Adore You (9 page)

Cadence piped up, “Who the hell you giving my life story to on the phone over there?”

“It’s Celena, calm down.”

“CellyCel, your friend is stressing me out,” Cade called out in the background.

I switched the phone to speaker so Cade wouldn’t have to keep yelling like we were in a damn barn somewhere and walked back toward the table where she was sitting.

“Y’all having bestie time or can I intrude?” Celena asked.

I rolled my eyes at the question, as Celena was a welcomed figure in our friend circle on many occasions. Hell, there were times when those two got together without me to do their whole sportsball thing. Both of them were avid basketball fans where I could take or leave it. They got frustrated with me pointing out who I thought was cute instead of being focused whatever ball needed to go in what hole.

“Girl, if you don’t bring your ass over here. Preferably with a gyro with extra tzatziki sauce from
Opa
!  Ooh and those butter garlic fries. Ooh and a chocolate shake, extra thick.”

I laughed at Cade’s fat ass antics and chimed in, “Come on through.”

“You want food, too?” Celena asked.

“Sure. You can bring me the same as Cade, sans the shake.”

“Aight, see y’all in a bit.”

“Bye, babe.”

An impromptu girls night was overdue. Ellis monopolized a lot of my time these days and I’d been neglecting my friends. I mean, I saw Celena at work daily, but we hadn’t really had the time to catch up with everything that’s been happening over the last few weeks. I knew she was still reeling from the JP situation and that bleeding over into her professional life. Work had been extremely stressful; with Tom openly critiquing Celena at every juncture as if it were her fault that Jake’s raggedy ass played us. I knew for a fact that she never let their relationship affect her quality of work nor did she treat Parker & Associates any different than any other high revenue client we had. The blame for us losing that account laid squarely on the shoulders of that cowardly ass Jake Parker and no one else.

“So when are you gonna finally let him take you outside within a fifty mile radius? Or you still scared of your mama?” Celena asked.

She’d arrived a little over half an hour ago. She and Cade had been drilling me nonstop about Ellis since she arrived. Perhaps inviting her over wasn’t such a great idea. Not if these two heffas kept on putting me under the hot lights of interrogation.

“We do go outside.”

“Picnics in either of your backyards don’t count, sis.”

“We got coffee the other day. At Starbucks.  Together. Outside.”

“Yep and he told me that as soon as he tried to hold your hand, you freaked the fuck out,” Cadence piped up.

I rolled my eyes at her. I’d been trying, but with so much of our family living in the immediate area as well as their large network of friends; it was difficult for me to completely give in. The last thing I needed was the news of Ellis and I being together to get back to “the grownups” before I could find a way to bring it to them myself.

“He can take me outside in town with PDA as soon as you admit to your little crush on Josh in IT.”

Celena quickly averted her gaze. I’d had a hunch about her feelings, but this reaction just confirmed it. I noticed he was in her office fairly often and she just got a brand new MacBook Air; so I knew it didn’t have nothing to do with troubleshooting.

“Damn CellyCel with the quick bounce back! Who’s Josh?” Cadence crowed.

“Joshua is…a friend,” Celena replied, still blushing, “But who he is ain’t got nothing to do with the fact that you’re treating your main like a side, Devvy. Don’t try to deflect!”

Just as I was about to reply to her, my text tone went off. I got up to retrieve my phone from the kitchen and left Cadence teasing Celena. Picking up the phone, I saw it was a message from El. It was a link to a video on YouTube. He had taken to sending me a link daily, with a movie trailer he said reminded him of me or us. During all of our Netflix & Chillesque dates, I feel like we’d watched every cheesy ass romantic comedy out there. And not by
my
choice. Quiet as kept, Ellis had a serious romcom addiction. Anything starring Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, or Jennifer Lopez and he was all in. At first I thought he was only into the movies because of the fine female costars, but he knew these damn movies line for line. Even those low budget, straight to DVD films. We’d seen them all...good, bad & ugly. As cheesy as it was, I actually began to look forward to the trailers every day. Who knew he was a big old manwhore softy? Certainly not me.

Brown Sugar? Seriously?

You denying the cinematic greatness of Taye Diggs and fine ass Sanaa Lathan? – Baellis

Gotta be two greatnesses…

So I guess me telling you you’re the perfect verse over a tight beat won’t get you wet? – Baellis

I don’t like you right now.

What about, “you’re my air”? All the sistas in the theater lost their minds when Taye said it. – Baellis

;-* – Baellis

What the hell is this face?

“Cade…what’s a winky face with a asterisk mean?” I asked, strolling back into the den where Cadence and Celena were deep in conversation. They quickly stopped talking as I walked back into the room, something I’d bring up later on. For now I needed to know what the hell this face was.

“What are you talking about?”

“This,” I said, thrusting my phone in her direction.

She quickly glanced at it and said, “Oh. Girl, that’s a kissy face. What are you seventy-two? How do you not know emoticons? You were on AIM with the rest of us in the late 90s, right?”

“Now you know my mama thought the internet was a tool of Satan. Why is your friend stuck in the days of dialup?”

“That’s your man.”

“He is no
t
–
”

“Don’t finish that lie. I want my baby to make it out of the womb and not killed by way of the lightning strike that’s sure to follow such a bold faced lie.”

I rolled my eyes and flopped down on the sofa between Cadence and Celena.

“Anyway. You know him better than I do.”

Cadence shrugged, “The better question is why does he refuse to use emoji like he doesn’t have a phone equipped with them?”

“Actually the best question is…Baellis? Really, friend?” Celena laughed.

“For the record, he did that shit.
Not
me.”

“Sure, friend.”

I sat in my car in Devorah’s driveway for a few minutes before getting out. I had come up with a game plan. Now all I had to do was convince her to go along with it
.
I got out of the car and before I made it fully up to the walkway, her door opened.

“Hey, pretty.”

She blushed at the compliment.

“Hi, you.”

I walked into the house, hauling her against me as I shut the door.

“And how are you tonight?” I asked, pressing her back into the door as I leaned in for a kiss.

Not waiting for an answer, I lowered my mouth to hers. I pressed a series of soft kisses to her mouth before nibbling on her bottom lip, drawing it into my mouth. She gasped softly, her mouth opening just enough for me to slip my tongue between her lips. Our tongues danced briefly before I tried pulling back. Bee’s hands moved to the back of my head, holding me close, taking over the kiss until she got her fill. Drawing back slowly, she surveyed me with a wicked grin.

“Great, now that you’re here.”

“Is that right?”

Pulling her bottom lip between her teeth, she nodded.

“Come on, I have a surprise.”

“Oh yeah?”

She just nodded again, grabbing my hand, and leading me to her office. She motioned for me to sit down at the computer and she sat down on my lap.

I nuzzled her neck and said, “Oh, I like this surprise already.”

She giggled and opened the lid of her MacBook. When it opened and I saw what she had been looking at I stayed quiet. She had been looking at a website advertising flights to New Orleans at a ridiculously low price.

“So. I was thinking. I know you’re being incredibly patient with me about this whole no local outside dates thing. I realize I’m being utterly ridiculous, so I want to propose a compromise.”

She went on to tell me how she has been looking at getaways for us and how this NOLA one crossed her desk earlier today and she saw it as a sign that maybe we should take a trip together. She rambled on and on until I began laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“I think we spend too much time together.”

“What?” she huffed and tried scrambling off my lap.

I held her firmly in place as I tried to explain. “Hold on, hold on…don’t you even try it. Let me finish.”

She stopped struggling against my hold, but remained silent. I reached into my pocket and handed her my phone. I had an email application open with the deals from that same airline. I had come over here with the idea of whisking her away for a date since I couldn’t get her to go out with me here. I knew she had no rebuttal to turn down a date hundreds of miles away from where anyone knew us.

Looking at the phone, a small grin spread across her face.

“So I guess we’re NOLA bound?”

“Not quite…” I trailed off and filled her in on Trey and Demi planning their Vegas elopement.

“So Sin City, then?”

“Just say the word and we’re booked, baby.”

“Welp, since y’all stole Parker and Associates from us, my calendar is wide open.”

I chuckled, raising a brow. “Stole? Jake Parker came to us, practically begging for us to take them on. My team was actually focused on their competitor before Jake met with Eric and the senior management team.”

Shifting in my lap, Bee turned so that she was fully facing me. “Wait.
Jake
was the one who came to y’all? Not Senior or Junior?”

I shrugged. “Yep. Something about needing to make a clean break.”

“That motherfucker!”

Bee leapt from my lap, pacing back and forth mumbling about throwing hands. I got up, grabbing her forearms to get her attention.

“Baby. Calm down. What’s going on?”

“Ol raggedy ass Carlton Banks lookin’ ass nigga. Tryna play my friend. Got his good damn nerve. I will fuck his shit all the way up.”

She shook off my hands, moving out of the office and back into the living room area. When I walked into the room she was rifling through her bag in search of something. Frustrated with not being able to find it upon first glance, she overturned the bag, dumping everything out onto the couch. Whatever she was looking for was clearly not in the bag as she stalked out of the room and into the kitchen. She came back into the living room a few minutes later, clutching her phone in her hands, still visibly upset. I sat there quietly, not sure why what I’d said had set her off. She sat down on my lap, burrowing her face into my shoulder. Instantly, I wrapped my arms around her, rubbing her back in soothing circles. She murmured something into my chest that I barely understood.

“Come again?” I said, shifting so we were eye to eye.

“If you want to end this, please promise me you won’t ever pull this ghosting shit.”

She blew out a breath, looking down, fidgeting with her hands.

“Babe. Look at me,” I said, tilting her chin up so I could see her face.

Her eyes were reddened, full of unshed tears. Leaning in, I gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. She heaved a sigh.

“Just promise me you won’t disappear…”

“I’m not going anywhere, baby. If I was, you’d be the first to know.”

She stared at me for moments, eyes searching my face. My answer and whatever she saw in my eyes seemed to satisfy her. She settled back against my chest and then began talking. The story she told me was one of the most nonsensical tales I’d ever heard.

“Roger, you got a minute?”

Roger was my counterpart on the national sales team and my backup whenever I needed to be out of the office.  He was this white cat, who swore he was down for the cause. Dated sistas, stayed at the local juke joints, and had a propensity for calling everybody “my man”.  I rarely gave him static because he was a good dude deep down, just tried a little too hard to come off as down.

“What up, E?”

“Can you cover Parker for me until I get back?”

“It’s nothing, my man, you know I got you. How long will you be gone?”

“I just need you to hold it down from Friday through Monday. Robert Junior and Jake are supposed to be coming in for an update Friday afternoon. Pauline has a general idea of all of the information they’ll be looking for, so she can get you up to speed before they come. Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

“It’s just what we do, bruh,” Roger said, holding out one fist for a pound, “A brotha’s gotta make sure somebody is here to watch his back, know what I’m sayin’?”

“Right. Appreciate it, Rog.”

I turned and left his office. I was halfway down the hall before I heard Roger calling my name. I turned back to see what he wanted.

“You just gon’ leave me hanging, my man?” Roger called out.

I was certainly not walking back to his office to give him no damn fist pound. I just threw my hands up, giving him the wink and a gun gesture.

“You da man, Rog!”

Completely missing the sarcasm in my gesture coupled with those words, Roger preened and strutted back into his office.
What a clown.
I chuckled, as I made my way back to my office. My phone rang and I picked it up mid chuckle.

“Ellis Taylor.”

“I need a favor.”

“Uncle El, you said we could go to Easy Sundae…” Sophie whined as we pulled into my driveway.

“And we will, Sweetpea. I’ve just got to run in super quick to grab my wallet. C’mon. The faster we get it, the quicker you’re face planting in a banana split.”

I unlocked the doors and came around to open the door for Sophie since the child lock was on. Everett called me frantic needing someone to pick up Soph from after care. Our mom was supposed to pick her up per their usual plans, but somewhere along the way their signals got crossed and moms went on one of those old people bus trips instead of picking up her darling grandgirl. So I left work a little early to scoop the little one. And of course, since she had me wrapped around her little finger we were headed to Easy Like Sundae Morning for pre-dinner dessert when I realized that I didn’t have my wallet. Since Easy Sundae was cash only I had to stop at the bank. I’d pulled into the drive-through ATM only to keep on trucking back to my house where I was sure that my wallet sat on my dresser.

“Isn’t that Auntie Beebee’s car?” Sophie asked, dancing along the sidewalk, while pointing across the street.

I looked over at the car that she pointed to that was parked across from my house. It looked like Bee’s Malibu, but I knew she wouldn’t be in this neighborhood for no reason so I didn’t think anything of it.

“Nope, it’s not babygirl. C’mon, so we can get inside and you can help Uncle El find his wallet so we can get ice cream.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure that’s Auntie Beebee’s car. Is she coming to get ice cream with us? I haven’t seen Auntie Beebee in a whole lotta days.”

“That’s not her car, Sweetpea. Auntie Beebee is still at work. C’mon…”