I nodded my head and got in the passenger seat of his car. I quickly put on my seatbelt and he came around and got in the driver’s seat. He backed out of the parking space and then drove out of the parking lot fast as hell. I looked over at him with fear in my eyes. He looked down at me and noticed my uneasiness and slowed down the car some. I noticed that he hadn’t asked me the directions to my house yet. Then I remembered that he probably remembered where I stayed from the other night.
“You hungry?” he asked me, driving with one hand on the steering wheel and turning to look down at me.
‘No,” I quickly said, and my stomach growled, telling the truth for me. He chuckled and then switched lanes fast as hell and made a right.
“So, not only do your little ass steal, but you lie too. I’m going to have to be careful with you,” he said.
I stared out of the window as he drove, paying the comment that he had just made no mind. I was far from a liar or a thief, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“What you want to eat?” he asked me.
Since the first time I had met him, I would go to sleep praying to be close to him again, and now that it was happening, I was acting like a scary ass little girl. Plus, not to mention that he had a girlfriend, so it wasn’t the same anymore. I wondered would his girlfriend be okay with him paying for my things and then me riding in the car with him.
“You can just take me to McDonalds,” I said, pointing to the McDonalds that I saw on the right of us. He just kept on going, ignoring my request.
I sat back in the seat and just hushed my mouth because clearly he wasn’t paying attention of anythings that I was said.
Chapter 4: Jahiem
It was something about her, man. Something about those eyes that told a damn story. She was so damn beautiful to me, and it sucked because she didn’t even know that shit. I knew for a fact that she didn’t think highly of herself because she couldn’t even look a nigga in the face when I’m talking to her. I wasn’t even judging her when I found her in the store stealing pads because she was doing what she had to do. Wasn’t like she was in there trying to steal some dumb shit. I just knew that her lil ass was going to cry from embarrassment when I caught her red handed, but clearly she had proven me wrong.
She kept trying to run from a nigga, but all I was doing was trying to help her ass out. I can tell that it killed her for me to have to pay for her shit for her, but it didn’t matter to me. I felt good about that at the end of the day, knowing that I had helped her. I was a man, and a man noticed everything, especially when it came down to someone you found to be very attractive. I noticed that her hair wasn’t curly today, like how it was the last two times I had seen her. This time, her hair was straight, almost giving off this look like she was mixed with something. I knew her ass wasn’t fully black because she had good ass hair like she was mixed with Indian or some shit.
I looked over at her as she looked out the window and I knew she was scared. Number one, she was in the car with a complete stranger, plus I didn’t make that right to the McDonalds like she had told me to, so she had no damn clue where we were going. I chuckled because while she thought that I was trying to hurt her, I was actually going to do everything in my power to protect her, even though we had just met.
“Antonia,” I said, and she looked at me shocked. Like how the hell did I know her damn name.
“How did you know my name?” she asked with a confused look on her beautiful face.
“You said it when I saw you at work the other day,” I told her.
“Yeah, with your girlfriend,” she mumbled and I laughed at her jealousy.
“That wasn’t my girlfriend. That was my older sister, Shaniqua,” I told her and she nodded her head, like, ‘yeah right, nigga.’
Chuckling, I turned the radio up, driving the rest of the way in silence. I figured that I would take her to a restaurant and we could both eat something together. I wanted to stop by my crib first and drop these groceries off, but I didn’t know shorty like that to be bringing her by my crib, plus I didn’t want her to think that I was trying to be sneaky by bringing her over to my house. Since I was dressed laid back tonight, I wasn’t going to take us anywhere fancy. In fact, ten minutes later, I pulled up at Red Lobster. I parked the car and both of us got out. She had this thing where she liked to walk behind me, but as a man, if I was with a woman, I needed them in front of me at all times. I held the door open for her and she walked in, but stopped once I came in the door after her. I shook my head and we both went inside the restaurant.
“Welcome to Red Lobster, will it just be the two of you tonight?” the hostess asked us as she stood behind the counter.
I nodded my head and she grabbed two menus and led the way. She walked us to the back of the restaurant, all the while I could feel all eyes on us. Pretty much everybody knew who the hell I was. From my shop or maybe because I had slept with some of the females that were looking at us. I had nothing to hide because at the end of the day, I wasn’t in a relationship with nobody, and I was just kicking it right now with Antonia. We both took a seat at the booth and the hostess set our menus in front of us and then she left.
“What you normally get when you come here?” I asked Antonia. I was used to being with bitches who would talk my ear off whenever they got in my presence and I showed them a little bit of my attention, but damn lil mama didn’t talk enough. I wasn’t used to being the one to initiate the conversation.
“I never been here before,” she quickly said and then opened her menu.
I found that to be a little comical because who the hell has never been to Red Lobster before? There used to be a time when this was considered to be a “classy” restaurant, now everybody and their damn mama came here.
“We need to get you out more. Your parents not going to be blowing you up, asking you where you at? Why don’t you text them and tell them you out to dinner with your friend or something so they won’t be worried,” I suggested.
I wasn’t used to hanging with younger females, but I knew they most likely had bedtimes and shit, and I wasn’t trying to get lil mama in trouble or nothing like that.
“It’s fine. I don’t live with my parents,” she said in a way that was so final, like she didn’t want me to know or something.
I nodded my head and decided to leave that part of the conversation alone, at least for now.
“You see
anything you might like?” I asked her, trying to change the subject. I already knew what I was getting, so there was no need for me to look at the menu. I had been getting the same thing for the last three years.