Chapter 10
ten
. . .
Hendrix
The loud growling of my stomach prompted me to step out of my room for a mid-afternoon trip to the kitchen. As soon as I popped around the corner, I saw Cassidy staring into the open refrigerator.
“Yo, you good?” I asked, watching her minimal gestures.
Deep in thought, she stood frozen, staring into the fridge with her ass hanging out of the bottom of her snow-white bikini bottom.
I instantly sunk my teeth into my bottom lip, careful not to let anything obscene fall off my lips.
Cassidy turned to face me, her eyes hazed from whatever she’d ingested.
“I’m so fuckin’ thirsty, but I can’t find anything to drink.”
My eyes narrowed as my neck cocked to the side. “You high?”
Her cat-shaped eyes widened. “Oh shit, you can tell?”
I roared with laughter. Her ass was fucked-up. “What the fuck did you do today?”
“Brielle had a weed brownie,” she confessed, “and I may have eaten some of said weed brownie on a boat…and washed it down with a few shots of tequila.”
I chuckled. She was cute when she was fucked-up. Definitely more tolerable. “Oh shit, y’all was lit. I ain’t know your girl was out here.”
“Yeah, it’s Lauryn’s birthday.”
“Lauryn? Like Mark’s sister?”
“Yeah, so all my girls are here with they niggas.”
“Word? And where your nigga at?” I inquired.
“Why I gotta have a nigga to come on vacation?”
“You don’t, I’m just saying you don’t strike me as the type to vacation alone, that’s all.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s a long story, but all you need to know is I ain’t got one to be worried about.”
I bobbed my head. “Mmm, it makes sense now.”
Her feathery eyelashes fluttered in annoyance. “What?”
“That’s why you were so mad when I got here. You were supposed to be here with another nigga, huh?”
Her brows knotted. “I’m too fucked-up for this. Just mind your business, nigga.”
I chuckled at her fine flustered ass. “Yeah, aight. You ain’t gotta admit it, it’s cool.”
“Can you just shut up and help me?”
“Help you with what?”
“Listen, I—I can’t be this fucked-up for the rest of the day. We’re supposed to be going out tonight.”
“Your lightweight ass need to get some food in you to soak all that shit up and then take a long ass nap,” I advised. “If you do that, you’ll be straight.”
“Can you order me something?”
“I was coming in here to order something for myself, so I got you. You go on and take your ass in the room.”
“Okay, thanks,” she said, turning to leave and then doing a 180-degree turn. “Oh, before I forget, Lauryn wanted me to tell you to come out to the club tonight with everybody if you want, but no pressure.”
“I wasn’t gon’ do shit but chill anyway, so as long as it’s lowkey that’s cool. I’ll come.”
When the food arrived, I took it over to her room and knocked on her door. “Cassidy? Aye, yo, Cass? Food is here.”
After waiting a few seconds for a response, I opened the door to see her sprawled out across her bed still in her bikini, with all that ass hanging out the bottom. For a minute, I debated on whether to cover her up or enjoy the view. Instead, I walked over to her gently shook her shoulder.
“Yo, Cassidy. Your food is here. Where you want me to leave it?”
Her hazy eyes opened at the sound of my voice. “What did you get me?”
“I ordered you the greasiest shit I could find on the menu. You wanna sit up and eat it now or you want me to put it off to the side somewhere?” I asked.
“Mmm, feed me,” she mumbled as the shadow of her eyelashes swept against her cheeks.
“What?”
“Feed me. Please?” she asked, softening her tone.
“I take it you don’t get fucked-up too often.”
“I’m a security software engineer, what do you think?” She chuckled, pushing hair out of her face.
I removed the cover from her food and grabbed a crispy French fry and held it up to her lips. She quickly chomped it down as if it was the best thing since sliced bread. I took a seat on the edge of her bed while she managed to sit up and elevate herself with a few pillows.
“We both know what I did after high school, but what about you?” I asked, serving up a few more fries and a bottle of water.
After sucking down half a bottle of water, she replied, “I got my degree in computer science and minored in finance. From there, I went on to an internship at Google and then landed an entry level job in Silicon Valley at Apple. I worked there for two years and just recently found a home with Capital One.”
My brows lifted. “Wow, congrats.”
“Thanks.”
“What made you get into computers?”
“In school, my favorite subject was always math, and when you couple that with careers that are going to make you the big bucks, it was kind of a no-brainer.”
“So, you must be good with crunching numbers and shit.”
“It's more than being good at numbers. You have to have the certifications to make the real money. I'm talking, IAT, SSCP, CISSP—”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Okay, chill. It just sound like you throwin' the alphabet at me right now. I get it, you gotta be smart. You've always been that.”
She shrugged before tossing a few more fries in her mouth. “I know.”
I shot her a disapproving glance. “Damn, you can't even take a compliment from a nigga.”
She held her hands out in protest. “No, I—I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant to say was—"
“Thank you?” I said, cutting her off at the pass.
She sighed. “Yeah.”
“You got it from here? I’m about to eat my own shit before it gets cold,” I asked, passing her the plate of fries and wings. If she was coherent enough to talk, she was coherent enough to feed her damn self.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Aight, cool. I’ll see you later.”
“Hendrix, wait!” she called out.
My neck turned back in the direction of her voice. “Yeah?”
“Thank you…”
I bobbed my head. “You’re more than welcome.”