She blushed.Hard. “Stop looking at me like that, Kiyan.”
“It’s impossible not to,” I admitted. “I’m truly blown away.”
She was still blushing super hard, so she tore her eyes from mine to look at everyone else.
“I need a drink,” she said.
“I second that,” Melonie cosigned. “Get me a French 75. I’m going to go out to meet Ramell.”
She tried walking away, but I caught her wrist. “Out? You’re not going outside alone.”
“He’s at the door, Ki,” she flashed her phone. “Relax.”
“I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re going to take Leila to the bar to get drinks because the band is about to come on.” She slipped her hand out of mine and brought Leila’s up to take her place. “French 75. Thank you, cousin.”
She’d walked away before I could make a comment, and Leila had begun to pull me toward the bar. She slid onto a bar stool while I was next to her with my body facing out, and one arm on the bar.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked.
I nodded for Leila to order first. She got a Martini then I read off the text from my cousin that contained everyone else’s order including Mel and her friend. After the bartender made everything, he put them all on a tray that made it easier for me to carry to the table so I wasn’t having to come back and forth.
The Blues Brothers, sons of the bar owners, came out shortly after we were all seated at the table. They were doing a holidayspecial, playing all of the throwback R&B Christmas songs with a sprinkle of some of the new hits in there too.
We were all enjoying the music and had ordered a couple more rounds of drinks by the time they started to play “In Love at Christmas” by K-Ci and JoJo. My cousins got up to go to the dance floor, so I took that as my sign to stand and extend a hand to Leila.
“Can I have this dance.”
She’d just polished off the last of her drink, so she sat her glass down while shaking her head and holding up a hand. “I have two left feet.”
Chuckling, I took the hand she was holding up and pulled her to her feet.
“Kiyan, I can’t dance,” she said nervously as we made our way to the dance floor.
When I pulled her body close to mine, she got ready to protest again, but I pressed my finger against her lips to silence her while wrapping my arm around her waist.
“Just follow my lead.”
She stared at me for a second before nodding and doing what she was told. It took her a minute, but she was finally able to get it down and we began to sway to the beat of the music.
At least I hoped that we were on beat.
Being this close to Leila in this moment had my heart thumping so hard and loud that it was drowning out the sound of the music. I’d dated my fair share of women, but never one that made me feel the way that Leila did. Whenever she was around, I struggled with keeping it together, and that was new for me. I was known to be poised and in control at all times, but I felt like I was constantly unravelling anytime that she was in my presence.
Over the course of the last week, whenever my mind wasn’t occupied, my thoughts were filled with her. I wondered what she was doing, if she was okay, how I could make things better.
Then there was her daughter.
Ava had a way of lighting up any room that she was in and changing the trajectory of the day. She was so gentle and sweet, and to witness her come out of the shell she was in when I first encountered her was amazing. It constantly had me going back to the thought of how her father could look into that pretty face of hers and those innocent, big, brown eyes and choose to walk away. I’d never understand it.
When the song ended, and Leila tried to step back, I held onto her a little tighter. I wasn’t ready for the closeness to end. She looked around to see if anyone was watching us then smiled up at me.
“Kiyan, everyone’s watching us.”
“Let them watch.” I shrugged.
Giggling, she pulled herself from my hold but captured my hand and moved us back toward the table where everyone else was waiting.
