She nodded and walked off. He grabbed a croissant and put it on a plate, then slid it to me. I licked my lips and immediately picked it up and took a bite.
“Damn. You couldn’t wait for me?”
My eyebrows lifted as I covered my mouth. When I saw the smirk on his lips, I laughed and shoulder bumped him. “I’m hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast.”
“Well, the way you eye fucked that croissant before you took a bite got a nigga jealous as hell.”
I giggled again but kept eating. That was better than where we were heading. I wanted to grab his ears and kiss the fuck out of him. Once I finished, he placed the last one on my plate. “You wanna split it?” I asked.
“Naw. You ball out.”
I laughed but didn’t dare offer again. Those croissants were so damn good. I could imagine they were fattening as hell with all the butter they put on them. I wanted to believe it was some type of cinnamon butter. Whatever the hell it was, it was delicious.
“I’m back with your spinach dip. Do you guys want more croissants?”
“Not right now. We’re ready to order,” Seven said.
“Okay. What can I get you?”
“New Orleans Pasta for me.”
“Yeah, that slaps.”
He frowned.Oh, shit.He glanced at me and shifted in his seat, then said, “Don’t do that.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “I’m sorry. Do what?”
“Don’t use our language. It’s not flattering. You already have our culture all through your name. I know that ain’t your fault but watch yourself. Y’all so used to stealing our shit y’all done got comfortable.”
“Just bring us the check for what we’ve already eaten,” I said as Seven huffed.
When she walked away, he turned to me. “Man, I couldn’t?—”
“I’m not upset with how you handled her. I’m actually impressed. It seems young people tend to be okay with them using our vernacular. So thank you.”
He bit his bottom lip and nodded. When Shamari came back, she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“But you did. Have a good day,” I said as Seven gave her his credit card.
Her shoulders slumped slightly, and she nodded. I grabbed Seven’s hand and squeezed it. I was proud to share this moment with him. He put her in her place respectfully. That was a turn on like no other. He was conscious of the climate we were living in. I leaned over and kissed his cheek. He turned to look at me, then fed me some spinach dip. It was so good.
“I’m sorry. I just assumed you would be okay with leaving. I overspoke.”
“It’s cool. We finna tear this spinach dip up, then we can hit up that food truck everybody been talking about.”
“Yep. The one on Concord?”
“That’s the one.”
I chuckled. We killed that spinach dip within minutes and got the hell out of there.
CHAPTER NINE
SEVEN
Iwas shocked as hell. Iesha told me to follow her home, so we could eat our lunch together like we planned to. I was doing my best not to anticipate anything else, because she didn’t even so much as insinuate anything else would be going down. Doing my absolute best, I convinced myself that being in her space was more than enough.
I supposed she was impressed with how I handled that lil white girl at Cheddar’s. I wanted to tell her to get the fuck out of our faces with that bullshit, but I was able to restrain myself. I knew that it had absolutely everything to do with the threat on my life. Those niggas were in Nome looking for my ass over the weekend. I stayed in the house, knowing that was what was best. PJ had been good about getting info and relaying it to Ali.
