Dating The White Navy SEAL (BWWM Interracial Romantic Comedy)

by MJ Monroe

  “At first I didn’t think that I would like it. I mean who would have thought that putting together such an eclectic group of people would create such memorable situations. I probably shouldn’t say this but my favorite character is Anna Mae.”

  Anna Mae was the central female character in the series, but she had her own secret. At one time Anna Mae was actually a man, which wasn’t as shocking as it sounds because she was such a sweetheart to all of her tenants. I looked at him in a whole new light, this was a man who knew good literature when he seen it. “Mine too. I mean the way she holds everyone together and gives them such good advice; I can see why everyone was drawn to her.”

  He opened the door to Marybell’s for me, so I stepped in and smiled at him. His eyes seemed to penetrate me, like he knew exactly what I was thinking and feeling. A stab of guilt pushed into my head as I realized that I was bonding with the one man who I was forbidden from dating. Sure Ella hadn’t used those words but she had said as much when she let me know that she wasn’t comfortable with me dating her brother. I needed to respect her feelings and stop myself from doing anything more than having a nice conversation with him and sharing a lunch table.

  “How many?” The host asked. His eyes fell on Aaron and he seemed to be taken in by the Navy Seal like the rest of us had been. The host cleared his throat as if to suggest that one of us needed to answer him before he became impatient.

  “2,” Aaron answered before I could find my voice. His musky scent wafted into my nose again and my head spun with lust. We followed The Host to the table and he set menus in front of us, gave Aaron one last look over and left. “I’m thinking that our host might have had a little crush on me.”

  “I think so too. It’s easy to see why he would check you out though,” Damn what the hell was I thinking? I shouldn’t have admitted to my best friend’s brother that I found him attractive, it wasn’t right. Yet something felt so very right about this, the conversation was so easy and comfortable. “I mean, I can see why people think that you are cute.”

  “Thanks. Though I’m surprised he wasn’t looking at you, considering you are probably one of the most beautiful women that I have ever laid my eyes on.” Even though I knew that was a line, it still made me weak in the knees. Aaron leaned in just enough for me to get another whiff of his scent and snuck in a smile. If I wasn’t careful I was going to betray my best friend. “I hope that it’s OK to say things like that. I mean I know that it might be weird seeing as I am not your type and what not.”

  Ella must have told him that. She had deliberately lied to him about what type of guy I liked. Of course maybe she didn’t realize that she was lying. She did think that Vic and I would make a great couple, even though she really wasn’t my type. “Sometimes I’m not sure that Ella knows about my type. In a very strange way she reminds me of Anna Mae, except I’m pretty sure that she was born a chick.” We smiled at each other

  “I always thought that she was more of a Brandon, you know selfish but always able to rationalize it. I know that she means well by trying to set me up with these women but they are just not my type. I mean she thinks if they have boobs then I’ll fall in love,” Aaron sighed as the waiter set two glasses of water in front of us. “She worries about me going back to Afghanistan, I know that. But I am a man, an adult. Ella doesn’t know what’s best for me.”

  “At least she sets you up with people that you’re attracted to, one time she set me up with a lesbian!” I chuckled a little and soon Aaron joined in. His laugh was very infectious, and his whole body moved as he laughed. “I wish that I was joking but no. She followed that up with a devout Christian who thought that I was immoral because I wore a skirt above the knee.”

  “That’s nothing. My buddy Morgan, who I was deployed in Afghanistan with, came home for a few weeks. Ella took it upon herself to try setting him up. What she didn’t know was the she was setting him up with his own brother! And like you Morgan isn’t gay.”

  Aaron and I both let out absurdly loud laughs, and the table shook from our knees moving. After we settled down and caught our breaths, “I asked her why she tried to set him up, she told me that she figured if he found a mate then I would want to follow suit. Eventually he did find a girlfriend, but he found his girl while we were deployed last time. He’s going to propose to her soon, he wants the all American family. I’m just not sure that’s what I want. I’m not sure I want the whole white picket fence and 2 point 5 kids thing.”

  “Me either. I mean in theory it sounds great but I’ve seen the reality and it’s not pretty. Plus all of those marriages end in divorce, why put myself through all of that? It just doesn’t make sense for where I’m at in my life,” As the words passed through my mouth, I was shocked by them. Even though I had been down on love since my break up, I always harbored the secret hope that I would get married one day. Now it seemed as though I was really through with trying to find it and was preparing to live my life alone. “I still believe that some people belong with each other. I mean Ella found Eric and there is no way in hell they don’t belong with each other. They are so cute that it’s sickening.”

  “It is but the truth is, I am that guy.” Aaron’s cheeks turned red at his admission. It made him look younger and somehow more mature at the same time. The effect was dizzying, I was impressed with how well he could hold up his end of the conversation. “I like to be romantic with the woman that I am dating, and the fact that he is going to propose to her but isn’t telling her is something that I love. I want to do that for someone one day.”

  Any woman would be lucky to land a man like Aaron. I had to bite my tongue, as the temptation to volunteer myself built up within me. Any red blooded lady in her right mind would gladly switch places with me, even if all they got to do was sit and look at this spectacular man. “Whoever you end up with, will be a very lucky lady. I’ve done my fair share of comparison shopping with guys and I have to tell you that most of the are junk but you are one of the best models around.”

  “Are you saying that I could be a model? I think that you are,” Aaron took a sip of his water and watched as my cheeks flamed red. Even against my dark skin I knew that the red was showing through, I had walked right into that. “I get what you’re saying though. A lot of people think that it’s easy being a guy that all we have to do is say that we want a woman and suddenly she’s there. If it were that simple I wouldn’t be single right now. Of course the same thing could be said if Ella ran the world, but then neither of us would be single. We’d both probably be miserable though. You with you lady lover and me with God knows who.”

  “Well given that she thinks everyone is gay, you would be with some guy. I’m guessing that she would put you with one of those really masculine gay guys that could be mistaken for straight. Or some chick that wants you out of the Navy Seals.” His face tightened with anger when I said that. His army career was something that he held very dear and I couldn’t blame him. If someone told me that I had to give up my job, I would give him up in a heartbeat. I loved what I did and no man was worth me giving it up. “Don’t look so angry, if we dated I would not ask you to give up your career, unless you wanted to. Having something that you are passionate about besides your mate is important.”

  “Well I do love cars and meat. I can grill up a mean steak. But you know I feel like I am making a difference in the world when I do this, I feel like Cat did in the book when he started protesting the war. Sure some people don’t understanding why I like what I do, but I do. I don’t need to explain it to anyone else.”

  “Can you though? Like I’m not sure that I can explain why I love my job, even though I do. Most of the time it’s boring and there is a lot of research but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love my job, even though most of the people I know would find it tedious.” This was another realization that came from nowhere, talking with Aaron seemed to be some sort of spiritual journey for me, even though I had only just met him. I wondered if he felt the same way, a part of
me wanted to ask him. However I didn’t have the balls to ask him, there was something that stopped me from asking. “I’m guessing that you kind of know what I’m talking about. Or I sound like a blabbering idiot and you wish that you hadn’t come to lunch with me.”

  “Actually it’s just the opposite. I am so glad that Ella forgot to tell me that she went to lunch early because I have a chance to talk to a beautiful woman who is very intriguing to me. I’d like to have dinner with you tonight if you’re up for it.” My heart skipped a beat as I considered my options. I could and should tell him no, Ella made her position on us dating very clear. Yet there was a part of me that wanted to shout yes from the highest mountain tops, I wanted him to know that I so badly wanted him. “I’ll even pick up the tabs. I know that you’re an independent woman but let me treat you to your meals today. Or you could go over to Ella’s and eat her cooking. I think she’s experimenting with lamb or something today.”

  “Umm I guess you are trying to scare me into saying yes. All I was going to ask was where you want to go? I mean you know that Ella isn’t going to be very pleased that we’re having dinner together.” At least I had put the one objection on the table, how he handled it would be up to him. There was no other reason that I could think of that would prevent us from going. “Do you still want to have dinner with me?”

  “I don’t care what Ella wants. She doesn’t run my life, even though she thinks that she does. I want to spend more time with you, and that is that!” Seeing him this fired up made me feel the same way that he was feeling. What right did my best friend have to tell me that she didn’t want me to go out with her brother? It wasn’t right, no matter how you sliced the pizza. “Although, if you want to have a little bit of fun with this, I have an idea.”

  “What is your idea? I bet I’m thinking the same thing.” My mind was racing with ideas, I had seen a lot of sitcoms and they had similar plots to what I was thinking. A small smile crept up on my face as he twisted his hands together, this was about to become so much more fun than I had thought it could be.

  “What if we don’t tell Ella that we’re seeing each other? We go out and see if we like each other but make up some asinine excuses as to why we can’t hang out with her. Like tonight I’ll tell her that I’m hanging out with the boys and you can tell her that you’re going to a ceramics class or something.”

  “What if I told her that I was going to a yoga class instead? That ways she wouldn’t try and come with me. Last time I tried to go to a yoga class, Ella tagged along with me and we both ended up getting kicked out.” The memory of Ella yelling at the instructor that she was not bending like a straw fluttered into my head, it was the one and only time I wondered how we were friends. For as thin as she was, Ella had the flexibility of a steel pole.

  “Do you really do yoga? Because I have to say that adds to your hotness, I am imagining you in a bunch of positions right now and it’s going to be difficult to walk,” Both sets of our cheeks were flaming red, it was obviously more noticeable on Aaron than it was on myself. My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of my lunch partner long enough to check to see who was calling or text messaging me.

  Finally I looked down and pulled my phone out. Ella had sent a message about Aaron coming for lunch and how she forgot about inviting him, and she hoped that he wasn’t mad. I handed my phone over to him and a devious smile played on his lips. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and he furiously hit the screen of his phone. He set it down for a second and took a long drink from his water glass. I took this opportunity to drop a little bon monet of my own, “Yes I do yoga. Not very often because of work but I enjoy it and would love to do it some more.”

  “Well then I guess tonight I will be yoga.”

  A dirty pun popped into my head and I tried to resist the urge that I felt to say something. However temptation is like a piece of chocolate, you can fight the want for only so long before you give in and eat it. “So I’ll be doing yoga tonight?”

  “You’re bad.” We both laughed and yet my question hung in the air between us. It stayed there, unanswered like so many things. My hand shot to my water glass and I started to twirl it around, I watched as the liquid moved from side to side, always threatening to spill over but never getting over the rim. Aaron handed me his phone, with a deceptive smile on his face.

  The text message that he wrote to Ella read: “Hey Sis, when Tameka told me you were with a client, I stormed out of the office. Found this chick Jennifer and went back to a motel with her. Hope you don’t mind, she says that you were all for us getting together. Love you, see you tomorrow!”

  Part of me went cold. What if he knew that I had convinced Ella not to set him up with Jennifer? No, I told myself there was no way that he could know. Maybe he had seen her or something and was just trying to get a rise out of Ella by tossing out her name. “This Jennifer girl kept coming on to me at my homecoming party but she’s just not my type. She’s too desperate; she kept offering to do anything I wanted. Anything but go away that is.”

  I laughed a little, it felt good to be assured that he didn’t want her and that it wouldn’t have done Ella any good to try and set them up. If Aaron didn’t want Jennifer anyways then there was nothing that I had done that could be construed as wrong, all I had done was predict what the man wanted. Sometimes being able to rationalize my bad behavior scared me and other times I think that I should have went to law school and been an attorney. “Yeah, A lot of people aren’t fans of Jen’s. I mean she is nice and everything but she is so motivated to get married that it’s not even funny. I always wanted to ask her why but never had the balls or the attention span.”

  Aaron gave me a funny look and I realized that he wasn’t aware that Jennifer had a reputation for going on and on about nothing. Sometimes we would ask her a question and walk away, when we came back she was still talking and it had nothing to do with original question. I wondered if she knew what we were doing and was just playing along. Ella didn’t think that she was that smart. “She doesn’t seem to take no very easily. I mean she offered to do a strip tease for me. If I want a woman to take her clothes off, I’d at least buy her dinner first.”

  The implication was clear and I felt my knees turn to rubber. His green eyes bored into me and I knew that we were both thinking the same thing, and it wasn’t something that I would want anyone to know about. I will admit that it involved him and I, kissing and a bed. There was more to it, but I couldn’t think about it because I wouldn’t have been able to walk at all. “Is that so? Now I can’t wait to see what you have in store for me tonight. Where are we going to meet?”

  “Call me old fashioned but I think that a man should pick a woman up for their date. So I think that you should find an alley and let me know which one you are hiding in,” He grinned at me. For a second I was offended but then I realized that he was making fun of our situation and I offered a smile up to him. “Seriously though I think that you should let me pick you up and show you how a gentleman takes care of his lady.”

  Everything that he said made him even hotter in my book. It had been such a long time since a man had treated me like this, I almost didn’t know how to react to it. “I would like it if you picked me up for our date. I think that I would like it a lot.”

  “Then it shall be. Whatever the lady wants, the lady shall have.”

  Chapter4

  After lunch with Aaron, I went back to work with a permanent smile on my face. My coworkers were all curious as to who the hunk was that I had left with, and then even more so about why I couldn’t stop myself from grinning. I ignored their questions and prayed that Ella would not catch wind of me leaving with Aaron because that would be a bit too hard to explain. It was bad enough that I was going to have to try and avoid her until it was time to go home, and then come up with some sort of logical lie that would get me out of hanging out with her at night.

  My keys jangled in my pocket as I walked up the stairs to my apartme
nt. There was an elevator that I could have taken but since I didn’t regularly exercise I thought that it was best if I actually climbed stairs. I knew that any moment my phone would be ringing and Ella would be pleading with me to come over and have dinner with her which would then lead to us talking all night while having a few cocktails. That wasn’t happening; there was no way that I was going to stand Aaron up. As much as I loved Ella, I wanted to see where this was going with her very attractive and sexy brother.

  After lunch he walked me back to the office but stayed out of sight. I had hoped that he was going to kiss me but he didn’t make a move. I was slightly disappointed by this, yet the promise of our first kiss was still on the horizon. He probably wanted it to be romantic and for there to be no worries about us getting caught, I convinced myself. That was the only logical explanation for why he didn’t try to smooch me, unless he was shy. Given how hot he was, I didn’t think it was very likely that he had problems approaching women, let alone planting his lips on theirs.

  The minute I opened the door, my cell phone began blaring ‘Work Bitch’ by Britney. It was a great ringtone and I have to admit that I love that song. Before I even looked at the caller ID I already knew who it was, and I knew what she wanted. I hit the green button to start the call, “Hey Ell-Bell what’s happening?”

  Ell-Bell? Where the hell had that come from? I was a horrific liar, so I assumed that it stemmed from my nervousness and not some sort of weird nicknaming default. I closed my eyes, preparing to hear her ask if we could hang out or something. Something that felt like guilt and a hint of betrayal stabbed through my heat. Ella had been my best friend for as long as I could remember and she had made her feelings clear about how she felt about me dating her brother. “Ell-Bell? Am I interrupting something? I bet you have a man there with you! Is it Brandon? I bet it is. See I knew that the two of you would hit it off. All you needed was a little bit of time.”