Chapter 4
Four
Brick
“ T his was way smarter than going to my house,” Dy said, cutting her filet mignon into thin strips.
I took another bite of my burger and glanced at her.
“Why you say that?” I asked after chewing my food.
She laughed. “We barely have groceries. Oh my God! I never checked back in with Wilde. I know she’s probably cussin’ me out right now.” I remained seated and watched her hop up and leave the living room.
The large hotel had several restaurants, but we ordered room service and sat on the floor, our plates on the coffee table while the television played. A minute later, she reentered the room with her phone in her hand. She was tapping the screen and biting her lip.
“Everything good?” I asked.
She glanced at me. “My roommate slash best friend, Wilder, called me almost twenty times. The last time I talked to her, I said I was coming home, so I’m sure she’s going crazy right now.”
She returned to her spot beside me and crossed her legs. She tapped her screen again then propped it up on the bowl in the center of the coffee table. I realized she was video dialing this Wilder person, and she had placed the phone in a position where I couldn’t be seen. I chuckled.
It barely rang twice before Wilder picked up.
“Girl!” she yelled with the angriest look on her face. “Where the hell are you? Do you know I called the police, and they said?—”
She stopped abruptly then brought her face closer to the phone. Her eyebrow was the only thing on the screen at that point, and it scrunched immediately. She pulled the phone back so that her whole face was in the frame.
“Dylan, where the hell are you?” Wilder’s calm tone was in direct contrast to the expression on her face, and if I didn’t know Dy was trying to hide me right now, I would have laughed out loud.
The girl clearly cared about my Doll, and I could appreciate that, but she could rest assured that Dy was in great hands.
My Doll sighed. “I’m about to tell you, but you have to promise not to interrupt me first.”
Wilder said nothing, so after a few seconds, Dy spoke up again.
“You promise?”
“Bitch, . . . your location is off, and I’ve been calling you for hours.
I’m sittin’ in this house thinkin’ you got sucked up in a snowstorm like Dorothy, only for you to call me back two hours later in an expensive ass room at the Palace .
I’m tryin’ my best not to cuss yo’ inconsiderate ass out, but if you keep stallin’, that’s exactly what’s about to happen. ”
That made me chuckle and Dy laugh.
“First of all, Dorothy was in a tornado, not a snowstorm, and second, . . . I guess we’ll revisit how it is you know exactly what hotel I’m at if my location isn’t working. But anyway, . . . I ran into an old friend at the airport, and?—”
“Old friend? I’m the only friend you got, so what the hell are you talkin’ about?”
“I said, let me get it out, girl, damn.”
I chuckled and put my fork down, enjoying every minute of Dylan being herself. She had been in shy mode since she saw me, and I was over that.
With a huff, she rolled her eyes hard and said, “This is a friend from Terry. I’m sure I mentioned him to you when we first met. His name is Brick.”
Immediately, I sensed that the girl recognized my name.
“Friend? Mentioned ? Girl, that nigga was all you talked about when I met you, and he damn shole wasn’t just a friend. Is that who you’re shacked up with right now? Fast ass!”
I was careful not to laugh because I already saw the red creeping back into Dy’s cheeks. Her girl had just put her on blast, but it was all good. She was all I could talk about after she left, too.
Mumbling, Dylan said, “I swear I can’t stand you.” She then turned the phone just enough so that both of us were in view. Wilder gasped then started screaming.
“Oh my God! It’s you in the flesh. What are the odds?”
I smirked and nodded. “Wassup, Wilder? I’m Brixton.”
“Oh, I know. Listen here. I know y’all got a past, so she trusts you and everything, but I’on know you. I don’t play about my best friend, Mister Brick, so you make sure you take good care of her, aight?”
I chuckled and nodded. “I got you.”
“And you, little miss fast tail. Call me first thing in the morning because I need the rundown on how all this happened. If the storm has calmed down by tomorrow, I’ma come over there and see you. Love you, bye.”
Dy rolled her eyes but smiled. “Love you, bye.”
They hung up, and Dy sighed loudly. “Oh my God, I’m sorry about her. She was exaggerating.”
“Is that right?” I doubted that, but if Dy wanted to act like she didn’t miss a nigga after she moved, I’d let her live in her delusion a little longer.
My eyes penetrated hers until her gaze fell. I noticed her chest rising and falling heavier than it had been, and she tugged on her bottom lip with her teeth.
“Yes. Well, . . .I mean, of course , I talked about you and stuff, but it wasn’t that serious. Eventually, I accepted that we were just kids, and my puppy love obsession with you was a childish phase. It wasn’t that serious.”
I chuckled and shook my head. I wasn’t feeling the way Dylan kept trying to downplay our connection.
Because I didn’t think it was the right time to call her out on her bullshit, I remained silent.
I put my eyes back on the television as I resumed eating, and after a few seconds of staring at me, she did the same.
Neither of us spoke again while we finished our dinner.
I wasn’t sure what was on her mind, but I was thinking about the fact that God had placed my wife back in my life this evening and how she was sitting here playing with our future.
After a while, she stood and left the room. I heard glass clinking in the other room and assumed she was rummaging through the mini bar. That was confirmed when she reentered the room with two medium-sized liquor bottles—one tequila and the other cognac—and two glasses.
My eyes followed her as she set everything she gathered on the coffee table in front of us and reclaimed her spot beside me.
“So, we’re here for two days. Wanna make bad decisions with me?” she asked, smiling. Damn she looked good as hell. Her beauty softened me instantly.
“What you mean?” I asked.
She shrugged. “We could play a game.”
“Spades? Do you still cheat?”
She kissed her teeth, but her smile remained intact.
“I never cheated, but I wasn’t thinking cards.”
“I’m on whatever you’re on, Doll. I’m cool just lookin’ at your pretty face for the rest of the night.”
Just as her smile resurfaced, she covered her face. I removed her hands promptly.
“I done told you ’bout that, girl.”
“Right,” she said, her eyes lowering as her smile stretched a little more. “Sorry. I was thinking ‘Truth or Drink,’” she said softly.
I chuckled. “Bold of you to assume you want my truths, Doll.”
Her lips parted slightly before she licked her bottom lip.
“I think I can handle ’em.”
I chuckled. “Aight. You better be ready to give me some of yours too.”
Without another word, she grabbed her phone and went to tapping again. After a couple of minutes, she turned the screen toward me, and I realized she had downloaded an actual Truth or Drink game.
“This app already has questions divided by category. Cool?” she asked.
“I’m on what you on,” I said again.
“Okay, let’s see . . .” she said before focusing on her phone again. I slid it out of her hands, making her look up at me with a frown.
“I’m goin’ first.”
She rolled her eyes but smiled. “I was going to suggest that anyway.”
“Yeah, aight,” I said as I scrolled through the app. There were different categories to choose from, like family, self-reflection, and romance. I low-key wanted to start with the latter, but I figured I needed to get her warmed up to open up to me, so I chose self-reflection instead.
“Aight, first question. Where is the best place you’ve ever traveled?” I focused on her as I read the end of the question. After a few seconds of gazing at me, she lifted her eyes toward the ceiling. I watched as she tucked part of her lip between her teeth and shrugged.
“LA, I guess.”
I lifted a brow. “You guess?”
She nodded. “I mean, I’ve been out of the country a few times for work—for Maria— but I have never been able to enjoy those places.
I’ve never seen anything other than my hotel room, music studios, and sets.
Other than New York, the only other place I’ve really gotten to explore outside of Chaney is Los Angeles.
” She shrugged again, and although her tone seemed unbothered, her eyes told a different story.
Based on the conversation I overheard in the airport, I was sure the sadness I sensed had something to do with the fact that she hated her employer.
I didn’t like that shit one bit, and I had to bite the inside of my lip to refrain from telling Dy to quit her job and let me take care of her for the rest of her life.
Then she could spend her days traveling the world and doing the shit that made her smile.
I knew that I had no problem making that happen for her, but it might have been a little too early in our reunion to lay that type of proposal out for her.
So I just chuckled. “You ain’t seen much of the places you’ve been, and I haven’t been out of the States.”
“Well, we have something in—” When she looked up at me, she stopped midsentence with her lips parted slightly.
She held my gaze for a few seconds longer before she turned to the coffee table and grabbed the tequila bottle.
I watched as she poured herself a shot in one of the glasses.
She drank half of it before glancing at me briefly and then downing the rest. It wasn’t until she poured herself a second shot that she focused on me again.
With a deep sigh, she said, “Can you stop doing that?”
I frowned. “Doin’ what?”
“Looking at me like that.”
I smirked. “How am I lookin’ at you, Dy?”
She rolled her eyes and kissed her teeth. “Like that , Brick. You’re making me nervous.”