“You might want to focus on the game and not me,” she said, assuming his comment was about the way she’d bent over the table since he just happened to be positioned behind her when she made her first shot.
“What makes you think I’m not?”
She lined up to make her next shot and exaggerated the angle at which she leaned forward, pushing her hips back. She shifted her stance and adjusted her weight so her ass was on display then called her shot before she attempted and failed.
“God, don’t like ugly,” Asao joked as he pushed away from the wall and surveyed the table for the easiest shot. Just because he wasn’t skilled at the game didn’t mean his ego would allow him to fall back.
After he called it and made the ball drop into a pocket, he gave her his attention before moving to the next one. “By showing me something, I’m talking about us spending the day on the south side.”
He made two more shots, then scratched, so Samari was up.
“I needed a haircut.”
With a nod, he accepted the reason. Based on what he’d witnessed, the relationship she had with Reg was solid, which meant she’d spent enough time in his chair to be considered family. Reg was the neighborhood OG who always had some slick shit to say about the hardheads who ran the streets but he also never hesitated to be a resource when one of them neededhelp or advice. Reginal Reece had been born in a time when community meant something and villages were the driving force in boys and girls becoming respectable men and women.
“You lived round here?” he asked with a smirk as she cleared the table and announced the final shot.
“Eight ball corner pocket.” When she made it, Samari began walking around the table to collect the balls. “I lived here by default.”
She racked the balls and motioned to the table. “You want to break this time?”
Asao chuckled, shaking his head. “Nah, go ahead. What do you mean by default?”
“I lived in Crescent Pointe but spent most of my time at Crescent Manor with Ree, so I kinda lived here but really didn’t.”
“That explains a lot about your girl,” he said, revisiting the night they’d met and the one interaction they had over the phone.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Samari narrowed her eyes.
“Gangster Barbie.” He used the reference Samari had made when she’d apologized for her girl taking over the call.
“That was just Ree being Ree. It has nothing to do with growing up around here.” Samari made her first shot of their second game. “She’s not ’bout that life though.”
“Nah she isn’t and neither are you.” When she glanced at him over her shoulder, his eyes were already locked in.
“I might be.”
Asao chuckled. “Nah, you’re not, because if you were running the streets, we would have crossed paths before now.”
“Why? Because you were in them?”
He brushed a hand over his waves, stepping to the table when it was his turn because she missed a shot. “We owned them shits. Nothing was happening around here I wasn’t privy to, and if you were out there, I would have damn sure been privy.” Hiseyes moved the length of her body before he lazily leaned over the table to make a shot with no real effort employed. After the first time Samari bent over the table, he assessed that he enjoyed watching more than participating.
“The Manor is small but not that damn small that you would know every move people make.”
“I didn’t say that.”
She called her shot and didn’t give him her attention until she made it and was lining up the next one. “You said nothing happened that you weren’t privy to.”
“Some things aren’t worth a discussion but you would have been.”
When she playfully rolled her eyes, he laughed lightly. Four games later, Samari was popping her shit from having won all of them, but Asao was silently popping his because the time spent allotted him details about the woman he was desperate to know.
Asao told stories about running the streets with Niles and Dom which gave Samari insight on why his loyalty would always be theirs to cash in on. The rest of their time was spent talking shit with jokes and slick comments about each other. He was at ease, she was happy. They both felt connected.
“What are you trying to do for the rest of the night?” Asao asked after he cleared the balance they’d racked up from food and drinks.
“I haven’t thought about it.” Samari stood next to him, deciding she would allow him the space to lead. She wanted to trust his intentions and open her heart, but a voice still whispered a demand to stay guarded.
