“On my way home. I stopped by the store to get a bottle of wine and some roll-ups.”
“What you got planned when you get in the house?”
“I’m going to pop the cork on this lovely bottle of Pinot and take a nice, warm bath, and I’m definitely going to roll myself a blunt.”
“It’s been that type of day, huh?”
Her exhale gusted into the receiver. “Yeah, it really has, baby.”
“I wish I could see you and make it all better.”
“You on top of me would be goals right now,” she confessed.
I kept her on the line until I heard keys jingling in the lock and stood to my feet. She opened the door to a trail of bright red rose petals leading from the front door all the way down the hall to her bedroom. Dozens of candles aligned her floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the view of city lights in her living room.
“What’s that you said about goals?” I asked, holding the phone in one hand and a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses in the other.
She looked at me in awe before dropping her phone inside her Louis Vuitton bag. “Hendrix? W—what are you doing here?”
“I've been waiting on you.”
“I can see that. And not that I’m not happy to see you, butwhyare you here?”
“I came to celebrate with you,” I explained, walking over and presenting her with the roses before pulling her into my tattoo-laced arms.
She encircled my neck with her arms. “Celebrate what? I didn’t get the job yet. It was just the interview, remember?”
“So what?”
“I can’t believe you came all this way to surprise me. You’ve got rose petals and candles.”
“And I got some rosé on ice and even got you a blunt rolled. You can get as high as you want tonight, baby.”
Her eyes galloped up to mine as her lips swooped to one side. “You thought of everything, huh?”
“I think so.”
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” she chirped, running her hand down the side of my face. “You don’t know how much I missed you.”
“I could hear it in your voice earlier in the week that you were stressing about today, so I wanted to make sure I came to you and realigned your chakras and shit.” I smirked.
I scooped her into my arms and carried her down the hallway and into the bathroom where I had a warm bubble bath and her bluntwaiting for her. I sat her on the edge of the bathtub and slid off her heels one by one before rubbing the soles of her feet.
She dropped her head back and opened her mouth. “Mmm. That feels so, so good, baby,” she groaned.
“There’s more where that came from when you get out. Go ahead and take your bath, smoke, and unwind. I’ll be waiting for you in the room whenever you’re ready,” I told her before gently kissing her lips.
Forty-five minutes later, Cassidy stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in her oversized towel with a set of hazy eyes and a demure grin across her face. I had songs by Maxwell, Daniel Caesar, Ginuwine, Jhene Aiko, and Trey Songz on the playlist to set the mood as I stood by the massage table I had set up in the corner of her bedroom.
“Hendrix!” she said, eyeing the massage table. “You really went all out, didn’t you?”
I shrugged it off, knowing I’d never put that much effort into one woman before. “This is lightwork.”
She batted her eyes at me. “Mmhm. Whatever.”
“I just have one rule before you lay your fine ass on this table.”
“And what’s that?”
