“Can I lie down and take a nap or something? Right there. That spot of ice is calling my name,” he pleaded, making me laugh as he pointed to a patch of ice in the middle of the rink.
I skated around him and danced and sang “Santa Baby.” I bumped him with my booty and smiled flirtatiously over my shoulder. “Come on, Mr. Holly. Keep up.”
Christian could skate very well, but I was a lot faster and could do more tricks. I had taken skating lessons when I was a child and only got better as I grew older. The next time that I passed around him in a circle, though, I underestimated him.
Christian grabbed me by the waist and pulled me closer. “You better quit playing with me, girl,” he commanded in a low tone that was smooth and smoky. I slowed up and stared into his eyes, shaking internally at the molten heat that I saw in his chestnut-brown gaze.
“Or what?” I asked, fighting fire with fire.
“Or you’re about to be in a world of trouble, li’l girl.”
“Little girl?” I giggled with a raised eyebrow. “There’s nothing little about me except my waistline, and the only girl attached to me is Belle. Trust me when I tell you there’s nothing but a full-blooded woman here.”
I skated away, tossing a smirk over my shoulder. For the remainder of the time at the skating rink, I tried to keep as much distance as possible between us. I didn’t know why I was behaving the way that I was around him. But he was inciting feelings in me that hadn’t been stirred in a long time.
If Christian had been another man, I wouldn’t have thought twice about becoming involved with him. But the fact of the matter was that he was my ex’s best friend, and that was a no-no. It made me think of all the times that Jeremiah had accused me of liking Christian, and how vehemently I had denied it. And if I was honest with myself, I had to admit that there had been some truth to the allegations Jeremiah had tossed my way.
I had always been attracted to Christian, but I met Jeremiah first. Therefore, I never acted on it in any way, nor did I even fantasize about it. I just kept a respectable distance between us, treating him the way I did all of our other friends.
“You were always such a clown.I cannot think of a time that you were ever serious, Chris.”
“There comes a time when a man settles down. I knew enough to know when it was my time.”
“When? The last couple of years? Because before I moved, I remember you were never serious. Always the life of the party,” I stated quietly, twirling my pasta around on my fork.
“Was that a problem? Is that a problem?”
“It wasn’t, no, because it had nothing to do with me. You were my boyfriend’s best friend. I did think that sometimes you were trying to get way too much attention and needed to calm it down, just a little bit,” I stated, pinching my index finger and thumb together.
He laughed. “I was just showing out for you.”
“Whatever.”
“Man, almost every dude in our crew had a crush on you. We couldn’t figure out what you saw in Jeremiah’s bigheaded ass, because he definitely wasn’t good enough for you.”
My cheeks grew warm. “Thank you.”
“You said that wasn’t a problem for you that I was a clown because I was your boyfriend’s best friend. What about now? Is that a problem for you?” His voice was low, eyelids heavy, and mouth turned into a firm line. There was an air of sexual tension between us.
“Of course not. I mean, you’re you. Just because you’re accompanying me to the ball and spending time with me lately, we’re still friends at the end of the day. You be you, Chris. You don’t owe me any explanations.”
The way that he eyed me after that statement had me squirming in my seat. I looked around the restaurant to break the heated stare of his gaze. After skating, we went to The Fiesta Bowl for some good Mexican food.
“Let me ask you something. When you first hooked up with Jeremiah, did you think you would be with him for a lifetime?”
I sighed. “When I first met Jeremiah, I was at a space in my life where I wasn’t looking for love. I just wanted to date and chill. That’s it. But after a while, I found myself spending more time with him, and he was caring and romantic. He seemed like he always cared about what was on my heart and my mind. He could tell when I was down, even if it didn’t show in my attitude. That let me know he was paying attention to me. I stopped dating other men, and I told him that I was ready to be exclusive.”
“Is that around the time y’all started looking for a place together?”
“Yeah. We moved kind of fast after that. I was all in with Jeremiah and determined to be the best girlfriend that I knew how to be. I was on some ‘great-girlfriend-tryna-be-a-wife’ type shit. God, what was I thinking?” I asked.
“We all make mistakes. I mean, you guys were young when you got together. Don’t blame yourself. You’ll make plenty more mistakes before it’s all over with. He was an experience to help you learn what you do and don’t want from a man. Next time around, you’ll be more selective and wiser about those red flags.”
“What about you, Chris? Do you have any red flags?”
He wiped his mouth and sat back. Chewing on his lower lip, he stared at me with his lids hanging low. “We’ve all got red flags, Angel.”
“What are yours?”
