“Do you still love him?” Loyal asked.
“He up and left me four years ago after we adopted Tess. No warning. No explanation. Just left. He refuses to give me a divorce to avoid paying me alimony. He’s holding my life hostage, and now he wants to breakmy baby girl’s heart. I loathe that man,” Ellie admitted. She cleared her throat and reached for the bottle in front of them. She poured two shots.
“They say youaren’t supposed to tell a man how the man before him broke your heart. It’sa playbook for them to manipulate you,” Ellie stated.
“Manipulationisn’t my game,” Loyal replied.“I don’t lie to women.Ain’t shit playa about a nigga that got to lie. I live in my truth and let women choose what they’re okay with and what they want to walk away from.”
“Like you having a girlfriend,” Ellie interjected.“Or was that an engagement ring I saw on that girl’s finger? She’s gorgeous, by the way.”
“She’sbeautiful,” he replied.“She also fucked mypotnah in Miami three months ago, which is why she’s my ex.”
“Yikes,” Ellie stated, gritting her teeth.“Why is she still around?”
“I think she’s hoping we can fix it,” Loyal admitted.
“Can you?” Ellie asked.
“I been with her since college,” Loyal stated.“She’sthe mother of my son, so I’ma always make sure she’s good, but I can’t see myself moving backwards.”
“Hmm,” Ellie said as she stared curiously at him.“Men like you scare me.” She sipped her drink and grimaced as it burned on the way down.
He smirked and went to retrieve the bucket of ice and a bottle of cranberry juice. He mixed her a more enjoyable drink, and she graciously accepted.
“The last thing I want to do is scare you, Miss Elliot,” he answered.“I don’t quite know what I want to do with you yet, honestly. I didn’t see you coming.”
He moved a tendril of her hair out of her face, and she giggled.
“I have butterflies in my stomach like I’m a schoolgirl,” she admitted.
“I don’t want to make you feel that. That’s anxiety. That’s uncertainty mixed with a little adrenaline,” he explained.
“What do you want me to feel when I’m with you?” she asked.
“Safe.”
His answer shocked her, and her eyes widened in surprise.“Okay, yup, wegon’call it a night,” she said, standing.
He frowned in confusion.“Did I say something wrong?”
Ellie shook her head and swept her short bob behind both ears.
“No, but that answerisn’t typical. That’s not casual. A man who answers like that is a man that will eventually get what he wants from me. I’m going to get in over my head with you. The way you moved about me earlier wasn’t casual. You stepped like you knew me, like you had love for me, and you don’t even know my middle name. What’s going to happen when we get attached? It’s already so intense. I’m here for a week. Literally, six more days. My life is a mess. Your situation is all over the place. We live in two different states. This doesn’t even make sense. Let’s just not do this. We can make a choice right now to walk away. We just met. We don’t have to even go down this road.”
“I’m already a quarter mile down that road, E,” Loyal said.
She sighed and rested her back against the wall as he stood. He walked over to her and placed his hands against the wall, creating a fortress around her and forcing eye contact.
“I’m married, Loyal,”Ellie stressed.
“Do you want to stay married?” Loyal asked.
“He will contest a divorce,” Ellie argued.
“That’s not what I asked,” Loyal said. He was so close to her that she could smell the alcohol on his breath. His cologne infiltrated her senses, making her dizzy, or maybe it was the liquor, but if she were a betting woman, she’d put it all on his aura. She had known this man less than six hours, and already, she was spellbound. Ellie wasn’t even a fall in love, be swept off her feet type. She was practical and smart, but Loyal had her wishing that she had met him at a different time in a different way. She wasn’t healed enough to handle a man of his magnitude.“Do you want to remain married to that nigga, Elliot?”
“No,” she whispered.
“And is that the sole reason why you’re in your head about fucking with me? If you weren’t married, would my tongue be here by now?” he asked, running a hand up her thigh and resting it on the face of her pussy. Ellie was sure she had lost her mind because she was letting this man drive 100 mph with her in the passenger seat. They didn’t have a GPS, weren’t any seat belts, no nothing, just risky fucking business. She had to slow it down. Her brain wasn’t processing this shit right because the wrong answer was on the tip of her tongue. If she wasn’t married, would she be getting her pussy ate in the box suite at the Pistons game right now?
