“You knew the whole time that he was coming, didn’t you?”
“Something like that,” I said. “When he and I talked earlier, he insisted on coming so he could explain himself. I was cool with it because once I heard him out, I knew he was serious. He really likes your sister, and I can tell that she likes him. If I thought he was going to do her wrong, I would have said something to you.”
“I appreciate that. Thanks for being honest.”
“No thanks needed. That’s just who I am.”
Ava smiled at me as her eyes sparkled while we stared at each other.
“These king crab claws are so good,” Ava said, breaking the silence first.
“They are, aren’t they?” I replied as I licked my full lips. “I’m sorry for staring, but you are just so sexy to me. I can’t help myself.”
“Thanks, Kevin, you’re looking handsome yourself tonight.”
“Thank you, I appreciate the compliment. I really like you, Ava, and I hope we can spend a little alone time together later. I have a lil’ gift for you. I’ll give it to you when we leave.”
“You didn’t have to get me anything. Insisting on paying for dinner and these lovely flowers was more than enough.”
“I know, but I wanted to. I want you to know how much I appreciate you. I could never get tired of doing things for you.”
Before each one of us could say anything else, Troy and Dawn came back to the table.
“Is everything good?” Ava asked, looking at Dawn then at Troy.
“Yeah, everything is great!” Dawn smiled as Troy sat there with a big grin on his face.
A few minutes later, our waiter came to take our dinner orders and refilled our drinks. As we all sat and talked, I couldn’t ignore the strong vibes that I was feeling from Ava as we sat across from each other. The more she drank, the more relaxed she became, and every time we would catch each other’s eye contact, her eyes would sparkle and light up. The night was going perfect and well worth the wait.
DAWN
When Troy popped up at the restaurant, I was totally unprepared. My heart felt like it skipped a beat when I heard his voice from behind me. I had talked my sister’s ear off the whole time we were getting dressed and on the way to dinner about how upset I was with the run in I had with his baby mama. Even when Kevin started explaining to me the situation between Troy and that girl, I still was low-key in my feelings. The crazy part was that Troy and I weren’t seriously dating, but we were in the beginning phase of getting to know one another, talking and flirting with each other a lot. I started to really like him.
We talked about all sorts of things; family, past relationships, wants and desires, etc. So, to find out that he not only had a whole kid, but a crazy ass baby mama was a turn off to me, and that sucked because he never mentioned any of that to me. It sucked because for the first time, I was starting to have feelings for him that I hadn’t felt for a man in quite some time. That was very rare being that we had only been talking and not meeting up spending one on one time together.
After the baby mama and I got into it, I was cool with moving on from Troy but felt disappointed at the same time. I felt likeit was great that we fell out before things between he and I went to the next level because had I given him any cookie, I would have been fighting mad. There was something about Troy that had my full attention. He was a very sexy man. He could pass for Lance Gross’ brother except Troy was built bigger and taller. His conversation was always good, and he made me feel wanted by how attentive he would be. He was a great listener which was rare for a man, so I had high hopes for us. Then being around Kevin and Ava, and watching their little love story unfold, made it harder because as much as I would say that I wasn’t a hopeless romantic, in a way I kind of was.
I just would say that I wasn’t looking for love as a defense mechanism to protect my feelings from getting hurt. In just a short period of time, Troy had become someone who had the potential to hurt my feelings, which was why I was trying to convince myself to move on after the whole baby mama fiasco, to keep from getting hurt by him.
When he showed up to the restaurant, I wasn’t ready to face him just yet. Kevin and Ava had me feeling like I should at least hear him out, so that was what I had planned to do, just not at that very moment. I wanted a little more time to process it all because I wasn’t sure if I was up for dealing with all the drama that Troy had going on in his life. I really liked him, but not enough to be miserable dealing with all his stuff.
But when I turned in my seat and saw his face then looked into his eyes, he had me gone… again. As bad as I wanted to act like a hard ass, I couldn’t do it. When he asked for me to come have a talk with him, I tried my best to play it off like I was unbothered when in fact I was smitten by the fact that he took the time to show up on my behalf to explain himself. I appreciated that if nothing else ‘cause he could have been like fuck me and on to the next chick.
We ended up walking outside on the front patio part of the restaurant to chat in this small waiting area that had a bench.
“First, let me say that you look beautiful tonight,” Troy began, causing me to blush.
“Thanks,” I responded, trying to maintain my attitude.
“I’m sorry about what happened earlier. I should have told you about my son and his crazy ass mama, but that’s not my usual conversation starter.”
“I get that, but once you and I started talking on the regular, it should have come up. I get that it was still very early in our situation for you to feel comfortable, but at the same time, it looks like you’re trying to hide it by not mentioning it. Our last conversations had been getting a little freaky. Like I had the impression that we were close to going to the next level. When were you going to tell me about your kid, after we took it there?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it because I remember you saying that one of the guys you used to talk to and how things didn’t work out because you were turned off by his baby mama drama. I guess the fact that I really like you got the best of me, and I didn’t want to say anything that could potentially turn you off.”
“So, you’re saying you weren’t planning on telling me then?”
“I’m saying I wasn’t planning on telling you until I knew for sure that things with us were going to another level. We hadn’t even seen each other since the day we helped your sister move, and that’s a conversation I would have preferred to have with you in person. That way I could look you in the eyes so that you would know that I was keeping it real,” Troy said as he looked into my eyes. I could tell he was being truthful just by the way he was looking at me. “I don’t have shit to be ashamed of when it comes to my shorty. I take pride in being his pops, and I don’t bring women around him unless I’m in a serious relationshipwith them. In other words, no other woman has ever met my kid.”
