Page 23 of Taming a Menace

Nine

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Keywan Glover was as intriguing as he was annoying. What annoyed me most about him was how much I enjoyed seeing him. Not just because he was fine as hell either but that definitely didn’t hurt.

He was charming and charismatic. He felt like the type of guy that my mom warned me about.

That only made him more fascinating. Key knew how to push my buttons and just when to let up off of them.

The man knew I wanted him and had said as much.

Still he only tossed out little grenades like that to get in my head and make me question everything I thought was right.

I knew that he was off limits, but he had this way of making the rules and regulations seem trivial. As a habitual rule follower, that didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t like doing things that I knew damn well I wasn’t supposed to be doing. My anxiety wasn’t set up for that.

Thankfully, he was keeping his word and behaving for the most part. Here and there he would throw in a little slick comment, but I knew it was in his nature to toe the line. As long as he didn’t cross it, we were good.

It felt good that he was taking our therapy sessions seriously.

I was surprised when he came in with his homework assignment completed in full.

He liked to skirt around my questions, but I could tell that they at least got his wheels turning.

Some things were more difficult than others to discuss. I understood that completely.

I loved Fridays because they set off the weekend. I didn’t hate my job, but I enjoyed getting a break to unwind. I liked not having to worry about being somewhere. The weekends used to be my favorite until I ran into Key.

It was silly how much I looked forward to seeing him for our sessions.

My eagerness to be in his presence wasn’t just because of the good food he always brought me, but it definitely didn’t hurt.

On our last visit he’d brought me oxtails, rice and peas, and cabbage.

Eventually they were going to have to roll me out of the building in a wheelbarrow.

My attempt to stop him from bringing me lunch fell on deaf ears.

I really didn’t want him to stop anyway, but it just felt wrong.

It wasn’t uncommon for patients to bring in gifts or small tokens of their appreciation.

However, I did try to discourage them from doing so. Keywan wasn’t the type to listen.

I was stressed out at how bad I wanted him.

Maybe once our sessions were completed, we could explore something even if it was only sexual.

Stress made me hungry. Thinking about Keywan feeding me during our sessions only made it worse.

I could cook, but my skill level wasn’t good enough to satisfy my taste buds at the moment.

I needed something both good and bad, like the dangerously sexy man plaguing my thoughts.

Since it was after ten on a Friday night my choices were limited.

Although I had to drive all the way across town, I knew my favorite take-out spot was the perfect remedy for my cravings.

Dragging myself off the couch, I stuck my feet into the pair of slides that I wore around the house and grabbed my phone and keys off the coffee table before heading out.

When I made it to the car, I used my phone to look up their number.

I wanted to call in my order so I could just pick it up when I got there.

I rolled my eyes when the phone rang through to the recording twice.

It was a fifteen-minute drive. I would try to call a couple more times before I made it there just to speed up the process if possible.

The drive to my old neighborhood made me nostalgic. Not because I missed living there but because I missed Wyatt. No matter how much I hated him, I missed what we had. I missed the version of him I’d fallen head over heels in love with. Going to one of our favorite spots didn’t make it any better.

I missed having someone to spend boring nights at home with.

I missed the companionship. There was no use in calling my sister because I knew she was spending quality time with her husband.

As much as I enjoyed my newfound independence, I missed having someone to share my life with.

Things were all good as long as I was busy.

It was in the confines of my own home or sitting outside of my favorite eatery that the loneliness started to creep in.

I refused to settle for bullshit, which was why I changed my number and blocked Wyatt on all social media outlets.

He’d reached out a few times through friends, but I meant what I said.

I was done with him. He had bigger fish to fry than me with a daughter to raise.

It would seem that would be enough to get him out of my hair.

I drug myself out of the car, shaking my head at the line inside.

There were only three people in line but that didn’t include the ones leaning on the wall and sitting in the lobby area waiting to pick up their orders.

I knew I should have kept calling until I got someone.

Then again, I could see why they weren’t answering the phone.

They were busy as hell, especially for this time of night.

When I walked inside, the aroma of the food made my mouth water. The food was definitely worth the drive and the wait. As the first person in line ordered and stepped aside to wait, I got a little more excited. It had been months since I’d eaten there.

I almost jumped out of my skin when someone tapped me on my shoulder. When I turned around and saw that it was Key, my heart practically leapt from my chest. Why was I happy to see him? The walls of my pussy clenched involuntarily at the memory of the special way he’d handled us.

“Are you following me, Mr. Glover?” I asked him.

“No, ma’am. I think that fate insists on bringing us together, Moon.”

I laughed. “I don’t know about all that, but it seems that we just keep running into each other.”

“I’m not mad at it. It’s just confirmation that I made the right decision in coming here. God wanted to give me a sign that He was listening to me.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, I been praying.”

“Aw man. Here we go,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Nah, hear me out. I’ve been praying and asking for guidance in correcting my behavior. I know the way I move is problematic. The fact that I just got out of prison proves that. I asked Him to guide my steps so I could get my shit together for my wife.”

“Whatever motivates you to grow,” I said with a nod.

What he said sounded good. I just hoped he would put some action behind it.

Hearing him mention a wife niggled at something inside me, but I tried to ignore it.

I knew he wasn’t married, but I had never even tried to find out if he was dating at this point.

I didn’t like it, but I knew it wasn’t my place to care.

“Running into you right after I finished praying about you is wild. Prayer works fast as hell sometimes.”

“So you’re mentioning prayer and cursing in the same sentence?”

“God knows my heart, Moon.”

The person in front of me finished ordering, so I went ahead and stepped up to place my order. I always got shrimp and chicken teriyaki with an order of crab Rangoon. I’d tried a few other combinations, but that was by far my favorite. As the cashier gave me my total, Key nudged me aside.

“What are you doing?” I asked, frowning at him.

He didn’t bother answering my question. Instead he talked to the cashier like I wasn’t standing there mean mugging him.

“Let me get a chicken hibachi and two egg rolls.”

“I didn’t finish paying for my food yet, rudeness.”

He shot me a look, scrunching his nose as if he didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.

“That’ll be all, boss man. Bag those orders separately for me,” he said, extending the bills to pay for the order.

“I don’t have any cash,” I told him as he waited for his change.

He shrugged. “What are you telling me that for?”

“I don’t need you paying for my food.”

“No one said you did. I’m aware that you have a job, Moon. I’m not letting you pay for anything while I’m standing right here. Listen out for our order number while I’m in the bathroom.”

As I watched him stroll cooly toward the bathroom, I shook my head.

I couldn’t stand Keywan sometimes. He was ridiculous.

It was crazy how much audacity he had. Something about his nerve made him as incredible as he was absurd.

I loved how he just didn’t care. At least that was what I got from the casual way he’d strolled into my favorite spot out of nowhere and paid for my food.

There was a small voice in my head asking what he was doing here, but I ignored it. He lived in the same city. It wasn’t a big stretch that we would run into each other outside of the office. This was the second time I’d coincidentally run into him.

I figured there would be a little bit of a wait, so I sat down at an empty table and waited for my number to be called.

I turned my phone over just to check the time.

I had only been there about ten minutes total.

Silently I prayed that I got at least that long to sit and talk to Keywan.

I wanted time to talk myself into giving in to his advances.

Just as much as I wanted to surrender to his will, I wanted to bolt out of the restaurant and leave my order behind. If I left now, I could catch a late-night drive through without having to worry about sacrificing my morals. I only had a few more weeks left to treat him.