“I don’t think that I’ve ever truly appreciated the beauty of a sunset.”
“You know why that is, don’t you?”
“No.”
“You haven’t had the right nigga with you to appreciate it with. When you’re in a place of happiness with the right man, the world takes on a different perspective.”
“You’re right.”
After the sun finished setting and our dessert was finished, we stood, and he led me to another spot on the beach. It wasmuch further down from the table where we enjoyed dinner and dessert. When I glanced back, I noticed a couple of servers cleaning up after us, and the musicians had packed up their instruments and were heading off.
I leaned against Harlem, and he placed his jacket around my arms, and then wrapped his arm around me. I relaxed in his embrace, and he kissed the top of my head.
“This is the perfect night, Harlem, the perfect first real date.”
“Glad you liked it.”
I looked up at him. “I loved it.”
He covered my lips with his, watching me as he kept his gaze pinned on me. We sat down in the sand and continued kissing underneath the rising moon and the stars glowing overhead. For the first time in forever, I realized that I had met someone who I was comfortable sitting in the silence with.
13
TEGAN
NEW FRIENDS – ONE WEEK LATER: MID-APRIL
Iknew that we would have a long day, or weekend rather, but I was excited and welcomed it. Harlem met me at my place a little after six in the morning. I fed him a smoothie, a yogurt bowl, and a banana before we headed out. It had taken a lot of convincing to get me to agree to taking two days off work. We were closed on Sundays, but Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays were our busiest days.
Although I initially freaked out when he suggested it, I finally conceded that I would take the time off and trust my employees to handle things. I hadn’t had a day off since I opened a month earlier. I had been doing physical labor six days around the clock, and I had worked on the administrative tasks and the books on the seventh day. There had been no rest for me.
So, when Harlem assured me that when Monday rolled around, I would need that day to recuperate, I didn’t deny it, but I kept it in the back of my mind. He advised me to prepare justin case. I scheduled staff accordingly, and they assured me they were more than capable of handling things in my absence.
Our morning started at Rose Garden Park with Palmer’s seven a.m. yoga class. It was fun watching Harlem stretch and try all the various poses that Palmer called out. When we were finished, she took a moment to compliment him on his form and pointed out that he didn’t really look like a beginner.
He told her she had a wonderful class and that he just might return with me in the future.
“Here. You can shower in here while I shower in the guest suite,” Harlem suggested after our yoga class.
We had returned to his place where he had taken my luggage the night before. When he first told me that we had a weekend long date planned, and he wanted me to pack for an adventure, I had been amused and intrigued. I packed exactly as he told me to, took my luggage to work the next day, and he’d placed it in his vehicle when he got a break. He took my things back to his house to wait for our date today.
“Are you sure? I don’t mind taking the guest bathroom.”
He brushed his sweaty forehead against mine, pressed my nose with his, and whispered, “Nah, I’m good. You go ahead and take it. I might be a while.”
“Meaning?”
“I’ma need to take a cold shower and try not to think about you in my house, in the shower, with no clothes on, and how fucking fine you are.”
I giggled, and he pressed a kiss against my neck. “Yes, sir. I think that you should head on out of here now, before you make a lady forget her manners.”
“Would that be such a bad thing?” he asked, gripping my ass and kissing my neck.
I pulled back and swatted him with the towel he handed me, before I chased him out of the room and closed the door. AsI adjusted the water and prepared everything for my shower, I wondered if having sex now would be a bad thing. I was definitely ready to have sex with him, but I wanted it to flow naturally. I didn’t want to take anything for granted.
When we got out of the shower, he prepared us spinach omelets and sliced avocadoes and tomatoes, since we had worked up another appetite after yoga. No sooner than we finished eating and cleaned our mess, Eli and a new girl he recently met named Isla, and CJ and his wife, Jenna, showed up ready to go off-roading.
This was our first couples’ date, and I was excited about it. I liked his sister-in-law, Jenna, and I looked forward to building a friendship with her. Isla seemed cool, too, and I hoped the three of us would bond.
