“I’m not in the mood for lectures,” I warn.
“You mean because you’re seeing a woman half your age? No judgement. Way I see it, you’re only just hitting the same age of maturity that she’s at.”
I laugh at that because he’s right. I am. “I’ve fucked all this up. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.” The words, though I say them, leave a bad taste in my mouth and I immediately wish I could take them back.
“She’s still with you, so clearly you aren’t too upset by all the drama.”
I shrug. “I always did like to make things interesting.”
“So, fill me in. How long you been boning?”
I squeeze the steering wheel and roll down my window as the stench of his strong aftershave dominates the air in the car. “Since the day after our little poolside grilling gathering.”
“When you lathered her in lotion instead of me?”
I roll my eyes. “That would be something you remember.” Pause. “Maddox knows. After that shit last night, I convinced her to stay in my room… He came looking for us.”
“Oh shit.”
“Found us naked in bed together.”
“Double shit.”
I nod slowly. “Yes, he is not happy.”
“Doesn’t really surprise me seeing as he’s in love with her.”
I glare at my old friend. “He’s not in love with her.”
“He is. Just doesn’t realize it yet. Let’s get coffee.” He rolls down his window and spits out the wad of gum in his mouth. When he smiles at me I put the car in drive and we go but I can’t shake what he’s just said out of my head. Is he in love with her? Could Dev be right?
Fuck.
“So…”
“What, Dev?”
“Is she as feisty in bed as she looks?”
My lips stretch into a smile and I put away all of my stresses to save them for later. No point worrying about it all now, not until I’ve spoken to Maddox and know where I stand.
“Damn,” he mutters. “Lucky shit.”
“Definitely.”
We talk about business and tourism, mundane shit really but shit that helps us get an insight on how we’re running things. Even though we’re both in totally different lines of work, there’s never a time we don’t have ideas to bat to each other.
When we go for coffee, Devon flirts with the waitress and pokes fun at me when I don’t. His easy banter with her has me thinking to how I was just three weeks ago. It made me feel good to flirt but now, the thought of it makes me feel like I’m betraying the girl I have already. Does this mean we’re going steady? I’m getting too old for this shit.
People keep telling me it’s time to settle down, but with a woman half my age? Besides, she’s passionate about traveling, I doubt I’ll be able to make her stay in the same place. Perhaps I could fund it, so she remains faithful to me and returns a few months out of the year?
What am I thinking?
“You look worried,” Devon points out, sipping his coffee and placing his phone face down on the table beside it. Mine is in the same position adjacent to his.
“It’s just typical that the first woman I enjoy the company of for more than a day at a time, is too young for me, too beautiful, too off-limits.”
He nods thoughtfully. “What’re you gonna do if Maddox tells you he loves her and asks you to leave her?”
“What I always do when anybody asks me for anything,” I mumble and sigh heavily. “Pick the thing that makes me happiest and fuck everyone else. I love Maddox, but he snoozed.”
“And he sure losed.”
“Not a word.”
“It rhymed.”
“Don’t give up your day job, Jay-Z.”
He laughs loudly, drawing the eyes of those around us. “You like her a lot.”
“I’m fucking crazy about her, that’s what’s making all of this so complicated. If she was just sex, I’d wave her off; but I don’t think she is. Not anymore.”
“You love her?”
“Uh.” I shake my head. “Let’s not go that far.”
“You just said you’re crazy about her.”
I chuckle but it sounds nervous even to my ears. “In the sense that I can’t get enough of her body. She’s not like any woman I’ve ever met. She’s calm, sweet, funny… she genuinely cares about shit normal people don’t think about. Or normal people I know.”
My words remind me of when she was watching TV on the second floor the other day and cried at an advertisement for starving children. She said that’s where she wanted to go next. To help them. Seeing those few tears stain her cheeks made me feel things I shouldn’t.
This has me panicking about tonight and who she might meet at my surprise. Well, it was my idea but Marcy and Cassius put it all together. The fact they put it together so quickly is astounding. I hope Cassius can make it but if he can’t that’s good too. He’s perfect for Tempest in so many ways.