by Briann Danae
Pulling in the parking lot and seeing the woman answer her phone had Sen hotter than a hot day in the summer after it rained and was humid as fuck outside.
“You’re outside?” Neicey questioned, thinking he was at her job.
“Yeah, I’m outside alright. Stay yo ass at that table.”
Before she could reply, the line disconnected and Neicey looked around the parking lot for Sen’s truck. Her pulse skittered alarmingly and, before she saw his face, his bun greeted her eyes first. Dressed in a pair of Nike shorts, a white tee, and a pair of Air Max, Neicey felt her breathing become labored. She loved when he dressed up, but he was walking up on her looking all daddy-ish with that mug on his face, a delightful shiver of wanting him ran through her.
Quickly, Neicey stood to her feet, surprised, and more uncertain than ever as Sen approached the table. “Hey, babe.”
“What the fuck is this Shanice? Aye,” Sen said, drawing his head back. “Don’t I know you, my nigga?”
Dex wiped his hands with the napkin in front of him and took a sip from his water, pissing Sen off even more. “Nah… you don’t.”
“This is our IT manager, Mr. Agaci. I didn’t realize what time it was. Are you ready to go?” Neicey asked Sen, trying to deescalate the tension in the air, but Sen nor Dex was letting up. The two were staring at each other, waiting for the other to pop off slick.
Eyes locked on Dex, Sen picked up half of the sandwich Neicey didn’t finish and bit into. Smacking, he took a sip of her lemonade and grinned. “Thanks for lunch, tight pants mufucka. Make this the last time you treat my woman to lunch. She can feed herself. Right, Shanice?”
“Sen,” Neicey sighed. He was doing too much, but she should have known he wasn’t going to let up. He was still in his feelings about the incident from earlier in the week.
“She probably can feed herself, but I don’t mind providing. That’s what a man does, right?” Dex challenged, testing Sen’s G and making Neicey’s eyes go wide.
Her mind flashed back to the conversation they had in the car, and she hoped like hell Sen didn’t think Dex was in no way disrespecting her. For once, she was praying he just walked away, and God must have heard her prayers because all Sen did was give a subtle head nod and grabbed Neicey’s hand.
At the truck, he opened her door and shut it without a slam, and Neicey looked at him with suspicion as he walked around to his side. Too stunned by his cool demeanor, she didn’t utter a word as he pulled out of the parking lot. Thankfully, her travel bags had been placed in the backseat when he dropped her off at work that morning.
Coming to a red light, Sen gave her a sidelong glance. The expression on his face displayed one of utter disbelief, as his head swayed from side to side.
“What?” she questioned, needing him to say something. The silence was thick and deafening.
“Did you have a good day at work?”
Neicey took a quick gasp of astonishment and was momentarily speechless. This nigga is crazy, she said in her head, before Sen pulled off when the light turned green. Sen was an ever-changing mystery and, yes, he may have been crazy, but Neicey loved his smart, rude-mouthed ass.
“Is that the question you really want to ask me?”
He chuckled and licked his lips. “Yep. Roll us up a blunt before we hop on this highway.”
“Hmm,” Neicey hummed, grabbing the bag of weed and cigarillos from inside her purse. If her job were to ever do a random drug test, she was fucked. “It was cool. Learned a new software program for Monday morning,” she mumbled, kicking her shoes off.
“That’s what’s up. This drive what… almost six hours?”
“Right at six, but I know you’ll beat that time,” she answered, dumping the guts of the blunt into a Ziploc bag.
“Yeah… as long as I don’t have to pull over.” Neicey looked at him and rolled her eyes, not even wanting to ask why they would need to stop.
“Don’t be rolling yo eyes. Ole fat head ass. You gone come up missing, you keep testing my gangster. Toss you in the middle of one of them fields out there,” he said with a chuckle.
“Whatever, nigga. You wouldn’t know what to do without me.”
Sen didn’t reply, and Neicey looked up to find his tawny brown eyes trained on her. “I barely know what to do with your ass now, but I’m holding on and trying to figure out. We need this weekend away from the town. Shit been hectic all week, baby. I need a stress-free weekend with you. Can we have that?”
Grabbing his right hand, Neicey kissed the back it, closed her eyes, and let out a deep breath. She, too, needed a stress-free weekend, but knew this was only the beginning. Being around her family brought back too many memories, and she prayed having Sen present would calm her nerves. Only time would tell, though.
“We can do that,” she replied, and Sen smirked.
“Good. Spark that shit up and let’s ride.”
***
Two hours into their trip, Neicey had taken a Kush nap and was just waking from her slumber. The duo had gotten high, rapped and sang to old school songs, laughed and discussed their friends, particularly the newest edition to their family, Lil Meechi. Sen was damn near obsessed with his younger cousin, and Erica had to tell him on many of nights that he was not taking her son home with him.
“That lil nigga will be good with me,” was always Sen’s reply. Erica didn’t doubt that he would, but she wanted her baby to get a little older before he started having sleepovers at other folks’ crib. Yawning, Neicey rubbed the sleep from her eyes before squinting them at the clock.
“You been rolling,” she assessed, seeing the time on the clock. A road trip to Arkansas was a little over six hours, but Sen was making good timing.
“Yo ass was knocked out. Left a nigga hanging,” Sen replied.
Reaching for the slushy they had made a quick stop to get, Neicey sucked her teeth. “Really? You had to drink all my stuff?”
“Aye. If you about to wake up on some mad shit, you might as well go back to sleep until we get there. I had cotton mouth like a mufucka, while you were over there counting sheep and shit,” Sen replied, making Neicey roll her eyes. She was thirsty as hell, too.
“I was counting money, actually. I asked if you wanted one, and you said no.”
“I didn’t. I wanted to share with you.” Sen gave her a smirk, before squeezing her bare thigh. In the midst of them getting high, Neicey clumsily dropped ashes on her jeans and traded them for a pair of shorts from her bag in the backseat. The swap was perfect timing, especially with the heat beaming down through the windshield.
“Key word,” Neicey chuckled, relaxing back in the seat. “Share.”
Peeping the beat to the song that had been playing on low volume, Neicey leaned forward to turn the volume up a notch. Swaying in her seat, she started snapping her fingers, and Sen looked her way with a grin on his face.
“Aye, this my shit,” she said and started twerking in the seat. Hands on the dashboard, her ample ass lifted into the air, and Sen dug into his pocket. “Like Beyoncé. Like Trina. Like a big booty ass black diva. Like a strippa’.”
“Don’t make me pull this mufucking truck over,” Sen said, sprinkling money over her ass cheeks. Like That by Webbie was Neicey’s go to song for when she wanted to get ratchet back in the day. Well, she had a few, but Webbie’s fine ass usually did the trick. Tucking her feet underneath her, she began giving Sen his own personal strip tease without removing her clothes.
Struggling to keep his eyes on the road, Sen gave her a swift smack to the ass. “Mane, quit playing for you get fucked on the side of this highway.”
Sitting up, Neicey leaned over the console, and rapped in his face. “All I need is one night and just a few minutes. I’ma handle this here and I’m through with it.” Stroking his length through his shorts, she kissed on his neck before kissing the corner of his mouth. Sen sucked his teeth with a shake of his head.
“Gon’ and kiss somethin’ else with yo teasing ass,” he told
her, before Neicey happily obliged and pulled his erection from his boxers and shorts. With his right hand, he held her hair back and used his left to control the truck.
“Shit, bae,” Sen groaned, as Neicey took him all in.
Though they were behind tint, an exhilarating feeling soared through Neicey at the thought of someone catching the hint of what was going down. When Sen’s legs stretched and mashed the gas as she deep throated him, she smirked.
“Let me pull over,” he hissed, glancing down in his lap.
“Mmm, mmm,” Neicey hummed and kept right on sucking. Making her ass clap to the last beat of the song, she let out a moan when he stroked her pussy through the front of her shorts. It didn’t help that once the song ended, Any Time by J-Diggs came on. She was ready to tell him to pull over, but they only had a little less than an hour before they touched down. And, knowing Sen, he’d be trying to do everything but get a quick nut off. For some reason, he enjoyed sight-seeing in other states and collecting keepsakes when they traveled.
“Suck that shit. Fuck!” Hand back on her head, he tried thrusting his hips but it was a failed attempt, so he just gripped her head tighter and let Neicey do her thang.
Slurping and sucking loudly, she knew just how to get her man off. Sen’s toes popped inside his Nikes, as she deep throated and held him there. Breathing through her nose, she felt the truck swerve a little, and Sen’s legs trembled before his warm load coated her tongue and slid down her throat. Not missing a drop, Neicey licked her lips once her head lifted and a smirk was on her face.
“Got damn. A nigga almost wrecked.”
Neicey chuckled, as he fixed himself. “You shouldn’t have closed your eyes.”
Sen shook his head. “Shit was feeling too good. Why you trying to stay at your mama’s shit? We need our privacy, and you know how you get. Loud ass moans and shit, she gone think I’m in there hurting you.”
Though she shouldn’t have, Neicey froze up. Sen was insinuating them having sex, but Neicey’s mind had gone down memory lane just that quickly and placed her in a bad space. The entire ride had been good, mostly because she had been high or sleeping. Absentmindedly, she looked out of the window to assess their surroundings. Realizing just how close they were, her throat ached, and she struggled to swallow the extra saliva that had collected.
“Neicey!” Sen called out, snapping her from her vivid thoughts.
Facing him, Neicey found her voice. “Y-yeah?”
“You straight? I was just over here talking to myself for like five minutes, and you ain’t said shit. You hungry or something?”
She couldn’t help but chuckle at his concern. Sen was so loving and protective, it still scared Neicey to this day that he could love her like he did. It was that unfiltered, ride or die, wake you up in the wee hours of the morning just to express my feelings, type of love. That type of love that made a woman who wasn’t expecting it to clam up and, after all these years, Neicey couldn’t wrap her mind around why she still clammed up. She loved his rude ass. Lord knows she did, but a piece of her was still hidden from him and, until it was revealed, she would never be able to fully understand why he loved her the way he did.
Neicey shook her head no, sighed, and sat back in her seat. “No. I’m good, was just thinking about the smile my mama is going to have on her face. She likes for all her kids to stay with her whenever we come in town.”
“All her kids?” Sen questioned. “It’s just you and your brother. You talking like it’s a bunch of ya’ll. She got some secret kids you ain’t told me about?”
“It is only just us two. You know that.”
“Yo brother still with ole girl? What’s her name?”
Neicey chuckled. Her brother was most definitely still married to his high school sweetheart, even with the trials and tribulations life had taken them through. “Marlae. And, yeah. They’ve been together for years. He ain’t going nowhere.”
“Shit, she ain’t either. That nigga stayed by her side when she lost another nigga’s baby. She can leave that man if she wants to.”
A slight chuckle escaped Sen’s mouth, but he wasn’t being funny at all. Marlae and Nolan had called themselves taking a break a few years back. Marlae couldn’t handle the separation so, stupidly, she went back to her ex for a late-night cap and wound up pregnant. It was never her intentions to get knocked up, but unprotected sex was a sure chance of if happening. Sad thing about fooling around with an ex again, you never know what they have going on in their life. Marlae’s ex just so happened to be engaged, found out he had gotten her pregnant, and made her get an abortion. Not made her, but threatened her life and Nolan’s.
The worst kind of depression settled in Marlae’s life, and it was only by the grace of Nolan consoling her had she been able to deal with the horrendous act. Did he have to take her back? Absolutely not, and many of his family had voiced that opinion, but it wasn’t them whom he was in love with. Marlae had his heart, mind, and soul. There was no way he was going to let her suffer alone. For that, Neicey applauded and hated him at the same time.
Hesitant with her reply, Neicey released a short breath. “She didn’t lose the baby. Ole boy made her get rid of it.”
Sen’s wide eyes skirted over to her in surprise. “Damn. That’s fucked up. She knew for a fact it was his?”
Neicey nodded her head and, as casually as her voice would allow her to manage, she asked, “You ever had a girl get one?”
The car got eerily quiet, and Neicey found herself not even breathing. This wasn’t a topic that usually came up in their conversations. Some topics Neicey felt would present themselves when it was time, and that time for this topic was now. Slowly, Sen lubricated his lips. That question had come from left field. Before settling down, he was reckless as hell. He was still very much reckless but, women wise, he didn’t have a care in the world how he treated them.
In his eyes, women wanted him for what they thought he could do for them. Only thing Sen could do for them was provide them with long pipe and a nut. Females saw him for money and an opportunity to come up. Weren’t any bitches about to come up off him or set him up for their nigga. Females were grimy out here, and he treated them as such. He’d fuck em’, duck off in the trap, and they’d see him when he wanted to see them. It wasn’t until he met Neicey, who was just as reckless as him, that had him reconsidering humbling himself. And no, he didn’t change right then. In fact, he was still make some changes to himself to this day.
“Make her get one, or she got one without me knowing?” he asked, needing her to clarify the question.
Neicey swallowed hard. She wished he had never even brought her brother up to begin with. “Make her get one.”
“Yeah,” was his answer, and Neicey felt her chest sink. Vision blurred, she faced the window, not knowing what else to say after that, which was not like her. But, some situations caused for silence. A deafening silence that Sen didn’t let settle.
“I mean, shit, I knew them hoes weren’t only fucking me. Plus, I wasn’t ready for no child. Most of the time, they came to me about the shit before I even knew they were pregnant.”
“They?” Neicey hissed, now facing him with a voice full of disgust.
Sen sucked his teeth. “Two females. One I was fucking off heavy with and probably could have had a child with, but she wanted the abortion. I knew shawty wasn’t for me after she said she never wanted kids. After that, I cut her ass off.”
“I didn’t ask for all the details, Sensay,” Neicey huffed. The details of his past relationships, she could do without.
He shrugged. “I know, but shit… I’m telling the truth. She didn’t even give me a chance to see how I’d feel about it. She just went to the chop shop on some dumb shit. Talkin’ about I’m a dog ass nigga, and she’d never have a baby by me.”
A hint of hurt or hatred was detected in Sen’s tone, and Neicey couldn’t help but further investigate. Though she didn’t really care to know, the subject seemed like something he
wanted to get off his chest suddenly. Neicey wished she had as much courage as him.
“And the other girl?” she asked.
“I made her get one. I feel bad as fuck about it now but, back then, I was only doing what I thought was right. Shawty was a good girl. In school and shit. I knew better. We knew better. Plus, we weren’t even together. She was sneaking around fucking with me behind her pops’ back and, if she hadn’t gotten rid of it, he was going to get rid of her. Life is a mufucka, man,” he exhaled with a huff.
Neicey sat stoned-faced and nodded her head. Life most certainly a mufucka, one you had no control of sometimes. Why things happened to certain people, she didn’t know, and she used to question God but stopped. He had blessed her beyond what she thought she deserved and, though it took her a while to realize that, she understood that life wasn’t always sweet. She wanted things to go a certain way and go down a path that wasn’t created for her, but, she stopped and listened. And when she did, God immediately put a halt to what path she thought was for her. Thankfully, Neicey had opened not only her ears but her mind, in just the nick of time.
“It certainly is, but we have to make the best of it,” she agreed in a calm but shaky tone.
Looking her way, Sen smirked. “And, we will. As long as you ride for a nigga.”
As long as you ride for me, Neicey said in her head. She needed him more than he would probably ever know.
Chapter Eight
Two hours later, Neicey was releasing a serious yawn as she climbed from the passenger seat. Just like she remembered, her mother’s neighborhood in Little Rock, Arkansas was quiet but didn’t feel like home at all. Over the years, her generation had moved out and started their lives in various parts of town. The only reason she knew was because her grandmother Sherry used to keep her up to date when she was alive. Neicey never discussed her sudden death and, because of it, her frequent trips had stopped well before she went off to college.