AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I looked at Kemara, and I was sure the agony of the question I had to ask showed on my face. "Do you have a twenty I could borrow?" I asked. I felt like such a heel, and again the fear that I wasn’t worthy of this woman came flooding back in my mind.
She dug a twenty out of her purse and handed it to me. There was no judgment in her eyes, unlike the valet who must have been biting his tongue not to say I knew you weren't shit.
I hopped in the truck and just wanted to get out of there. I probably broke the speeding limit five times to get Kemara home. Even though in the end she forgave me of my slip, having to borrow money from my date...I was beyond humiliated.
I pulled up in front of her apartment.
"Would you like to come up for some coffee?" she asked. When she looked at me, she gave me an encouraging smile.
I quirked a brow. For someone who was worried I was only after one thing, inviting me up to her place seemed like a strange plan. "When you say coffee, do you mean actual coffee or—"
She chuckled softly, her laugh echoing through the truck. "I mean, given your expression, if I let you drive off before you come up to my apartment, then I'll probably never see you again."
I chuckled. She had a point there, but I couldn’t show all my cards. "It's that bad, huh?"
"When you couldn't pay the valet, you looked as though you'd just lost a parent.” She reached over and touched my hand. A shot of electricity ran through my body when our hands connected. I looked down at her fingers, before looking back her way. “What happened?" she asked. She didn’t look like she was judging me, just that she was curious.
"I didn't have time to pay the bill, so I just dropped all my cash on the table before running after you."
She slowly pulled her hand back. An upset expression took over her eyes. "Oh…then it was my fault. I'm so sorry."
"Nah, it wasn't your fault. Don't worry about it. I would do it all over again. No regrets,” I said. “And sure, I'd love to come up and have some coffee."
I tend to drink coffee to make it through a hard day of work. After I've been up all night drinking, it usually tastes like tar. But it's doing a job, so I don't care.
Kemara and I got out of the truck. I went to her, reached out and grabbed her hand. She smiled as she took my hand in hers and we quietly headed up the steps to her apartment. A white elderly man came out of an apartment and Kemara immediately greeted him.
“Good evening, Lewis,” she said.
He nodded, but his eyes widened when he noticed Kemara and I holding hands. “Good evening,” he quietly stated, before we reached her door and she unlocked it.
Once we got inside, she let my hand fall from hers. “Follow me,” she said, motioning with her head for me to follow her to the kitchen.
I tried to ignore the fact that her neighbor gave us a look that we were doing something wrong and followed her to the kitchen. “You have a nice place,” I said, not remembering if I had mentioned it when I came to pick her up.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Thanks!” She then turned back to get the coffee.
Kemara had a coffee press, with every flavor of coffee you could think of. She prepared us both a brew, then poured the two mugs and handed me one. I thanked her and we took them to the living room.
So, there I was sitting on her couch drinking some caramel nutmeg concoction and I couldn't have been happier. It was nice just to talk to her in the relaxed setting, no more trying to impress, just two people trying to get to one another.
As the night wore on and she put her stocking covered feet in my lap, I gave her a foot rub and the conversation continued. If I ever told my friends about that night, they wouldn't believe me. Yet, all we did was talk. We laughed. We shared our dreams and our fears. Like I said before, there was something about her space that just invited me in. I opened up when I was with her. I didn't notice how long we'd been at it until sunlight began to flow through her windows.
"Have we been talking all night?" she asked, following my gaze.
I smiled. "I guess we have."
It didn’t seem possible, but just being there with Kemara made time pass by quickly and it was with little effort. I hated the date had to end, but knew it wouldn’t be our last.
Chapter Seven
Kemara
After realizing that it was morning already, I glanced at Channing. He was the perfect gentleman and it cemented the fact that Tameka was all wrong about his intentions.
“Do you have somewhere to go?” I asked Channing, who was reclined on my sofa with my feet still propped in his lap. After a comfortable night together, sitting on the couch talking about life, I was truly amazed at how well we clicked. I didn’t want our date to end.
“Not really, but I’m afraid if I stay any longer I’ll have to start paying rent.”
