Take It (Sinclair 1)

He said things like, “Forgive me” and “I’m sorry” between kisses.

His desire took over, and he kissed her with all the longing he’d felt all week. He barely registered David storming out the store without Meg and speeding off.

He hardly noticed Meg stomping out of the store and being flicked off by Dex and DD before she yelled, “Get a room.”

He’d ignored his siblings yelling things like “ewww” and “where are the groceries.” All he cared about was Kalilah.

Kalilah broke the kiss. “They’re gone, Nick.”

Nick was confused. “Who?”

Kalilah rolled her eyes. “Meg and David.” She took a step back to put some distance between them. Oh, no. She was retreating again, but he was the cause this time.

Nick tried to grab her hand and she pulled away. “No. Go be with your family. I just didn’t want to leave you hanging in there.”

Nick’s hope took a nosedive. “Kalilah, please turn on the iPhone. Can I call you later?”

She studied him; her expression was guarded, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Dex caught her attention. She smiled at him and waved. The shades on her head sparkled in the sunlight. Nick waited patiently. Silently praying that she wasn’t about to blow him off. He slid his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground.

She wore a soft yellow maxi dress that flowed just past her ankles. The halter top of the dress cut deep enough to make her breasts look like delectable mounds on which he wanted to nibble. The dress skimmed over her curves perfectly. It wasn’t too tight or too loose. He stared at her pretty toes that peeked out from under her dress. Her red polish covered toes that were housed in caramel brown open-toe strappy sandals.

Nick tried to memorize everything he saw just in case she was about to tell him to fuck off. His nervousness and the humidity started to make his shirt stick to him. The silence only lasted a few seconds, but if felt like a lifetime.

“I don’t know, Nick.” She looked back towards the store before returning her attention to him. Her expression was somewhat pained. “Everything seems so intense. We’re dealing with relationship type issues and we’re not a couple.” She shrugged as if unsure what to say. “We’re supposed to be friends. The one thing I was supposed to help you with hasn’t happened.”

Nick felt light-headed. He tried looked past the pain and focus on responding. “We were, uh…” He looked towards Dex. “Interrupted.”

She nodded. “Yeah, and that’s when things got all dramatic. Which currently has us standing outside a grocery store unsure what to say to each other.”

There were a million things he could say to her; Nick just wasn’t sure she was ready to hear any of it. It chipped a little piece of his heart each time she reminded him that they weren’t a couple. It hurt that she had no clue that he meant what he said in the grocery store, or that his happiness to see her was not for show. They were at a temporary impasse. He had trust issues, and she was a beautiful commitment-phobe.

“I overreacted, and I apologized,” Nick pointed out.

She studied him for a moment. “We seem to be stuck on repeat, Nick. Tell you what. Check periodically. If the iPhone rings instead of going to straight to voicemail, then that’ll mean I’m ready to talk.”

She waved at him, then at Dex and DD. She’d disappeared back into the store before he could say anything else. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining, but it did nothing to lighten his mood. Nick took a deep breath and climbed back into the car. He would stop at a grocery store closer to his parent’s house. He mentally prepared himself for the onslaught of questions; he mentally promised himself that he would not take his bad mood out on his family.

Kalilah woke up suddenly and stared into the blackness of her room. Her limbs were tangled in her sheets, and her body was covered in a sheen of sweat that had nothing to do with mid-July’s humidity. The room was silent except for the beating of her heart and her shallow breathing. She looked at the clock on her phone. 2:30 AM. Damn.

It was the first night of her vacation, and she had yet another erotic dream about Nick. He was becoming a regular sleep killer. Her dream was so vivid that she almost expected him to be there. Her body still throbbed. Resigned, she climbed out of bed to get a cup of juice. Kalilah pulled on her robe and strolled into the kitchen.

The last two weeks had been the biggest case of self-imposed torture she’d ever endured. He was polite at work; he’d give her the usual co-worker pleasantries and participate in meetings. Not once had he tried to persuade her to turn on the iPhone. She was happy that he was respecting her decision, but the irrational part of her wanted him to at least mention it.

Kalilah walked back to her room with her juice and sat at her desk. She sighed and started her computer. There was one good thing about her sexual frustration; her erotic stories were pouring out of her. Her dream had given her another idea that she needed to outline while it was still fresh. Her mind wandered back to Nick while her computer went through its startup process.

He looked so good yesterday. Kalilah was impressed that he’d committed to his new style, but she saw a glimpse of the old Nick yesterday. He must have been running late because his hair wasn’t as neat as it had been lately and he wore glasses.

She did notice that he’d upgraded his glasses to rimless frames. They gave him the vision he desired but didn’t hide his face. The look really worked for him, and she wanted to tell him how cute he looked. To add insult to injury, he wore a light blue, fitted dress shirt with gray slacks that fit him perfectly, and he’d topped it off with navy blue suspenders.

Kalilah almost died when he showed up to the Thursday management meeting. She’d always had a thing for an attractive guy in suspenders thanks to Patrick Swayze in the movie Dirty Dancing. Thanks to Nick, she’d made it through another meeting and could not repeat anything anyone said, including herself. Her break from him didn’t dull her feelings for Nick; it’d only increased them tenfold.

Natalia and Cayla gave her shit for freezing him out so long. They were team Nick all the way and she was somehow the villain. Kalilah frowned. Weren’t they supposed to be on her side? Either way, the one thing that replayed in her head was the question ‘How would you feel if he started dating someone else?’ Without a doubt, Kalilah knew that it would hurt. The possibility of Nick being with someone else was absolutely unacceptable. The women at work circled him like vultures, and she was ready to put a stop to it. Nick was hers, whether he knew it or not.

Kalilah closed the computer again. She didn’t feel like typing anymore; instead, she went to her nightstand and pulled out the iPhone and turned it on. Kalilah was nervous. What if he’d given up? What if he had found someone else? What if he had changed his mind?

The phone chimed to tell her she had a text message. Her stomach fluttered and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. The text was from two days ago, and it looked like a small paragraph. She hoped it wasn’t Nick telling her goodbye. Kalilah bit her bottom lip as she read the message.

Nick: Hey, Kalilah. I’ve tried calling you almost daily, and it appears that you are still not talking to me. I don’t blame you. I do have a track record of overreacting and jumping to stupid conclusions. I wanted to send you this message to let you know that I will still try to contact you until you tell me otherwise. Just in case you have turned on the phone and I’ve missed it because I have shitty timing, you would at least know that I’ve tried. You looked beautiful today, and I wanted to let you know that. I miss you, and it’s not because I’m still a virgin. Lol.