“Yeah, some art to get appraised.” I licked my lips and tapped my knuckles on the bar. “Thanks for having me though for real.”
“Anytime.” Asante grinned. “Seriously, maybe we can do this again sometime.”
“Maybe we can.”
I returned his smile then headed for the exit, ignoring the way I could feel him staring at me as I left. It took everything inside of me not to look back, but somehow, I did it.
I exhaledand slowed the treadmill that I was on so that I went from a full fledged run to a jog. Rook was running on one side of me while Wes was running on the opposite side, all of us not speaking to each other, headphones wedged into our ears.
It was easy for my brain to wander while I was exercising. It was all damn near muscle memory at this point and of course when my mind was free to wander it somehow drifted from a checklist of things I needed to figure out before our next family meeting to any little reminder I needed about the security tech I ran for the family’s house to that fucking club owner, Asante.
I couldn’t lie. That night with Asante had been a good one, although it had been short. That was why I hadn’t responded to his text messages. Messages. Plural. He’d texted me on three different occasions. The night we’d gotten drinks together he’d sent a quick message just saying he hoped I made it home safely, something I’d never really experienced before. Then, he’d texted me the day after jokingly asking if I was ignoring him which I was. The third text message had been sent the following weekend and had simply said:drinks?I hadn’t responded to that one either and he hadn’t reached out since.
I was fine with that.
Asante wasn’t the type of man who seemed like he would be cool with the whole one night stand thing or with being a short term lover and that was all I had to offer. I didn’t need either one of us catching feelings.
That didn’t stop me from thinking about him though, about his kind eyes and mesmerizing smile.
I stumbled slightly on the treadmill and pulled the emergency stop. The machine started to slow down and Rook looked over at me. His eyebrows fiddled together. He pulled his own emergency stop. I slowed down with the machine then grabbed my water, leaned my head back and took a slow sip.
“You uh, talk to that club owner after y’all hung out that night?” Rook asked me as he slowed down to a stop himself.
“What?” I glanced from him to Wes who had his headphones on his head and was still running full speed with his eyes focused forward. “Nah. I haven’t spoken to him.”
“You want to?” Rook grabbed his water bottle and took his own drink.
I told Rook a lot of shit but I didn’t usually give him the specifics of what I had going on in my personal life especially when it came to men.
The thing was, I didn’t have to. Rook had taken one look at the two of us in the club and given me shit about it as soon as we were alone, making it clear he thought the two of us were interested in each other. So, of course, when I’d made it known that we had a meeting he’d made it his duty to joke about our ‘little date’. I hadn’t confirmed or denied anything and I hadn’t given away any specifics of what we’d spoken about. It wasn’t anyone’s business.
“Where the fuck is this coming from?” I asked.
“Well, he’s walking this way so if you want to talk to that nigga, you better tighten up.”
“What?”
“You heard what I said, B.” Rook lifted his water to his mouth as Asante walked up to us. Rook grinned behind his bottle. “What’s up, Asante?”
“What’s up?” He gave Rook and me each one quick head nod before he maneuvered around us and to a treadmill five down.
My brother looked from him to me but didn’t comment. He walked over and tapped Wes who slid his headphones back and around his neck.
“What’s up?”
“We’re good on cardio. Come spot me on the weights.”
“Yeah, alright.” Wes stopped his treadmill and Rook hit me with the back of his hand before the two of them left me standing alone.
I looked over at where my brother was then over at Asante. I hadn’t messaged him on purpose. I knew that. It had been a deliberate decision but shit, seeing him in person was different.Now that I saw him, I felt bad about ghosting him. I was an adult. I could have sent a fucking text and told him that I wasn’t interested but I hadn’t. Asante seemed like a good dude and it was obvious he was, at least, annoyed by my behavior from the way he’d brushed us off after being so welcoming before.
I exhaled and walked over to where Asante was breaking into a slight jog. He was shirtless and his gaze stayed focused forward, not giving me a glance as I closed the space between us.
“How have you been?” I asked quietly.
“Good.”
“And how’s the club?”
