“I don’t know where your mouth has been,” she countered.
“Want me to show these little niggas in here where it’s about to go?” he challenged. The glint in his eyes proving he was crazy enough to do it. “I don’t give a fuck about them cameras or that nigga.”
Emani rolled her eyes and slightly opened her mouth, accepting the pour of liquor. Gone were the plastic shot cups and the cheap liquor provided by the college students. Emani welcomed the warm, full-bodied notes of the aged cognac. Smoked caramel, cinnamon, oak and dried fruit danced over her tongue. Once she swallowed Jahlil’s branded liquor, she plucked the bottle from his hand.
“I’ll be taking this. Thank you.”
As she pranced away from him, Donnée was shoulder-to-shoulder with her. “So when are we going to go pack your things and take them to his house?”
“Never,” Emani replied. “I’m just having fun. Before I have to return to life.”
Back at the house, the music was blasting, more liquor was flowing and the backyard of the rented house was toppling over with women Ashton and Carson had invited back. Donnée and Kyrie were hugged up on the opposite side of the pool and Emani took it all in. Donnée no longer hiding her marriage placed a tiny smile over her drunk face. Ashton trying to out play Jahlil in water basketball and then there were the women invited back who were vying for Jahlil’s attention.
The moment her silly laugh turned into a slightly jealous sneer, her thumb subconsciously found the diamond engagement ring and spun it around her finger. Bitterness wrapped itself in the groan Emani pushed out and she turned her attention back to her phone. A growling stomach and a craving for tacos took her to the JoyCart app. While she added the necessary ingredients to the cart, she could feel Jahlil’s presence.
“Whatever it is, no,” she buzzed, submitting her order and moving to her emails. Anything other than looking at him half-naked with water droplets dripping and gliding over washboard abs.
“Everyone is having fun,” he started, plucking her phone out of her hand like she’d done the bottle earlier. “And you’re on your phone.”
“I’m handling business,” she lied, watching her phone land on a nearby pillow. As she reached to grab it, she was hoisted over his shoulder. “Jahlil! No! My hair-”
Submerged in six feet of water, her body clung around his as she came back to the surface. Emani smacked his arms and chest. “Take me back! Now!”
Jahlil laughed, welcoming her legs clamped around his waist.
“Why are you laughing?” she groaned. “You know I hate the deep end, Jah.”
“Settle down,” he groaned in her ear. “You’re good. You know I’m not going to let you go.”
“My wig is sliding off,” she huffed.
Jahlil moved one hand from her waist and gently lifted the wig off and tossed it on the edge. “Now it’s gone. You didn’t need that shit anyway. Beautiful without it.”
“Don’t start. Your little friends might get jealous,” Emani grumbled. “Please take me back.”
Jahlil moved them further away from the crowd of people. “Nah.”
She rolled her eyes. “How long am I subjected to this?”
“Until you have some fun. You were over there stewing.”
“No one is thinking about you, Jahlil,” she sassed with an eye roll.
“Cut that shit out. I’m too drunk for full control and I’d hate to test how much of a lie that little statement was.”
Emani jumped off of him forgetting that she couldn’t touch the bottom. As quickly as she jumped off of him. She jumped back on him. “Stop playing.”
Jahlil laughed. “If you just swim, you can go back to what you were doing.”
“It’s the mere fact that you brought me over here knowing I won’t swim back,” Emani grumbled, rolling her eyes.
“Testing the waters,” Jahlil replied, taking Emani in under the glow casting from the lights from the college, the hanging string lights, and the moon. “If you swam back, I would know you weren’t fucking with me for real. But you still here. Still wrapped around me.”
“That’s the fuckin’ problem right there,” Emani huffed. “You think I’m wrapped around you.”
“You never been wrapped around me. Wrapped up in me, yeah. And I let it go on. I replay that shit you know. Over and over when I can’t sleep, those final moments at that little apartment you made feel like a castle. The look in your eyes when you told me you got signed.”
“We don’t have to. Go backwards,” Emani softly replied. “I just-”
