“It just takes someone who knows you to be able to tell. Shit, truth be told, those times I’d ask you to check on her in D.C. when you visited, I was kinda hoping.” He shrugged.
“You been trying to set me up with your sister?” That was a new revelation.
“Not trying to set you up. I just figured I’d make an opportunity for y’all to run into one another and let nature take its course. I knew she had a crush on you and shit since she was young. Don’t tell her I said that, though. She’d curse me out,” he laughed.
“She probably would,” I agreed, laughing.
“Plus she was with that dude, Ethan.”
“Chanel’s ex-fiancé, right?” I remembered seeing him the night of their engagement party and once before then.
“Yeah. I never liked him. Couldn’t put my finger on it, but he never sat right with me. I was glad when they broke up, though I still don’t know what happened there. Probably never will, as tight-lipped as my sister is about her life.”
I heard something akin to remorse in Jason’s voice. He’d never openly talked this much about Chanel. I wasn’t about to ask Jay too many questions about Chanel. Whatever I wanted to know, I planned on having Chanel tell me herself. I just needed more time to get her to open up to me, no matter how much she tried to fight it.
Chapter Fourteen
Chanel
“What? Get the hell outta here!” Xavier laughed as we strolled through the tables of the downtown farmer’s market.
“No, I’m serious!” I squealed. “You know Beyoncé told Jay to have a free option for TIDAL, but his ass, being a man, probably was all ‘A’ight baby, I got this,'” I said in my mock goofy male voice. “And you know Bey was like, all right. And look what happened? Shit is a mess. He shoulda listened to his wife.”
“And how you know it wasn’t Bey who encouraged him to make it exclusively for pay?” he countered.
“Well, I don’t know for sure, but I know it in here,” I pointed to my chest. “Because women are just more intuitive. Bey knew what would’ve worked better.” I nodded, sure of my argument.
“Whatever, man. Don’t trip on my man Jay; he ain’t no lightweight when it comes to business either.”
“Granted,” I conceded. “Jay’s no slouch in his own right. They do make a hell of a team, the two of them. He just might need to listen to his wife more.”
Xavier threw his head back and laughed, and I loved the sound. Wanted to hear more of it.
“Oh, this is the place I was telling you about,” I stated, excited to see the cookie spot with the best chocolate chip cookies I’d ever had. You could tell they were made from scratch and with love. After we’d awoken that morning, Xavier asked me what I wanted to get into. Since it was Sunday, I needed to get my groceries for the week, and I wanted my favorite cookies, so the farmer’s market it was.
“What kind you want?” he asked.
“All of them. You’re laughing, but I’m serious,” I giggled. I had a serious sweet tooth.
“These damn things can’t be all that good.”
“Nah, see, now you’re trippin’,” I mocked in a fake deep voice, imitating him.
“Can I have one of the chocolate chips? My friend here doesn’t seem to think you guys are the real deal,” I asked the older man behind the counter.
“Here you go.” His face wrinkled as he smiled.
“Try this.” I practically shoved it in Xavier’s face.
He shook his head but took a bite. I followed the movement of his lips, my mouth watering to lick off the crumbs left behind on his mouth. Unfortunately, he used a napkin to do that.
“A’ight, you may have a point. That is delicious.”
“I told you,” I gloated. “Can I have a dozen, six in two separate boxes, but make three of them in one box the vegan ones?”
“A dozen?” He grinned.
“Don’t judge me. Anyway, you said you were stopping by your mom’s later, so one box is for her, and the three vegan cookies are for Gabby. She loves this place too,” I explained.
