Sighing, I said, "You can take me to dinner, but my sister has to come with us."
He smiled and shot back, "It'll be my first time on a double date."
"Dinner," I corrected him.
"And what you mean 'double date'?" Zoo, who'd been standing off to the side, came over glaring at Sin.
"Even though I don't like you, I agree. I'm not going anywhere," PJ approached and said. Her gaze was on Zoo. While she claimed to hate men like Zoo, I stood ten toes down in my belief that she was attracted to him.
"It's free dinner, Peeg. I'm not cooking tonight, and neither are you because we're both beat." Instead of arguing her point, PJ started back off through the tunnel toward the exit.
"Zeus," Sin started. "We're gon' take these beautiful ladies to dinner and show them a good time." I could tell by the look Sin gave Zoo that he wasn't asking but rather telling him. Zoo's eyes found PJ, then he snarled.
"You owe me," he said and went after PJ.
"You're putting two Pitbulls in the same space, and I, for one, don't think that's safe," I commented.
Sin, however, smoothed his hand down my arm until his fingers gripped mine. I peered down at our joined hands, confused by both the contact and how good my hand looked in his.
"Zoo is a teddy bear once you get to know him," he stated, leading me through the tunnel. We drew attention that didn't bother Sin one bit but had me uncomfortable under the stares.
"I find that hard to believe," I quipped. "Just know that if Zoo comes at my sister slick, she has no reservations about hurting his feelings. And trust me, whatever comes out of her mouth will have Zoo in deep reflection, wondering what his life really means."
"Damn." Sin chuckled. "Can I expect the same from you?"
His eyes met mine.
"You can expect dinner."
Sin threw his head back and laughed. I hated to say that his laughter brought a smile to my face.
Although Sin wanted me to ride with him, I chose to take my own car to the restaurant of my and PJ's choice.
"I can't believe you got me doing this shit with you," PJ fussed. Just like she was fussing, I was sure Zoo was doing the same thing with Sin.
"We've done worse together," I mumbled.
She smacked her teeth. "Yeah, butthisis asking too much. You know how I feel about Zoo's immature ass, yet you wanna put me at a dinner table with him?"
"It'll be fine," I assured her without really being sure myself. We settled on a spot we'd both heard about that wasn't far fromthe arena. I parked in the sparsely crowded parking lot and waited for Sin to pull in beside me.
"And what nigga drives a damn Maybach besides rich-ass athletes, entertainers, and kingpins?" PJ asked, observing Sin's sleek ride.
"What're you saying?"
"I'm saying," she said, rolling her neck, "you don't even know what this man does for a living. You could be very well injecting us into the underworld of drugs and shit."
Laughter spilled over before I could stop it.
"You go from wishing I'd woman-up and be with another man to sayingthisman, who happens to have a nice car, may be a drug kingpin? Peeg, I need you to get it together. Do you want me to step out or not?"
Mulling it over, PJ smacked her teeth again and snatched off her seatbelt.
"Next time, I'm gonna keep my damn mouth shut," she grumbled.
We both exited the car, with me being surprised to see Sin strolling up to my door. I didn't miss the way his eyes fell to my Nikes and back to my face in a heartbeat.
"I'll get ya door the next time," he commented. Like before, he took my hand in his.
