Page 18 of Adonis Gates

I placed my hand on his, closing my eyes briefly as I enjoyed the temporary connection before reluctantly pulling it down and nodding.

“I’m okay, Adonis. I promise.” I smiled for good measure. “I enjoyed sitting with you and Apollo today. It felt like old times when we would sit and talk for hours.” I chuckled. “I’ve always been the more talkative one, but you know I love to hear you talk.”

“Right,” he grinned. “Youlove to hear my voice.” He teasingly mocked my words from when we were kids.

“I didn’t sound like that!” I laughed.

“Take my number down,” he suggested.

Our eyes locked as I chewed on my bottom lip contemplating. It was wrong to even be considering it, but I wanted to, so badly. Still, I couldn’t. It would be wrong.

Wouldn’t it?

Did I really care?

“I can’t.” I dropped my head. “I have a man?—”

He scoffed and cut me off. “Nigga is hardly a man, and I don’t give a fuck about him. I ain’t ask you all that. I miss talking to you and shit, so we gon’ talk. Take my number down.”

I could tell he wasn’t going to budge and part of me didn’t want him to. I missed talking to him too, so against my better judgement, I handed him my phone and allowed him to key hisnumber in. He also made me call him so that he could have mine.

I could have died when he pulled me into his gentle yet firm embrace. I didn’t reciprocate right away. Instead, I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath so I could relish in his scent. He smelled just how I imagined Heaven would smell, and feeling his arms wrapped around me gave me an unexplainable feeling.

God, how did I miss out on this?

I eventually hugged him back then had to force myself to let go. I needed to hurry back to the office because it would soon be time for me to get off.

“I have to go.” I said lowly.

“Drive safe, beautiful.” He smirked, back pedaling onto the sidewalk. “And when I hit that line, answer. I don’t give a fuck if you with that nigga or not. He can’t whoop my ass, and he better not touch you.”

Though he was smiling, I didn’t sense a hint of humor in his voice. He was serious. He really wanted me to answer when he called me no matter what, and the worst part was that the wheels in my head were already turning trying to figure out how I was going to make that happen.

Lord! What am I going to do?

Chapter Seven

Adonis.

“Bro, Ms. Alice asked me to go get her some ice. I can run down the street?” AP asked, approaching me with three of his lil’ homeboys.

I eyed all four of them, pulling on my chin hairs before nodding. “Go and come right back, AP.” I dug a few twenties from my pocket and handed them to him. “You already on thin ice with me. Don’t make me embarrass you out here today. Get as many as you can with that.”

“Aight, man.” He chuckled before walking away with his friends in tow.

We were in our old neighborhood at the annual block party that the OG’s threw. Everyone from the hood would get together in the big ass empty field by the old mining spot with tents, grills, and deep fryers to fry fish and chicken while also cooking out. There were bounce houses and games set up for kids; basketball, football, and dodgeball set up for all ages, and there was for sure dice and card games that I’d join in later.

There were a few local celebrities that pushed up too. Chez and his crew had surpassed local celeb status, and even though he wasn’t from Northwood, he still came out with his people.Especially since some of his artists were born and bred in the North.

While my brother went to grab some ice, I went around to help the rest of the ladies that were setting up areas. Me and the guys always came early to help with set up because a lot of the folks that cooked were older women, and they’d all looked out in one way or another. My mama was cool with some of them, and they definitely gave me and AP food when our bitch ass sperm donor spent up all the bread on drugs and sold the stamps. The least I could do was look out for them when I could.

After we were done with that, I helped the DJ set up. He had a truckload of shit that he needed help unloading. As we did that, I heard the loud bass of someone’s car system blasting. I glanced back and noticed a candy red bubble Caprice. I had never seen the shit around the way before, but I knew it was Brock because he had the window down.

Of course.

The nigga had to make a grand entrance, and he had to be seen. It was sad as fuck to see how much his grown ass craved attention.

He parked a little distance away, by a group of middle-aged women who were frowning at him and his little entourage. The women were clearly chilling and vibing, and this goof ball ass nigga was all in their space with the music blasting. I was gon’ let him make it for a minute until I noticed my little brother walking by and Brock stopped him.