“If that’s what you want to call it,” I agreed.
“Stone, please leave me alone. This is the only peace I get in the morning before I start my busy day of meddling in people’s lives.”
I could tell she’d been waiting to throw that shot just as long as I’d been waiting to see her pretty ass face. As mad as Shanet was right now, I still smiled and tucked my bottom lip between my teeth to keep it from getting too big. I didn’t want her to think I wasn’t taking her seriously, because I was. She was just fine as fuck.
“I’m sorry I spoke to you the way I did at the school. I was tripping, and it won’t happen again.”
“I know it won’t, and just so you know, I’m not a girl who can be bought with flowers.”
“I never said you was.”
“Then why are you sending flowers to my office every single day?”
“I just wanted you to have something as pretty as you are to brighten your day. That’s all, sweetheart.”
She bit back a smile, but I could still see it at the corners of her mouth. Taking her leg from the stretch bar, she stood up straight, and I did the same. Shanet put her hands on her hips and looked around the park before letting her eyes land back on me.
“What are you doing here, Stone?”
“I run here, just like you.”
“You don’t run.”
“How do you know? Runners think they can look at folks and tell if they run or not. Looks can be deceiving, ma’am.”
Shanet took her earbuds out of the case one by one and put them in her ears. Then she searched her phone for what I assumed was her running playlist. Once she was satisfied, she took off running, and I ran right after her.
“Look, let me run with you so you can at least hear my apology. You haven’t even heard me out yet.”
“Oh, I got your card every single day. Two words.I’m sorry. Nothing else.”
“Well, I thought I would eventually see you face-to-face.”
“So, of course, you pop up on me at the one place I have peace.”
“You make it sound so bad.”
We hadn’t even been running a good two minutes, and I was already out of breath. I didn’t know Shanet’s pace, but it was fast as hell. We needed to slow down if I was going to keep up.
“It is so bad.”
Shanet saw me falling behind, and her mean ass sped up. I refused to let her get too far, so I picked up my speed so we were side by side again. I didn’t know how long she planned on running, but I was going to try to keep up.
“How long are you going?”
“Five miles. I hope you can keep up.”
“Five miles? Are you insane?”
“I mean, you could stay here,” she said before she sped up again, and I did the same. There was no way I was about to let her get away from me. I had to pray my way through the rest of the run, so I didn’t have much to say until the end.
“Unblock me,” was the only thing I could force out before heavy breaths. I was going to need a good shower and a nap to recover from the torture this girl had just put me through. If she did as she was told and unblocked me, it would all be worth it.
I was way too easy.Stone wasn’t even halfway through his apology run before I’d made up my mind to forgive him. Any man who kept up with me for a whole five miles, when I knew for a fact he didn’t run, was definitely worthy of being forgiven.
I wore the smile he’d left me with all day and made it home from work to yet another bouquet of roses sitting on my doorstep. Stone had asked to be unblocked after our run this morning, but I hadn’t thought to do it until I saw the roses. Flowers were scattered throughout my whole house at this point because I’d kept every bouquet he sent.
Seeing Stone’s effort and replaying the things Aniya said the other day had me searching my phone for his contact as soon as I plopped down on my living room couch. After listening toboth of them, I understood how I may have overstepped my boundaries. Stone was facing a lot of new challenges. I had to meet him where he was.
