Running From Love

by J. Nichole

  Her eyebrows raise and she says, “Who said they were last minute?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Our trip to Jamaica ended almost like it started. With liquor flowing and sexy ass Jamaican men. When we arrive at the international terminal in Miami, I’m sad to part ways with the girls. “That trip was everything I wanted, and didn’t realize I needed,” I say as I hug each of them before going towards my departure gate.

  The one thing I hate about vacation is when it’s time to go back to reality. I’ve avoided turning on my phone the entire trip. Didn’t check an email, text message, direct message, social media account, nothing. But now it’s time to let notifications flood my screen. When I power on my phone I hope that one of the notifications will be from Aiden, and when there is not a single one I want to turn it back off.

  The Moovn drops me off at my apartment and I remember that I’m no longer at an all-inclusive resort. I should have grabbed food while I was out. On my way down the hall to my apartment I spot my nosey neighbor. Before I can dodge her she looks up at me and smiles. I wave and keep walking past her. “Jennifer,” I hear her say, but I keep making my way to my apartment.

  Returning home Sunday evening seemed like a bright idea, but now that I’m home I realize that going to work tomorrow and teaching the girls tomorrow night is doing too much. For tonight, I’ll act like I’m still in Jamaica. If only I could have the flowing drinks and another bowl of black-eyed pea soup.

  I connect my Bluetooth speaker and blast the first dance routine’s playlist. I dance through the choreography stumbling over the newest eight count, shaking my head when the music stops. I really hope the girls have been practicing. Each week I add another eight count to the dance, but this week I’ll let them drill what they’ve learned up until now.

  Now that I’m completely ravished and in need of food, I rummage through my kitchen. The tacos. Why didn’t I throw all these damn tacos away? Too bad it’s been over a week since Aiden brought them to my house. I grab them by the handful and toss them into the trashcan. And still no food. I’ll make it through the night.

  Lying in my bed, scrolling through my phone, the sandman doesn’t want to play with me. I find the next best way to spend my restless night. I create an album of my favorite pictures from Jamaica. Shots of my feet in the water, the white sands, tropical flowers, and endless pictures of us posing together. For the sake of all of us, we kept the cameras off while the strippers paraded around the living room of the suite.

  The image of dick slanging is what is left on my mind before I doze off.

  On my way into the office, I’m tempted to stop at Allegro hoping to run into Aiden. Just maybe he too will need a pick me up this morning, but I’m not sure what I’d say if we bumped into each other. Hey, long time no speak. How’ve you been? Or new memory, who dis? Instead, I keep driving to the office. I’ll have to settle for Keurig tea today.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” Bri says as she stands beside my cubicle. “You can finally take the calls from whoever has been blowing up your phone while you’ve been away.”

  “What?” My phone, that barely rings, suddenly decided to ring while I was away.

  “Exactly what we were all thinking each time it rang.” She turns to walk to her desk before saying, “Oh shoot. I almost forgot.”

  Turning away from my computer, I look at Bri and give her my full attention while she gives me the scoop. “Since we are acquiring the boutique and the Delaney chain, they are expanding positions in Dallas.”

  Most of our workforce is here in the Houston area, our buyers, management, and operations. There are a few buyers in Dallas, but when we started running reports for the acquisitions I realized we would have to expand. “People from here?”

  Bri nods her head. With a smirk on her face she adds, “Yup, some of us will have to move.” I never considered living in Dallas and don’t have any immediate objections. I’d still be close enough to my family. “I’m not trying to move,” Bri says matter-of-factly.

  I sigh. “Who decides? When are they trying to get folks to move?”

  “You’ll know along with the rest of us. The announcement to expand just came out on Friday.” Bri walks to her desk and leaves me to scroll through my inbox.

  My phone rings and it startles me. I’ll never get used to the sound of a standard phone ringing. “Hello, this is Jennifer.”

  The other end of the phone is silent and I move the phone from my ear to hang up when I hear him say, “Jennifer.”

  “Aiden?” Has he been the one blowing up my office phone since I’ve been out?

  “Good morning, I’m glad you answered.” Before he can explain further, my calendar alerts me to a meeting.

  “Actually, I need to run to a meeting.” I don’t elaborate or offer to return his call. After a week of not hearing his voice it’s both the sweetest song and nails on a chalkboard. I don’t know if I want to even hear why he just dropped off all communication after our last date.

  Before I can hang up he says, “Right, I’ll call you back later.” I place the phone back in the cradle and grab my notebook for the meeting.

  Gathered into the conference room, our manager jumps right in and says, “We promised to get you more information on the expansion.” Bri shifts in her seat and I watch her as Karen continues, “We are going to be asked to support all stores. I’ve asked if we can remain in our Houston offices.” The tension in Bri’s face is released. “They plan to hire additional team members based in Dallas, but”—Karen looks around the room—“we’ll need at least one team member to move there to assist with managing the department.”

  Lydia asks what we’re all thinking, “When will this all happen?”

  “We are thinking end of spring, early summer.” We have a few months before anything needs to happen. Karen wraps up the meeting telling us how we’ll divide the new stores amongst us to manage. Until the new department is up and running the few of us will be working harder.

  I exit the conference room with Bri behind me mumbling expletives. I turn to her and say, “Girl, you alright?”

  She rolls her eyes and says, “We all ran those numbers. This acquisition is going to bring in a decent amount of revenue.” She’s right. Although the boutiques weren’t flooded with shoppers, they had a steady client-base, but the Delaney stores have solid sells. “Notice, Karen didn’t mention anything about a raise or incentives for the extra work we’ll be doing.” Bri’s right, we are going to be expected to do more with less.

  “I could use a snack. Want to go downstairs and grab something?” Going to sleep hungry and skipping a stop at the coffee shop this morning has me famished.

  “Hit up the vending machine,” Bri says as she takes a seat at her desk. Maybe I should have said I need food. Not a vending machine snack. A breakfast biscuit will do me good. I drop my notebook on my desk and take the elevator to the lobby.

  After browsing through the limited breakfast options remaining in the building’s café, I exit to the street. A couple of doors down I walk into a bakery. At the counter I order an egg and cheese croissant and a black tea.

  The door is held open and I walk through whispering ‘thank you’ as I turn to walk back to my building. “Jennifer.” I turn around to find Aiden holding the door of the bakery. I walked through the door without glancing at the person holding it open.

  I can’t control the smile on my face. “Hey, Aiden.” He closes the bakery door and steps in closer to me.

  “Can I walk you back to your office?” I nod my head and we walk side-by-side a few doors down to my office building. “I’ve been trying to contact you for the past week.” Contact me? After he didn’t answer the phone. And my number hasn’t changed.

  “Why’d you call my office?” I know I should be getting back up to my desk, especially after my time off. I haven’t even emptied my inbox yet, but I want to know what happened. “And I called you before I left.”

  His head pulls back and he looks at me
before saying, “When we were at the park running in the rain, I must have dropped my phone.” A million questions run through my mind to negate his terrible excuse. I let him continue talking till he tells me that he got my office number from a business associate. “I even came by your apartment and gave your nosey neighbor a message the other day.” I was surprised she didn’t run straight to me and give me the message when I saw her the other night. “But that night after we were in the park I had to leave town for a work emergency.”

  Looking beyond him I say, “I should get back upstairs.” He steps aside and I walk past him.

  “Wait.” I turn to face him again. “Can I have your number so I can stop blowing up your office phone?” I laugh and tell him my phone number. I’m sure everyone in my office would appreciate my phone not ringing unnecessarily.

  Before I can get to my desk my phone vibrates.

  Aiden: Can I take you to dinner after your dance class tonight?

  He still remembers my dance schedule. Instead of responding I close the message app and finish scrolling through my inbox.

  Chapter Twelve

  This was the Monday-est Monday. A Monday on steroids. By the time I walk out of the dance studio my eyes are half closed and I’m exhausted. I didn’t reply to Aiden earlier, but now I’ll respond to let him know I just need to crash. Maybe we can grab dinner this weekend. Before going on vacation we were going out during the week. But maybe I was doing too much, giving him too much time too early.

  Jennifer: I’m too tired

  Jennifer: If you aren’t busy this weekend let’s grab dinner

  Before I can get to my apartment my phone rings. “Hello.”

  “This weekend?” Aiden says without saying hello. “I thought not responding to my text all day was torture, but now I have to wait till the weekend to see you?”

  I’d like to tell him how it was similar to me not hearing from him in over a week, or how I at least responded to his text. “I need a few days to recuperate from vacation.”

  “Vacation? And I have to wait till this weekend to hear all about your vacation?” I was too busy with Aiden before vacation to remember that I needed to be getting ready for vacation. I didn’t even mention to him that I was flying to Jamaica. Certainly it would have come up during the week before I left, had he answered the phone. “Did you already get food for the night?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it this weekend. And yes, I grabbed wings from the hot bar at Whole Foods.” Aiden asks me a few more questions as I dig into my wings. “I should get going. Let me know what your schedule looks like this weekend and we’ll make something happen.” As Aiden and I hang up I can hear the disappointment in Aiden’s voice. I believe his elaborate story about losing his phone and not having a back up of his contacts to call me. His little emergency trip out of town for work, it could have happened.

  How likely would it be that he met another chick or rekindled with one of his past flings? Now that I’ve spoken to him, I give up on my notion that he lost interest after my lack of stamina in the park. After the weekend, I’ll stop being hard on him. Maybe.

  After we reconnected, and Aiden assured me he had my number committed to memory, he made sure to text and call me non-stop. He was the first person I spoke to in the morning and I spent the night lying in bed laughing and talking to him. By Friday evening, I was more than ready to see him again.

  As soon as I hear him knock at my apartment door I run over to answer it. He hands me a bouquet of red and yellow roses. I grab them and tell him to come in as I find a makeshift vase. “Red and yellow, interesting combination,” I say as I pour water into a pitcher to put the flowers into.

  “I told the florist how much I fucked up last week and she told me the color combination would be a good choice.” He smiles and leans against the counter grabbing a petal of a yellow rose. “Yellow is for friendship, but also optimism.” I cut the stems of the roses and place them into the pitcher. “I’m hoping we can move forward from that mishap and get back on track.” Then he grabs the red rose and says, “And you know, move towards a relationship.”

  The gulp in my throat is audible and for the first time since hanging with Aiden I consider that he wants to be in a relationship. That whatever it is we’ve been doing could be more than just a casual friendship. Of course I’m attracted to him, and the passion I felt in one week was more than I had with Derrick in three years. “You have a wise florist.”

  Aiden rounds the counter and stands beside me. “We’ll hold off on the red roses for now, but do you forgive me? Think we can move past last week?” He holds my stare.

  “I can forgive you.” I look down at the roses. Grabbing a yellow one I say, “We can work on the optimism for now.” Aiden smiles and then leans down and for the first time in two weeks, I felt his lips connect with mine. We are both dressed for a night out. Me in a tight fitting black dress and him in slacks, button down, and a tie. But dressed up or not, I could forego our dinner plans and catch up for lost times. Aiden was probably thinking the same because he deepened our kiss, and his hands wrapped around my waist.

  His phone vibrates in his pocket and we try to ignore it, but it doesn’t stop. He pulls away from me and pulls out his phone. “My phone is telling us we’ll be late for our reservations if we don’t leave now.” He licks his lips and says, “But we could order take-out instead.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.” Aiden loosens his tie. “Take-out it is,” I say before leaning closer into Aiden. He throws his tie near the pitcher of roses and grabs my hand.

  “Can I take you to your room?” After Monica’s description of love against a wall, I’m tempted to stay in the kitchen and give it a try. But there’s time for that. Tonight, Aiden can carry me to my room. I nod my head.

  Standing in front of my bed, Aiden unbuttons his shirt leaving it open for me to see his chest. I reach for his belt and unbuckle it as he kisses my neck. With his pants on the ground he pulls my dress over my head and releases my bra. Bare skinned, we stand close together, heat emanating between the two of us. He continues his kisses down my body to my navel before gently pushing me onto my bed where he continues down my thighs and to my calves.

  He takes each foot, massaging it before kissing the arch. With each kiss my body squirms for more. Anticipating each kiss and the next touch, my breathing quickens.

  His head burrows between my thighs and I remember the first time it was in the same place. I grab a pillow and cover my face. Each moan stifled by the pillow until Aiden grabs the pillow with his free hand throwing it to the ground, leaving my moans to be heard unrestricted.

  When my legs become limp on his shoulders and I moan, for the last time, he makes his way back up my body kissing from my navel to my chest back to my neck again. I’m satisfied, but his kisses make me excited for what’s next. For what didn’t happen the first time.

  My hands begin roaming his body, exploring the rigid creases of his biceps. His chest hard, and bare from any hair. The ripples of his abdomen, defined but not perfect. Wanting another kiss, I grab behind his head and bring him into my mouth, kissing the taste of me from his lips.

  And we kiss, kiss until he flips me on top of him. On top of him, where I feel even more of him between my legs. I release a moan when I brush against him, again, and again. He puts his hands around my waist stilling my movement. He says, “I should get a condom.”

  I roll off of him and say, “Yes.” Because of course. Shit. I try to calm the thoughts in my head telling me to stop while I’m ahead, but my legs are laying spread eagle on my bed. It’s only been a little over a month since Derrick and I broke up, but obviously Nicole was right; he wasn’t doing shit in comparison.

  Aiden rolls on the condom while I watch, excited about what’s to come. I tell my mind to be still and I oblige as he pulls me off the bed, bending me over with my ass in the air.

  He enters me slowly at first, letting my body adjust to his thickness. In and out, till my body is ready a
nd not flinching with each re-entry. My ass takes control and it’s bouncing back, and his pace quickens. Face down, ass up, who knew this was how I liked to fuck?

  Another thrust and I feel myself clinch around him. “Damn,” he whispers and I feel his body quiver. We collapse on the bed beside each other. He kisses my nose. “I’ll take that over fine dining any day of the week.” With my eyes still closed, I smile. My body is totally relaxed and I can barely move.

  “Hey,” I hear him whisper. “Jennifer,” a little louder. “Wake up.” My eyes open searching the dark room. I feel around the bed for Aiden but he isn’t next to me. “Over here.” I sit up in the bed and see him standing in the doorway. “Hungry?”

  Looking down at my bare body, I nod my head. He leaves the doorway and I grab a t-shirt from my drawer, pulling it over my head before going into the kitchen. I wash my hands in the sink before asking, “When did food get here?”

  “Your snoring woke me up so I decided to go ahead and place an order.” He is sitting at my kitchen counter, bare chested, opening containers. The smell of basil and peppers fills the room. “I brought tacos last time, and you seemed to like those. Do you like Thai food?”

  He looks up at me and I nod my head. “Who doesn’t?” I take a seat beside him and say, “Thanks for ordering the food. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

  Laughing, he says, “I think that’s a good sign that you fell asleep.” He pauses and says, “How’s that song go, ‘just let me rock you back to sleep girl’?”

  If my skin were not as brown, he’d see my rosy red cheeks. I could get used to being put to sleep just like that. “Yeah, something like that.”

  We go back and forth about our favorite songs, and it doesn’t take us long to agree that the ninety’s put out the best music. The baby making hits as he called them.