Gem objected.
“And now you’re dancing. He ain’t going nowhere.” Giselle side eyed Solo and pulled her away.
Both Heavy and Solo leaned forward as the two sauntered behind Maisie and Lou into the general population of the club. Heavy stroked his beard in the cusp of his hand, eyes still on Giselle. Looking around, he noticed he wasn’t the only one. Niggas were hawking her hard, from near and far.
“I’m really trying not to fuck a nigga up in here tonight.” He blew out a slow breath and clasped his hands together.
“Bro, Giselle don’t like me or something?” Solo asked. “What I do?”
“She’s looking out for her sister. What type of time you on with her anyway?” Heavy questioned.
“What you mean?” Solo sparked a new blunt he dug from the pack in his pocket.
“Nigga, you live like three hours away.” Crew sat forward with his infused glass in his hand. “Yo’ ass been up here every day for a week or so.”
“I told him he might as well get a fucking spot if he moving like that,” Oz chimed in, shaking his head. “Gem got his ass open like a muthafucka. I ain’t got time to keep coming back and forth with him. I got other shit to do.”