“They are. Here. Try it,” he cut off a piece of enchilada, eased it onto a fork, and lifted it up to her mouth.
She allowed him to slide the food into her mouth, and unintentionally moaned, while chewing. The food was actually better than she’d anticipated.
Levi smirked. “See, I told you.”
Fucking with this nigga, I’ll be fat as hell. Nunnie couldn’t help thinking to herself.
Delightfully, she ate her food, while Levi remained attentive.
“So,” she eventually sighed. “You have to work today?”
“Not if I don’t want to,” he readily responded.
“Oh, must be nice.”
“It is,” he concurred. “But can I ask you something?”
She shrugged. “Go ahead. I’m pretty open. Either you fucking with it, or you aint.”
He chuckled. “Okay, I got you. Anyway, why does it sound like you’re living from pillow to post? Where’s your mama and daddy?”
She stroked the side of her face. “They’re both in prison. They didn’t go at the same time, if you were wondering. My daddy went when I was like eleven for murder. He won’t be out, until I’m almost thirty. My mama’s been in the Feds for the past three years. She has three years left. They got her for mail fraud.”
“Wow,” he sighed, truly blown away. “So, nobody in your family took you in?”
“Yeah, my auntie did. I graduated from her house and everything. I just recently moved out…after we had a situation.”
Picking up on a vibe, he nodded. “Don’t wanna talk about it, huh?”
“I’d rather not.”
“I understand.”
She softly smiled, warming his heart for some reason. Already, he’d developed quite an affinity for the young girl, although he couldn’t quite dissect why.
“So, Naveriah, tell me, when do you go back to work?”
She bit her bottom lip. “The day after tomorrow. Why?”
“Okay. Can I preoccupy your time?”
“Come again?”
“I’m saying. I wanna spend your off days with you. Get to know you better. Is that alright with you?”
She giggled. “Flat out, huh? You gon skip right over the little dates and stuff, right? You wanna kick it for a few days.”
“Aye, what can I say? I’m a different type of guy. And you’re not completely right in your assessment. Yeah, I wanna kick it for a few days with no interruptions, but I’m definitely trying to take you on multiple dates. Because that’s how I roll.”
“Oh, shit, well go ‘head, then. Nigga, spoil me.”
He winked, as he eased an arm around her. “Oh, don’t worry. I will.”
Chapter 11
Stepping out of the mall, Nunnie smiled. As promised, Levi’s Audi was parked curbside, awaiting her.
“Hey,” she spoke, as she pulled open the passenger’s door.
“Hey, beautiful, you snuck up on me. I wanted to get out and open up the door for you.”
“No need, no need,” she insisted, as she eased into the truck.
“So, how was your day?” he questioned, as he pulled away from the curb.
“It was okay,” she yawned, before scanning over his relaxed attire. He was rocking a Nike muscle shirt along with a pair of joggers, looking like he was about to go in for a workout.
“Is that right?” he gripped the steering wheel, while navigating to his apartment building. Instead of parking, he pulled up in front of the building. Crazily, he’d just naturally assumed that she was going back to his place. Since their first time kicking it, she hadn’t been back to Tink’s, which had been almost a week now. “Hey, I’m gonna let you go up from here.”
Nunnie gave him a funny look. “You’re not coming up with me?”
He scratched the top of his head. “No. Honestly, I have a run to make. In the truck. It’s overnight.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Wait, so I’m going to be in your apartment without you?”
“Yeah. I trust you.”
“But Levi, you could’ve just dropped me off—”
“I didn’t want to,” he cut her off. “I know that you could’ve gone to pile up at your friend’s, but why do that, when you don’t have to? I have this space, right here. You can kick up your feet and relax.”
She exhaled. “I don’t know.”
He frowned. “You don’t know what?”
“I mean, I’m not used to staying by myself. I might get a little bored…or scared,” she bit her bottom lip.
He howled with laughter.
She shoved his shoulder. “It’s not funny.”
“So, let me get this straight. You’ve never stayed at home alone?”
“No.” she bucked her eyes. “Not completely. I’ve always had my sister or somebody with me.”
“Okay, call your sister over. Tell her to keep you company.”
She arched a brow. “You sure? I can have company?”
“Yeah, I’m positive.” He nodded. “Here’s the key. I’ll be back tomorrow. There’s a little cash for whatever you might need on the counter in the kitchen.”
Smiling, she leaned over, kissing his cheek. “Thank you.”
He handed her the key. “You’re welcome. See you tomorrow.”
She opened the passenger’s door. “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
***
“Man, come on, for real, will yall stop snooping through this man’s stuff?” Nunnie groaned, as Dreka and Tink stood in the middle of Levi’s enormous walk-on closet.
“Girl, chill out, shit, we’re just sightseeing,” Dreka waved her sister off, as she eyed pair of three-thousand-dollar shoes.
“Yeah, right, bitch,” Nunnie griped. “You must think I’m crazy. Your fucking hand is itching like crazy, and it’s taking everything in you not to snatch some shit. But yall not about to fuck this up for me.”
Tink crinkled her cute nose. “Ewe, bitch, I’m appalled. Quit acting like we aint seeing no niggas with real money. This nigga aint the only one with some bread.”
“But he’s the only one dumb enough to leave a hoe he barely knows alone with all his shit, though,” Dreka added.
“True,” Tink co-signed.
“The hell you say,” Nunnie snapped. “He knows where the fuck I work.”
“And? You can always get another job…but a lick like this? We probably wouldn’t luck up on another one no time soon. We can pack away this whole closet, and pay rent for the rest of the year, and then some,” Dreka predicted.
“Yeah, if we aint down in the county jail fighting fucking theft charges. Didn’t you bitches show I.D to get in this building?” Nunnie enquired.
Dreka tittered. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m slipping like a muthafucka. A bitch just seen how this nigga is living and just lost it. Muthafucka is paid. Do you hear me?”
“Hell, yeah, Nunnie, you snatched yourself up something real proper like,” Tink added.
“Uh huh.” Dreka nodded. “Now, where you say that nigga at, again?”
Nunnie shrugged. “He said that he had to work, but I don’t know.”
“Why you say that you don’t know?” Dreka questioned.
“Because he has some shirts that he wears to work with his company logo on them. He wasn’t wearing that. Plus, I’ve heard him mention that he only drives locally. Well, he wasn’t telling me that…he was talking outside on the deck, and I overheard him. When he does go in to work, he works during the day, and it’s always local. But he tells me that he’s working overnight out of nowhere. I don’t know…I even heard him say something about his house to somebody on the phone. So, maybe his ass has been over here kicking it with me in this apartment or something, and now he has to take his ass home. To his actual residence.”
Tink scratched her head. “Yeah, well, that sounds about right.”
“What?” Nunnie narrowed her eyes.
“I mean, you say that he’s cute. Drives a Audi. Got this nice ass apartment. He dresses like he do fraud. S
o, the nigga gotta have two three bitches.”
“At a minimum,” Dreka added.
“Whatever,” Nunnie rolled her eyes.
“Nunnie, what you rolling your eyes for?” Dreka wanted to know.
“Why wouldn’t I? Nobody got time to be playing with this overgrown ass man,” Nunnie scoffed.
“Nah, nobody got time to be playing with you,” Dreka countered. “You standing here with big girl issues. Shit, Ion know how ole boy haven’t noticed, cause the shit is hard to miss these days. Anyway, you need all the help you can get, sister. So, you need to bleed this nigga for everything he got. Shit, the way I see it, your time is limited, so you need to get up on it. Pronto. Use this shit to your advantage. If this aint his primary spot, then cool. Stay here for as long as you can. Rent free. Go to work. Stack all your checks. Stack all his money too. So, if and when this shit ends, you can grab your own lil’ apartment, pay some rent for a few months in advance, and do you. That’s the way I see it. You done made your bed, and now it’s time to lay in it.”
***
“This was too sweet of you,” Nunnie swooned, as she unwrapped the shrimp tacos that Levi had just brought up to mall for lunch.
“It was no sweat, beautiful,” he winked, as he sat across from her in the middle of the crowded food court.
“You sure about that?” she tittered, before taking a huge bite out of the taco.
He sat watching her eat. “You were pretty hungry, huh?”
Nunnie ate with no shame. She was surprised that he only slightly poked fun at her ferocious appetite, that was literally growing by the day. It was like there was this enormous elephant in the room, and if he wasn’t going to address it, then she wasn’t going to, either.
They were clearly dating at this point, but nothing else was clear. Nunnie would sleep at his apartment, but Levi was in and out. At this point, he didn’t even try to offer full explanations when he’d dip. He’d just bid his good-byes. Nunnie could only assume that there was someone else, but she didn’t know how she felt about it. Levi had come along and made life easier for her, which she was grateful for, but she couldn’t become emotionally invested into someone who belonged to someone else. Hell, her heart wasn’t free to do so, anyway.
“You know I love these tacos,” Nunnie spoke with a mouthful.
“Yeah, I do know that much,” he commented, as he studied her closely. “But aye, tonight, I’m trying to kick it. So, you gotta make room in the bed for me.”
Hearing that, Nunnie knew that he was trying to push up on her. It had been a while since he’d actually slept at his own apartment. She’d been grateful, because there’d been absolutely no pressure for sex, and Dreka had warned her that it wouldn’t last for long. She figured that he probably wasn’t hard up, because he was probably already spreading himself thin, considering he could rarely spend the night, anyway. Yet, now, here they were, and she didn’t know how to handle it. Of course, she was far from a virgin, but she’d never been the type to go around fucking on every nigga who had interest. Yes, she liked Levi, but she knew that if this was purely about her feelings, then they were nowhere near to having sex, right then.
“So, you’re sleeping over?” she asked him.
“Yeah, I am.”
Suddenly, her stomach became queasy. She shot to her feet. “I gotta go to the restroom,” she announced, before scurrying away.
By the time she’d reached the restroom her stomach had settled, but her cell was ringing. So, she attempted to calm her nerves, while resting her back up against the nearest wall.
Whipping the phone out of her pocket, checking the screen, she didn’t recognize the number, but answered anyway. “Yeah, who is this?”
“Damn, what’s wrong with you?”
Hearing his voice, her heart skipped a beat.
“Mix?”
“Who else is it gonna be?”
She gulped. “I mean, I don’t know. It’s been so long, I thought that…I thought that you decided to just move on.”
He sucked his teeth. “You thought that I decided to move on? Girl, get the fuck. What type of shit is that?”
“What chu mean? How long has it been since I’ve heard from you?”
“It’s been damn near a month.”
“Exactly!” she shouted, causing her voice to echo off the restroom’s walls. “That’s way too damn long!”
“Nunu, I had to let shit die down first, before I get back to calling on a regular basis. Not only that, I wanted you to be a little bit stronger. You know. At the point where you done mentally accepted some shit.”
“But what if I hadn’t? And what if I would’ve fallen apart in the meantime? You wouldn’t have known shit! Either way, you wasn’t here. You decided to walk away and left me to deal with shit on my own.”
“If I couldn’t help myself, then how the hell could I have helped you, Nunu,” he snapped. “Come on, girl. Don’t handle me like that. I’d never willingly walk away from you. I aint have a choice. My hands was tied in the city. I was broke. On the run. And on the flip side, I know that I left you emotionally fucked up. But believe me, you’d be going through it ten times over, if you was in this position with me. I couldn’t have that on my heart. I swear, I’d rather have you mad at me, right now.”
Digesting everything he sputtered, she inhaled. “So, you say.”
“That’s real shit, Naveriah. But anyway, what’s been up? Where yall been staying and shit?”
“Hmm…mostly at Tink’s.”
“Mostly at Tink’s, huh? Yeah, okay. Tink stay by the galleria now?”
“Wait, what?”
“You heard me.”
“I mean, I don’t know where you’re going with this. I haven’t even heard from you in almost a month. Didn’t even have a number on you. Don’t know what city or state you’re in. So, who stays by the galleria is irrelevant, don’t you think?”
“Say, Naveriah, let me tell you something. You listening?”
“Uh huh.”
“My name aint Save. That nigga is laying up in the hospital on life support. So, this reverse psychology bullshit will get you nowhere. You don’t know my whereabouts for a fucking reason. But clearly, I know yours. I always fucking will. Even when you don’t hear from me. So, like I said, who the fuck live in that big ass building you be posted up in?”
“One of Dreka’s dips,” Nunnie quickly blurted out.
“Bi—” he caught himself. “Girl, quit fucking lying. You over there fucking that nigga? You laying up?”
“No!” she belted. “I told you what it is, Maizun! It’s Dreka’s friend!”
“Stop fucking lying to me, Naveriah!” he barked. “If you over there fucking that nigga…I’ma…I’ma fucking—”
“I keep telling you that I’m not fucking anybody! What the hell I look like? That’s the last thing on my mind. I get sick from the fucking thought!” tears became clogged up in her throat. “I can barely function without you, and here you are, worried about some other nigga. I don’t give a fuck about these niggas out here! I just want you, Maizun! When you gon come back to me, huh? Please come back to me. Pleasssseee,” she whimpered into the phone.
Realizing how upset she was getting, Mix simmered down. “Nunu, stop crying. Please. Just give me a little while longer. I gotta make this money, and then I’m back. I promise.”
Closing her eyes, Nunnie nodded, hoping and praying that he kept his word.
***
After being properly wined and dined earlier that evening, Nunnie was lying on her side, clad in Levi’s t-shirt, pretending to watch TV, while he spooned her from behind. Truly, he’d outdone himself, taking her to see a huge waterfall, before treating her to the exquisite Steak 48. She definitely had no complaints there, but now here they were.
For over two hours they’d been lying in his bed, watching Netflix. Thus far, Levi had been the perfect gentlemen, but his desires were clear. His hand was planted firmly on her hip, and he was now rubbing in a cir
cular motion. His efforts were subtle, but consistent, however that wasn’t what told Nunnie that he was ready for something more. No. The huge bulge poking her through his Nike shorts was the dead giveaway and was now hard as a rock.
Shaking her head, Nunnie smirked, when she felt him gently kiss the back of her neck. “When are you going to sleep?”
“In a minute,” he whispered, while maneuvering a hand around to her breast.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” he claimed, while stroking her nipple through the t-shirt. He then grinded his hard-on into her ass.
Nunnie’s clit thumped against her will. She was aroused and confused. Levi was an incredibly handsome man; therefore, she was naturally attracted to him. His touch also felt nice, but guilt was eating her alive. The only reason Mix wasn’t there in Houston still living his best life was because he’d chosen to protect her. He’d been her rock through whatever adversity, and she didn’t feel right, fucking the next man, just because she was facing hard times. Her love was supposed to be strong enough to weather the storms without spreading her legs. And frankly, no matter how much she tried to pretty this up, that’s exactly what this was about. Her hard times. She didn’t know enough about Levi to say that she was falling, or that she’d developed real feelings. This was about survival, but were her circumstances truly that dire to dilute what she and Mix shared to solidify the help?
While Nunnie’s mind was preoccupied, Levi seized the opportunity, whipping out his dick. Immediately, she was sober when she felt him slap her ass with his steel pipe. Her back stiffened, as she clammed up.
“What’s the matter,” he breathed into her ear.
“Nothing,” she sighed, as she hurriedly sat up, snatching her phone off the nightstand. “I gotta pee,” she announced, before scurrying off to the bathroom. Once she was safely locked away in the bathroom, she gazed at herself in the vanity mirror. “What are you doing, Naveriah? This aint you. Aint never been you. You can’t lay up with this man. Not like this. It don’t matter how much money he got. You can’t be bought. The shit aint worth your soul. Besides, you got a little over five racks put up. That’s enough for a little bullshit apartment. You can pay some rent for a few months. Buy some cheap furniture and keep it pushing. It’s better than nothing. You aint completely on your ass, like some of these hoes out here.”
No Matter What Page 12