6. DANE
The sun loved Justina. As I sat here staring at her, the sun mocked me, making love to her skin in a way that made me jealous as hell. It kissed her skin perfectly. All I could think about was making love to her underneath its rays.
If I was a fuck boy like her ex, I would take the look in Justina’s eyes and capitalize on it. I wasn’t a fuck boy, though, so I cooled down the desire blazing through my loins and shifted the heated atmosphere.
“Tell me why you fell in love with music,” I requested. “I want the real answer. Not the one you feed to the media.”
Justina scoffed. “What makes you think the story I feed the media is a lie?”
“You claim to love music because you grew up listening to all the greats. That’s likely part of the truth. There’s something deeper, though. That’s the part I wanna know about.” The story she fed the press was thin enough for anyone to see through. If they paid attention.
She shrugged as her face softened. “My mama would kill me if I got in front of cameras and told the people how she and my father argued so much that I sat in my room all night wearing headphones just to block them out. I grew up in a mansion, and somehow, that still wasn’t enough space for me to flee the sound of their voices.
I was eight when I fell in love with music.
It was the only constant sound that blocked out the madness.
At nine, I fell in love with the artistry of writing.
I wrote my first song on my ninth birthday. ”
“Nine?” I was listening so intently that I almost missed her admission.
She giggled. “Nine.”
“What was this song about?” I had to know.
“It was about a freaking puppy.”
We both laughed.
“Our neighbor had a brown poodle that gave birth to four puppies. I wanted one so badly. The way Claire cussed me out from point A to Z is still stored in my memory bank.”
“Wow,” I said, then chuckled. “So, we all had an I wanted a pet, my mama said no childhood?”
She burst out laughing. “Not you too!”
I nodded. “My mama wasn’t goin’ for that shit. I did all that begging knowin’ damn well I wasn’t gon’ take care of that lil’ muhfucka.”
Justina laughed harder before sobering. From the looks of it, she wanted to pry. Silently, I encouraged her to do so.
“If it’s not too much to ask, tell me about her,” she finally was brave enough to say.
That’s my girl, I thought. “Tellin’ you about the best woman in the world is gon’ take longer than this dinner will last.”
A soft smile crept on her lips. “So… Does that mean I have to subject myself to another date with you in order to get the full scoop on the woman who raised you?”
Leaning forward, I rested my arms on the table and looked into her eyes.
“You’d have to be with me for a lifetime to understand the full weight of what my mama meant to me.
It’ll take me the rest of the years I have on this earth to give you every single detail about that woman.
Summing her life up in a few sentences ain’t enough.
As much as I fuck wit’ you, and as much as I want something wit’ you, I’d give up breathing right now just to switch places with my mama.
I’d happily lay in that fuckin’ grave just to give her the rest of the years I have left. ”
“Wow,” she muttered. “Dane, it’s amazing to hear a man talk about his mom with such passion and admiration.”
“That’s how I’m tryna be about you, Justina.”
Eyes shrouded with curiosity, she asked, “What does that mean?”
“I told myself that if you said yes to dinner, then I would put my cards on the table.” There was no going back from it either. “I wanna be wit’ you.”
For a minute she said nothing. Her eyes drifted away as she glanced at the beach just off in the distance. The silence between us was lengthy, but I wasn’t going to skip past my declaration.
“I want us, Justina. I know I sound crazy, but I have no shame about tellin’ you where I want this to go. Why waste either of our time?”
“But… I mean…” She stammered a few times, then cleared her throat and started over. “So, just like that, huh? What about getting to know each other and seeing if we’re even compatible? What about a first kiss before taking it elsewhere…” Her words trailed off, but the understanding was there.
“The first time our hands touched, did you feel anything?” I asked because I damn sure felt something strong as fuck.
I felt like I could shoulder a cape and fly through the sky at a hundred miles an hour.
“The first time our bodies collided, was there anything there? Before you lie, our first interaction is seared into my brain. I could count the goosebumps ya skin formed for me.”
Her eyes darkened seductively. “Feeling something doesn’t mean anything,” she replied.
“The hell, it doesn’t.”
She cracked up at the look on my face.
“Okay, so I felt something. What about it?” she quizzed.
“That’s proof that we’re not just compatible. We’re meant to be. I will make it my mission to date you every day, Justina. Not just to get you, but to keep you. I’m thirty-seven years old—"
“Wait. Is that what this is about? You’re getting old, so you wanna pick the first woman to settle down with before your body betrays you?”
I chuckled. “Nah. First, I might be a few years older than you, but I can guarantee you that will never be a problem. Secondly, I didn’t just randomly pick someone.
I’m goin’ where I’ve been led to go. Third, I happen to love the act of kissing, which is why I don’t do that shit.
The intimacy of it all is only reserved for the woman who will feel my tongue in other places besides her mouth. ”
Her eyes fell to my lips, and I almost gave her a show. I needed her mind clear, though, so we could make these plans. The waitress appeared with our plates and carefully placed them in front of us. After ensuring that we were straight, the waitress left our table.
“This looks amazing,” Justina said while ogling her plate.
“As good as it looks, let’s not get distracted.”
She giggled. “Yeah, whatever. So, you really wanna fall into a situationship with a woman who just got out of a relationship?”
“All disrespect to ya last relationship, but that nigga don’t compare to me. I’d never fumble you, and what we gon’ have will be far from a situationship.”
Justina took a few bites of her food before she replied. “And I’m supposed to just, what? Trust that you aren’t running your infinite game on me? Surely, you know I’m smarter than that.”
“I do know you’re smarter than that. In fact, I don’t want you just to take my word for it. Trust my actions too.”
Her eyes met mine and held. I hoped she could see the truth there.