Beach Thing

by DL White

  “What do you keep up on?”

  He shrugged. “I guess stuff in my line of work. Who’s doing whose beats because his old producer got picked up for meth. Who’s in jail, who’s in rehab. Who showed up for a session so high he couldn’t remember his own stage name.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Damn, that’s high.”

  “Yeah. People don’t even mess with illegal shit anymore. Not when you have Doctor So and So calling you up every other week, wanting to know how you’re doing, is there anything he can do for you. Get a couple of prescriptions and rotate through them. Got a friend of mine that almost died doing that shit.”

  “Wow. That hit close to home.”

  “Yeah. So long as me and Gage stay away from it, we’ll be good. I keep our crew too busy to have time for that mess.”

  He paused, dropping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me close to him. “Speaking of my crew… I’m glad you’re finally here. I had to resort to working, to pass the time.”

  “I’m sure Gage had no problem with that.”

  “He didn’t have shit to say about it. He and the family were out at her parent’s Yacht Club today. But me and Gage… let’s just say that we had a conversation. Gage is clear on what he’s free to speak on from now on.”

  “I don’t want to come between you and your friend. I don’t want to be like the Yoko Ono of hip hop.”

  Wade exploded in laughter. “Yo, the Yoko Ono of hip hop?”

  “Yeah. You know how folks say she tore the Beatles apart?”

  Wade sucked his teeth, wagging his head. “It’s not like that. Them cats, the Beatles, got together one day and made a band. Me and Gage… we go way back. We’re friends first and if anything about this business threatens that, the friendship comes first.”

  “Okay. So long as things are good between you two.”

  “We’re good. Gage is one of them special snowflake types— he’s not used to my attention being divided. I talk a lot about Sheree but she dotes on him, and so do his parents. I just need him to respect that I know what I’m doing, that I know where my priorities are and that I am always gonna take care of him and what we do.”

  I chuckled to myself, but he caught the rumble against his chest. He jiggled my shoulder and glanced down at me with a raised brow as if to ask, “what?”

  “I… had to tell my parents just about the same thing. They came down here… well, they said they came to visit, but…” I shook my head.

  “Tried to get you to come back home? Your dad said something about New York or Houston.”

  “They wanted me to oversee the opening of a new Porter’s Steakhouse in Houston. It’d be a franchise location, but it needs to be indoctrinated into the business. It needs to look, smell, feel, operate like a Porter Restaurant.”

  “You couldn’t do that from here? They’d want you to relocate for that?”

  “The idea was for me to pack up and move to Houston as soon as it slows down here. But not to keep me busy during the slow months… because they didn’t believe that what I came here to do was important. They still wanted me to accomplish their goals. Do their bidding. Complete their plan for me.”

  “But you told them what was what, right?”

  “Right. And then… I might have gone back on my decision to not help them set up this new restaurant.”

  Wade reared back, his forehead wrinkled in confusion. “You what?”

  “I’m not moving to Houston. But business will slow down for Tikis & Cream, enough that I don’t need two people running it every day. A lot of the shops around here let their summer help go at the end of September.

  “I could shorten the hours that the shop is open, leave Dionne here to run things and fly back to New York a few days at a time. That gives my dad— or Andrew— time to go to Houston and get things set up the way they like them.”

  He nodded, listening intently. I wanted him to catch on to what it could mean for us. If there could be an us.

  “So how long would you do this back and forth thing?”

  “If they go through with signing the papers, construction would start right away, with the restaurant set to open in the Spring. Just in time for me to be back in Black Diamond full time for the busy season. But I would spend the majority of fall and winter in New York keeping the lights on.”

  “So… you know I live in New York, right?”

  The smile I wanted to hold back made itself known, busting through my serious, slow explanation of my plan to be in New York as much as possible over the next few months. Coincidentally at the same time that Wade would be returning home.

  “I heard that. Brooklyn Heights, to be exact.”

  “Good. So long as you know where I’ll be, when you’re up there.”

  “To be honest… I was hoping for an invitation to come see you.”

  “You were?” The confused look was back, his head cocked to the side. “What made you think you wouldn’t get one?”

  I shrugged a shoulder. “I wasn’t sure how far you wanted to take this… Beach Thing. We said we would get to know each other and have a little fun.”

  “And we did that. Right?”

  “For sure.” I nodded in firm agreement. “And when the summer was over, we said—”

  “About that—”

  “Wait, Wade…” I shifted on the couch to face him, pressing my palms together. “Wait, before you bring down the hammer. I know you don’t do the relationship thing and long distance isn’t appealing to you. I really, really set out to just have fun with you, and it wasn’t until people started telling me I looked different and I was acting different that I realized that—”

  “Ameenah, I love you.”

  My mouth stopped moving, the words crashing and jumbling in a train wreck in my head. Did he just say...

  “Did you hear me?” He asked, like he knew what had just rolled through my brain.

  “Uh...y-yeah. I heard you. I’m just… Are — are you serious?”

  “Dead ass,” he replied, which, despite being completely leveled at those three words, made me laugh hysterically. Over the summer, he had been teaching me all the New York lingo I seemed to have missed.

  “Did you…” I stopped, because I couldn't talk and laugh at the same time. “Did you just say dead ass?”

  “Fah sho. Nah’mean?”

  I laughed harder and louder. “Okay, stop. I can’t take it anymore. This is a serious moment.”

  “Aight. Settle down, then.”

  He leaned in to kiss me, which went from a brush of his lips against mine to a full-blown, sensuously erotic, emotional experience. When he released my lips and pulled back, I saw something different in his eyes. On his face. The expression stole the breath from my lungs.

  “So. You don’t have anything to say?”

  “Oh… well…” I cleared my throat, still trying to form complete sentences in my mind. And breathe. Inhaling deeply, I sat up and moved so that I straddled his thighs. I settled my weight on him, reveling at the feel of his hands gripping my thighs, of the tips of my nipples under my t-shirt brushing his chest. “So, yeah… I have something to say. Before you interrupted me with your little declaration—”

  “My little declaration? I just told you I loved you, woman.”

  “See, here you go interrupting me again. I was about to tell you I love you, too. Real talk.”

  He laughed, then grinned, his wide and sexy smile filling me with warmth. His hands started moving, making their way up under my t-shirt to cup my breasts. The pads of his thumbs scraped across my nipples, sending a tremor down my back.

  “So you love me, huh?”

  “Yes. And you love me.”

  “So… what do we want to do about it?”

  I leaned in and kissed him, and then kissed him again, then pulled back just enough that I could see his eyes. “I say we dump the plan to end things at the end of the summer. And we see how far this Beach Thing can go…. if that sounds good to you.”

  H
e nodded, blinking slowly. He moved his hands down my waist, past the band of my leggings, and squeezed a generous helping of ass.

  “Sounds real good to me. Know what else sounds good?”

  “Well, I can’t read your mind, but…” I rolled my hips, grinding against the outline of him pressed against my thigh. “I hope it involves some dick seizing and… what is it you say? Standing up in it?”

  The room filled with his laughter over the sounds of Robin Thicke’s Lost Without U.

  “You wanna know something funny?”

  “Yes.” I kissed him, drawing my arms tighter around his neck. “What’s funny?”

  “So I was at home, up at this club where my father had decided he was gonna show out. I handled that and hung out for the night. I happened to ask somebody about standing up in it — what it really means.”

  He laughed again, which made me laugh. “What? What does it mean?”

  “It’s when you have sex standing up. ”

  “Oh, pfft.” I frowned, waving him off. “That’s all? We’ve been doing that. I thought it was something new.”

  He laughed again, then started moving, inching his way off of the couch with me still on his lap. When he got to the edge, he stood up, taking me with him. I wrapped my legs around him and let him carry me toward the staircase.

  “I would be happy to do the same old shit with you, Ameenah. Let’s keep this Beach Thing going. Past September… October… forever…”

  I groaned, happily. “That sounds so good to me. I love you, Wade.”

  His arms tightened around me, locking me in a warm, muscular embrace. “I love you too, pretty.”

  Epilogue

  Wade

  I slung a messenger bag over my shoulder and nodded at the front desk receptionist as I made my way out of Tuneage. It was nearing Thanksgiving, and you’d think we would see a slowdown, but a lot of artists were home for the holidays and had booked studio time.

  “Make sure you lock up right at five and get home. I don't want your grandma complaining about how I kept you here late. Then I gotta hear it from my mother, too.”

  Thea laughed, pulling the phone away from her ear. “You know Neeta don’t need a reason to fuss. See you at Porter’s tonight.”

  I took in the view on the other side of the doors and frowned. Even though it was sunny out, it was so… bleak. And it was cold as hell— brick, as we say in Brooklyn. Well, me and my crew do, anyway.

  I pushed the door open and stepped into the light foot traffic going past the mid-city studio. The wind was frigid, making the low temperatures even worse. The only thing that made me feel better was knowing that in less than a day, I would be back on Black Diamond with Ameenah. It wouldn’t be hot like it had been over the summer, but I was looking forward to high 70s, white sand and the sound of the Bay.

  Tuneage wasn’t far from my condo, so it wasn’t long before I was breezing through the front doors of my building. I tipped my head at Alfred, the doorman who pressed the elevator call button as soon as I’d walked in.

  “What’s good, Alfred? They got you working all night?”

  “Afternoon,” he greeted me in return. "Just until eight. Then I’m home to help the missus. Got the boys coming home tonight.”

  “All the boys?”

  He nodded, giving me that proud grin he always gave me when he talked about his sons. All four of them were attending Morehouse College, the oldest a senior, the youngest a freshman. “That sounds like a nice holiday, man. Enjoy that. Have you seen Ameenah come in yet?”

  “About an hour ago,” he said, just as the elevator arrived and the door slid open. “Have a good evening, Mr. Marshall.”

  I stepped into the elevator, standing back while the cube climbed to my floor. At the sixth floor, it slowed to a smooth stop, and the doors opened to a semi-private landing. There were only two condos on this floor — mine and a Pakistani couple that traveled a lot. I could tell they weren’t home because the landing didn’t smell like spices.

  And because Rhami didn’t swing the door open and yell out, “Hey Wade! You want some dinner? I made extra!”

  I keyed the code to open the door to my place and hung my bag off of a hook next to the door. Ameenah’s leather jacket hung in its usual spot, and her purse was on the table just inside the door. Her phone was plugged in, charging.

  “Meenah?”

  “Oh good, you’re here.”

  She came from the bedroom, wearing a midnight blue dress that flared out at the waist. The bodice was decorated with sparkling, shiny gems. Her hair looked freshly washed, the way the wild curls fluffed around her face and flowed down her back.

  In her hands, she held a thin silver chain that had a small diamond solitaire strung on it. “I need you to help me put this on. It keeps getting caught in my hair.”

  For a few moments, I stood in the hallway, taking in the sight of this woman that I never knew I was looking for but was so happy I’d found.

  Her plan to do both jobs had worked out perfectly. The work back on Black Diamond was just enough to keep Dionne busy, especially with the shorter hours. With Dionne handling Tikis & Cream, Ameenah was free to travel. She’d been back and forth a few times already.

  And when she was in New York, she stayed with me.

  She’d made herself at home in my condo, and I didn’t mind at all. Her toothbrush was welcome in my bathroom, her slippers on her side of the bed, her robe on a hook in the closet. No more Mr. I Got An Early Appointment, You Gotta Go, for me. I loved having her in my place.

  “Wade?” Her eyebrows were raised, eyes wide in concern. “Can you put this on? And you need to change. Everyone will be at Porter’s at seven. You know how traffic can be.”

  “What’s this?” I took the thin chain and the small diamond from her and inspected them.

  “What do you mean, what is it?” She gave me the same look Ma gave me when I asked a stupid question. “It’s the same necklace I’ve been wearing since you met me.”

  “Nah.” I handed it back to her, dropping it into her palm. “This is cool for everyday but Thanksgiving with the families and the Biddies calls for something bigger.”

  I backtracked to my bag and dug inside for the velvet lined case I’d picked up earlier in the day. When I came back to her, still standing in the middle of the hall, her eyes were on the black case I held in my hands.

  “It’s not what you’re thinking,” I assured her, then laughed at the moment of relief that crossed her face. I wouldn’t dare take that step without talking to her father first. Old school, but Ma would have my head if I didn’t do it.

  “So then… what is it?”

  “A little something for you to show off to the folks and everybody. Especially Paige.”

  I held the box in one palm and flipped it open with the other. Inside was a gleaming black diamond pendant, surrounded by sparkling diamonds.

  “Wade,” she whispered behind a trembling hand covering her mouth. “It’s… beautiful. And it’s a black diamond.”

  “A memento of where we met. Where we fell in love. Where we started this never ending Beach Thing. You like it?”

  She practically threw herself against me, so hard I almost dropped the box. She squeezed me tight, then plopped a kiss on my lips.

  “I love it. I love you. Put it on?”

  She turned around and lifted her hair out of the way so I could fasten it around her neck. It hung exactly the way I knew it would and looked amazing against her skin. She ran to the hallway mirror and stood on her tiptoes to get a good look at it. The way she fingered it and smiled let me know I’d made a good choice.

  I stopped to kiss her cheek as I passed her on the way to the bedroom to change for dinner. Tonight would be a great night at Porter’s Steakhouse, full of good food and a big, happy family.

  Tomorrow, we would be back on the island for a few weeks, getting in a little beach time before the rush of the holiday season. Gage, Sheree and the kids were joining us so we could get
some work done, too.

  I couldn’t wait to be back where it all began.

  “Love you, Beach Thing.”

  About the Author

  For as long as she can remember, Author DL White would much rather be in her bedroom reading and writing than doing anything else, but she began seriously pursuing a writing career in 2011.

  She harbors a love for coffee and brunch, especially on a patio, but her true obsession is water— lakes, rivers, oceans, waterfalls! And sand... dig your toes in, soft! On the weekend, you’ll probably find her near water and if she's lucky, on an ocean beach.

  By day she is an Executive Administrative Assistant. By night, when not writing books, she devours them. She blog her reviews and thoughts on writing and books at BooksbyDLWhite.com.

  Other Books by this Author

  Brunch at Ruby’s

  Dinner at sam’s, a ruby’s novel

  Unexpected, a holiday short

  Leslie’s Curl & Dye, potter lake #1

  Second time around, a potter lake holiday short

  The guy next door, a potter lake novel

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