“Bye, Son,” Pops said before the line disconnected.
I sighed and fought the urge to jump into the king-sized bed. My parents had good intentions. They had gotten me a reservation at this resort months ago, at Christmas. I rebooked the trip three times before they forced me to come. My intention was never to waste their money. I just wasn’t one to take vacations. Since I was a kid, all I knew was hard work. My big sister, Denise, and I got into the streets when we were teens. Our parents hated it, but they weren’t the type to kick us out. They loved us too much, and we loved the fast life too much. Through hard work, we graduated high school, but that was where our educations stopped because we made more money in the streets at that point, and going to college seemed stupid.
Since I was fifteen years old, I’d never taken a day off. Not one. Denise had grown up and slowed down. We were both completely out of the streets, having made that transition five years ago. She owned a beauty spa while I owned a ton of real estate. I even still practiced as a real estate agent to keep busy, flipping houses, hosting open houses, and selling homes for millions. I didn’t know what it was like to sit my ass down and relax. The hustle lived in my veins, and my parents, and even Denise lately, worried about me. I couldn’t understand why, because I was happy. A little grumpy most days, sure, but I was good.
After another long gaze at the bed, I grabbed my wallet and room key and left the villa. Walking over water wasn’t really ideal for me, but that was the only way to get to andfrom the front door of my villa. I took slow, steady breaths and rationalized that if I fell through the wooden planks of the walkway, I would sue this entire establishment. Like my pops said, I couldn’t swim worth a damn. The water was cool to look at, though.
Luckily for me, the beach wasn’t far from where my villa was. I grabbed a towel from the beach hut and found a cabana a safe distance from the ocean but still close enough to people watch. If my mood improved a bit, I might even go dip my toes in the water. That was a bigmight, though.
The sun beat down on my dark skin and sweat formed on my brow as I watched people fucking around on the beach. I felt my face frowning up at everyone’s happiness, but I caught myself. Just because everyone else was capable of having a good time didn’t mean I had to be mad about it. There really was no rhyme or reason to my irritation. I simply just went off vibes. What vibes? Nobody really knew but me. It depended on the day and the direction of the wind, I guessed.
My eyes swept the beach once again, and they got caught on a beautiful sight.
“Shit,” I muttered as I adjusted my stiff dick from inside my swim trunks. How I got hard in under one second was a mystery to me. That shit had never happened before.
The beautiful woman from earlier in the resort lobby waded the ocean water with a little ass yellow bikini on. Her little ass amused the hell out of me earlier. I was crazy as hell. I knew that. This ebony-skinned beauty seemed to find my antics funny. That piqued my interest, which didn’t happen often. I enjoyed women for their bodies, but them catching my interest because of more than what their pussy might look like was rare. In fact, I didn’t know if it ever happened before. Women were too emotional for my liking. I already had my mama and sister to worry about.Adding another woman to my life permanently always sounded like a headache, so I never got too close to the opposite sex.
Maybe little miss yellow bikini could be my lil vacation fling. In fact, maybe that was exactly what I needed to turn this vacation around.
I watched her for a few more minutes. Her body looked like it was made of chocolate gold. It shimmered under the sun, and her Coke bottle shape called to me. I had to work hard to get my dick to go down before I stood. By this time, she lay in the sand, allowing the waves to come up and cover her before they receded again.
A mermaid. She looked like a damn Black mermaid.
Her eyes were closed when I walked up to her and sat down in the sand right beside her. I didn’t say shit. I just waited for her to notice me. When her eyes finally popped open, she gasped.
“Shit, you scared me.” She sat up straight, her hair sopping wet. The long curls fell down her back. I wanted to reach out and fist them, but I kept my hands to myself . . . for now.
Instead, I smirked. “How you likin’ the resort?”
One of her arched brows rose, and that same amusement I saw dancing in her dark brown eyes earlier was back. “Better than you.”
A chuckle fell from my lips. “Love that for you. You want to have dinner wit’ me?”
Her eyes widened in shock. I was used to that kind of reaction from people. I always said whatever came to mind, and people found that shit surprising for some reason. It would never make sense to me. I wasn’t here to sugarcoat shit or live by other people’s rules. Saying what was on my mind never scared me because, who the fuck was going to check me? Not even my own mama could. She tried but had given up years ago. Now, she just accepted me for me. I loved that for both me and her.
“Uh . . . I mean . . . I guess?” She sputtered as she looked at me with curious eyes.
“My bad. I ain’t even ask if you was here wit’ someone,” I said, not really caring one way or the other. She was going to have dinner with me either way.
“I’m not, no. I’m here alone.”
My grin widened. “Bet. Meet me at the Mexican spot over by the pools. They have good margaritas and good tacos.”
I stood and brushed sand from my shorts.
“You aren’t going to even ask me my name?” she asked. Her hand blocked the sun as she looked up at me.
I tilted my head to the side as I studied her for a few seconds. Finally, I said, “Mermaid.”
“Excuse me?” she asked, fresh shock registering on her face.
“Mermaid. That’s what I’ll call you.”
She giggled. “Do I know you or something?”
Her question confused me. “You’d remember if you knew me, love.” She continued to laugh, which confused me. “Care to tell me what’s so funny?”
Truth be told, I loved that she always seemed to find humor in situations. With anyone else, I might have found that irritating, but with her, it felt endearing.
