“I wouldn’t allow it.” I told Lev with a smirk.
“You see?” Marv threw both hands in the air before immediately remembering his stitches and bringing them right back down with a wince. “Everybody always taking his side.”
Lev winked. “Ain’t nobody taking my side.”
Marv pointed across the table. “And that’s exactly why Grandma like me better.”
Lev didn’t even blink. “Man, BJ like whoever call her the most.”
“Nah she like whoever give her the most money and that’s all fucking twelve of us.”
Lev agreed while responding to something in his phone before he ordered a bottle. Marv was interesting, but Lev, it was something about him. He was the type that looked like he ran a real strict program and even with Milan being with him,it seemed a little casual. I could clearly see that she wasn’t his woman because he never acted like it.
CHAPTER 14
E’Levyn ‘Lev’ Laurent
Marv was smiling too damn much, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen that nigga sit through an entire dinner looking around the room for the next bad decision or finding some random chick to flirt with. Tonight, he hadn’t done none of that shit. Every joke and every story he’d told somehow found its way right back to Navy, and every time she laughed, he’d look at her like he’d accomplished something. That was the first thing I noticed and the second was the fact that she looked at him the same way.
She wasn’t like one of these females running around Miami looking for somebody to pay a bill. She actually listened when he talked and cut her eyes at him whenever he got carried away with a little smile on her face. She would touch his arm without even realizing she was doing it. It was the little shit most people would’ve overlooked if they were too busy trying to hear the conversation and I wasn’t.
Watching people had become second nature a long time ago. Half the deals I’d ever closed and half the problems I’d eversolved had nothing to do with what came out of somebody’s mouth. It was always the shit they didn’t realize they were doing that told the truth, especially being in the streets and in prison, a wise man watched muhfuckas.
By the time the waitress cleared the last of our plates, the restaurant had already started changing around us. The servers were now sliding empty tables toward the back wall to open up more floor space while another crew replaced the candles with bottle service menus, and the DJ stopped playing the slow shit and turned it into rap. People eventually started drifting away from their tables with drinks in their hands, and every few seconds a new crowd of people were walking through the door like this was what they had been waiting for.
Marv looked around the room before grinning. “Shit… they ’bout to get this bitch jumping.”
“I can tell,” Navy laughed, following his eyes toward a group of women making their way across the floor in heels that looked painful as hell.
“You dance?”
She looked back at him and shrugged. “It depends.”
“On what?”
“Who asking.”
Marv grabbed the center of his chest like she’d offended him. “Damn, that one kinda hurt.”
“It was supposed to.” She winked at him.
He laughed right along with her before reaching for his drink again, and I found myself looking away for a second, letting my eyes brush across the room out of habit more than anything. Security had doubled since we’d first sat down. Since dinner over, the shift changed too and now two new faces stood near the front entrance pretending they weren’t watching everybody coming through the doors, and another one wasnear the hallway leading toward the restrooms which was good positioning.
When I looked back toward the table, Navy was saying something to Marv that made him throw his head back laughing while holding his side and whatever she’d said must’ve been funny because she was laughing just as hard by the time he answered. She wasn’t forcing it either and I could tell she had gotten comfortable and completely relaxed in the atmosphere
That caught my attention more than anything.
The nurse I’d met at Jackson carried herself like somebody who was waiting for life to throw the next punch but this version of her looked like she’d finally remembered what it felt like to breathe and have fun, and for some reason I couldn’t stop wondering what happened in between.
Marv glanced down at his phone before snatching it up with one hand. “Man, hell nah,” he laughed, shaking his head while reading whatever had popped up on the screen. “These niggas done made it already.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Ant and them, they downstairs talking ’bout hurry up before all the sections gone.”
“They should’ve reserved one then.”
“You know they hardheaded.”
