I was jarred outta my sleep by two things, the smell of bacon and a velvety smooth voice singing along to "You Are the Best Thing" by Ray LaMontagne. I rolled over into my pillow trying to muffle the sound and get back into REM when the events of the previous night came flooding back to me. I peeled my eyes open to see a room that I had no cause to pay much attention to last night, but couldn't soak in enough of the details this morning. The room was anchored by the large, charcoal grey colored sleigh bed, with a tufted headboard in which I found myself snuggled currently. Linens and window dressings were in various shades of grey, but the monochromatic look managed to give an aura of warmth and depth instead of being static and flat. I went to run my fingers through my hair and found it to be a matted tangled mess. Sighing, I tried to quickly hop out of the bed to investigate just how crazy it looked in the en suite bathroom's mirror, but the sound of the music I heard getting louder made me freeze in my tracks.
"Fuck it, he'll get what he gets," I muttered, vainly trying to shake my hair to attain some semblance of cute.
Quincy entered the room, balancing a few plates on his arms, looking like a damn work of art—sculpted biceps, a sixty-four pack, and, my weakness, those damn v-cuts, dips, whatever they were called. Meanwhile I looked like I was about to say "ohhhhhtay", hair on straight Buckwheat status. He walked over and placed the plates on the night stand on my side of the bed before holding up a finger and running out of the room again. When he returned, he placed the glasses of apple juice and the bottle of ketchup that he was holding on the nightstand and leaned down to give me a kiss. What I'm sure he meant to be a quick brush of the mouth turned into my hands twining themselves behind his neck and drawing him down to the bed and into a deeper kiss.
Pulling back slowly, Quincy said, "Now that's what I call a good morning greeting. Fuck this food!"
Then proceeded to nibble his way down my neck when my stomach sounded off like a lion in the wild. Quincy immediately busted out laughing as I lowered my head in embarrassment and groaned. He nudged me to move closer to the middle of the bed before settling in and passing me a plate and a glass of juice. Quincy had made us each a simple breakfast sandwich with eggs, cheese, and hand-pressed sausage patties on a biscuit and a side of hash browns.
"You're good with eating in your bed?"
"Are you a toddler? Besides, after all the nasty things you did to me last night? These sheets need to get changed anyway."
I fake gasped, collapsing into laughter, "Me? I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Mmmmhmmm, sure, whatever you say."
"Hey..."
"Is for horses."
I rolled my eyes before continuing, "Were you listening to Ray LaMontagne earlier?"
"Girl, what you know about Ray?"
"Nah, what do you know about Ray? Wouldn't have pegged you for a fan."
Quincy scoffed, fake offended, "Excuse you? Is that some stereotyping I'm hearing right now? I'll have you know I contain multitudes, thank you very much."
I held up my hands, laughing, "My bad, Mr. Finley, didn't mean to offend."
"It ain't all rappity rap over here."
I laughed, "No, but for real...my real point was you sounded good. I didn't know you could sing."
"Never came up. But yeah, I can do a lil somethin'…" Quincy replied, reaching for my plate and glass to place them back on the side table next to the bed.
I relaxed a bit further, sinking down into his pillows, "You take requests?"
"Girl it's only you, have it your way, and if you want you can decide..." Quincy sang right into my ear as he slid closer to me, wrapping me up in an embrace.
I shuddered upon hearing the opening line to D'Angelo's "Untitled" a song that I wore out multiple cd copies of Voodoo listening to over and over and over again on the hand-me-down radio that Noelle left behind when she went to college. Q knew exactly what he was doing as he trailed his lips from my ear to my neck, pressing soft, suckling kisses along my collarbone. I shuddered as he darted his tongue darted out to trail along the same path he'd previously kissed. He looked up with a smirk and I knew I needed to curtail this before I lost more day than I already had.
"As much as I 'd like to continue this..." I started.
Quincy just continued about his business as if I hadn't spoken at all, dragging the covers down to expose my body, eyes hungrily taking all of me in before he resumed those spine-tingling kisses, trailing from my neck to my breasts. Quincy blew out a soft stream of air, and my nipples immediately hardened, as if they were standing at the ready for his attention and he spared no time giving them what they sought. His tongue laved my skin, nipping and suckling until he had me squirming, damn near climax. I moaned as he dragged his right hand from resting at my hip to play between my legs, thumb immediately zeroing in on my clit as he pressed down and rotated twice. My legs opened of their own volition as if that were some sort of magic combination. His long, thick, skilled fingers deftly moved to part my lips, playing in the wetness that started as soon as his mouth connected with my skin. In next to no time I felt myself ascending, moans growing louder and cusses aplenty flowing from my mouth as his drove my body to the brink of ecstasy. As I came down from my orgasm, my eyes alighted on the clock and I groaned in frustration.
"Let me guess, you gotta get up outta here," Quincy said.
"Unfortunately."
"Mmmhmm, I see how it is. Come over here in the dead of night, take advantage of me, then take off."
"Shut up! It is not like that!"
"Yeah yeah, say anything to avoid bruising my ego," Quincy said, peering up from where he was still splayed between my legs with an amused grin on his handsome face.
He pressed a kiss to my left inner thigh, then the right before pulling himself up and letting me up to get my things so I could get my life together before heading into the office. I had the final meeting with my web design clients this morning during which I'd present the final website and barring any major changes, I'd be able to implement and hang this project up for good, which would free up a lot of my time. I ran out to the living room to grab my bag, took a quick shower, and dressed before promising Quincy that I'd see him a little later for lunch.
"Ooh, now I'll never get over you until I find somethin' new, that gets me high like you do," I sang along with Ella Mai.
My meeting with Cupcakin' went off without a hitch. They loved all of the responsive design features that I added to the site that made the user experience friendlier. The current iteration of their website was clunky, filled with terrible flash animation and an auto play MIDI version of Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake”. I was horrified when I first viewed it because it looked like it was built on Geocities and how in the hell they found a MIDI version of that song was something I didn’t even care to figure out. Nevertheless, I brought them into the 21st Century and they were beyond pleased, as evidenced in the lil somethin’ somethin’ extra that appeared on the check the owner Cierra slid my way at the close of our appointment.
Instead of heading home, I stayed in the MYOP workspace, reviewing some of the applications submitted by folks who responded to our postings on indeed.com. The folks I had in mind that we’d studied with were employed and not interested in taking a chance on a start up, so we went out to the wild. The ad had only been up a few days, but we’d gotten more than a few bites. Unfortunately, many of them were going straight to the sludge pile because they weren’t qualified. So here I was, singing along to “Boo’d Up” and scrolling these resumes and applicant profiles.
“Somebody’s in a good mood,” Joey said, as she walked in, “I guess good dick’ll do that to ya. You know I want all the nasty, dirty details and don’t you leave nothin’ out.”
“Well hello to you too, Jonique,” I replied, laughing.
“Yeah yeah heffa, pleasantries! So…how’d it go down?”
Joey was my right-hand man and helped me plan my apology to Q last night, right on down to the nitty gritty details so I shouldn’t have been surprised that she wanted to know everything. The problem was, I wasn’t exactly feeling like she needed to know everything.
“I mean, we had a good time. He accepted my apology…”
“Are you really out here tryna be coy like…wait, awwwwww” Joey squealed, running over to hug me.
I shrugged her off, “What?”
“You like him, don’t you?” she asked, grinning like a damn loon.
“Of course I like him, you know this already. We’ve discussed.”
“Nah, heffa. You like him like him. That’s why you’re being cagey with the details. Normally you have no problems telling me about any of your other sexcapades, but the last guy that had you mum like this…erm, nevermind. Forget I even brought that up,” Joey finished up quickly.
I closed my eyes and pushed out a sigh because I’d been waiting for her to bring him up. I thought for sure she would have brought him up after I freaked out on Quincy the first time. Or when I went through round one of my hoe phase nine months ago…or round two, three months ago, but Joey had been biding her time. We never said his name, it was the one promise I made her make if ever we were to discuss him again. He was only to be referred to as one of the male pronouns or “the only nigga to ever break my heart”.
“So…okay, Joey do you really think how I’m acting similar to how things started with B—”
“Nope, you can’t say his name,” Joey interrupted, “Your rules, don’t forget. And no, I think there are some similarities, but this definitely doesn’t feel the same as that was. For one, Quincy seems way more into you than you’re into him unlike with that other raggedy mother—you know what, nope. Nah, sis. We aren’t going there today. I want you to give Quincy a fair shot. You can’t be so concerned with protecting your heart that you never give anyone else the chance to win it. Don’t let that raggedy nigga’s legacy mar what your future could be with Quincy. It’s unfair not only to him, but to you too, Ju.”
“I know…I know. Just…easier said than done, you know?”
“I know, boo, but you gotta actively work at it, right? It’s like the plants, man. Remember the first set of ‘em that you brought in here? They were browning within three days. But a bit of patience and understanding and knowledge and you became a regular old green thumb outchea. Gotta apply that same energy toward this thing with Quincy, too.”
“Okay, this is getting a little too Iyanla up in here now,” I said, laughing trying to lighten the mood.
“Bitch please, Rhonda wish she had the sagacity that I possess, okay?!”
“You’re a mess, Joey.”
“Your favorite mess and you’re deflecting. It’s okay. I’ll let you slide this time, but I just want you to be content, sis. That’s all.”
“I am happy!” I balked.
“I said nothing about happiness, but contentment. Happiness is fleeting, my love, a buzz, a high feeling for a moment. Contentment settles in deep down in your soul and is everlasting, unmovable. That’s what I wish for you. And that’s what I think Quincy can provide to and for you.”
“You don’t even know him, how are you so sure?”
“Have I ever been wrong before?” Joey asked, arrogance lacing her tone.
I took a second to think about it and Jonique did have an excellent judge of character and most often, her impression of a person ended up being spot on in regard to their character over time. So she may have had a point.
“Meh, I guess.”
“You guess? Tuh. Know me!”
My phone began to ring before I could answer Joey’s boasts. I looked down to see Quincy’s name splayed across the screen and couldn’t contain the smile that spread across my face instantly.
“Mmmmmhmmm, that must be Mr. Contentment now.”
I said nothing to Joey, just swiped my screen to answer the call.
“Hey you,” I said.
Quincy’s voice sounded on edge and I was immediately on high alert. He was calling to cancel our lunch date since his daughter had been involved in a car accident. She and some friends thought they would take an off-campus lunch diversion and ended up in a fender-bender that left a few of them quite injured. Quincey Junior’s mother was out of town, so my Quincy was on his way to the hospital to see about his girl. All he knew so far was that she had a broken arm and she was pretty shaken up from the accident. I let him know that I was more than fine with him having to break our plans and for him to keep me updated on Junior’s progress.
“You know I hate the mall, why are we at the mall?” I asked Lolo.
She called me this morning talking about she wanted me to come on a ride with her and I certainly did not think that it would end up in us pulling up to the Yorktown Shopping Center. I actively avoided this place although it was a mainstay in my tween and teen years. It looked nothing like it had in those days however, with the proliferation of restaurants and specialty shops decorating what used to be a vast parking lot.
“We’re at the mall because the baby wants a Cinnabon.”
“Not a cinnamon roll, but a Cinnabon in particular, huh? The baby is big on the brands already?”
“She wants what she wants, what can I say?”
“Lo,” I said, “You’re like twenty minutes pregnant. You don’t know what’s cooking in that oven quite yet.”
“Whatever, it’s a girl. I know it. There hasn’t been a Holliday son in forever.”
“Could be a Mora man in there tho,” I replied, laughing.
“Ugh,” Lolo grunted, “You and your brother-in-law can stop crushing my dreams out here. He swears I’m carrying Frankie Junior.”
Lolo parked the car and we walked into the mall on a side entrance near the airport. She was insistent that we sit in the food court, so she could enjoy her bun fresh since as soon as we were walking up the kid behind the counter was pulling a fresh batch out of the oven. As we sat in the food court, talking and eating I kept feeling like somebody was watching me. I looked around and didn’t notice anyone in particular paying too close attention to me but still couldn’t shake that feeling. After we finished eating our Cinnabons, Lo insisted that we walk around a bit to work off the calories ingested. I suspected, however, she just wanted to do some baby shopping as she immediately nudged me in the direction of the baby store as we left the food court. Before we had taken more than a couple steps, I heard an “excuse me!” from behind us.
I looked back to see a couple of teenaged girls heading in our direction. They were whispering and giggling to one another until they stood right in front of us.
“Your name is Juju, right?” the shorter of the two girls said.
The kid looked familiar for some reason, but I couldn’t place it. She was a cute lil chocolate thing, big expressive eyes and deep-set dimples and gorgeously styled sisterlocks. Her friend was equally adorable, just a little bit taller with sepia colored skin, striking red hair, and piercing green eyes.
“Yep, that’s me.”
“So, I know this is like awkward or whatever because we were supposed to meet all formally, but I just saw you and figured I would just come and introduce myself now. I mean, I don’t need my daddy to speak for me when you’re just right here, you know? I recognized you from the IG post. And I told my cousin Sheena this was you and she said we should just come over and speak. So…hi.”
As soon as she said the word daddy it occurred to me who this was standing in front of me. It was Quincey Junior. And she was right this was awkward. I didn’t know what I should do, so I smiled and held out a hand for a shake. She grabbed my hand, squeezing it pretty firmly while pumping it up and down.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you, Quincey.”
“Oh, you can call me Junie. That’s what everybody calls me. Is that your sister?” she asked, pointing in Lolo’s direction, “Dag, she’s so pretty too. I told daddy that he needed to slide in your DMs before somebody else came at you because you’re so fine. Like for real. You’re really pretty,” she prattled on, barely taking a moment to breathe.
“I thought y’all were making a run to Auntie Annie’s for frozen lemonade,” a deep voice rumbled.
I looked up to see a man with the same sepia colored skin as Junie’s friend.
“We were Uncle Ant, but then we saw daddy’s girlfriend and I came to introduce myself,” Quincey Junior said.
“Uhhhh,” the man I now knew to be Ant, Quincy’s best friend said, “Junebug, I thought your dad was going to…ahhhh, hey, it’s nice to meet you, officially Juniper. Heard a lot about you.”
“Likewise,” I said, “My…um…my sister and I actually are on a bit of a time crunch, but it was nice meeting you guys. Next time we’ll be able to chat a little longer, yeah? All right y’all have a good day,” I said quickly, grabbing Lolo at the elbow and dragging her toward the baby store that we were originally heading to.
“What in the world just happened there?” Valora asked, amusement tinging her tone.
“I think I just got ambushed,” I groaned.