Page 20 of Our Mother's Sons

Pulling up to the all black building, my belly swarmed with excitement. Even the outside was sexy. The brick was all black, and the big black sign on top of the building with the restaurant’s name sparkled in gold. Checking my face one last time because, according to social media, all the who’s who’s and even famous people came here, I wanted to make sure not a hair was out of place. I wasn’t scouting for anyone unless it was the paid twin, but I still wanted to look my best. Grabbing my Nine West chain purse from the front seat, I exited the car and locked my door. This place was in a nice side of town but still, Florida niggas would break in your shit even if you were parked at the mayor’s mansion.

I was shocked that no security guard had checked my bag at the front door, and I could easily walk in. Once I gave the pretty hostess my name, she showed me to the booth in the bar area I’d reserved. I didn’t want to sit at a table and have empty chairs, nor did I want to sit at the bar and appear to be conversational. So, I’d booked a small booth roomy enough for four people. It was in a darker part of the already dark building, but I had a view of the entire restaurant. As I sat on the leather, I gawked at my surroundings. TikTok hadn’t lied. This place was extremely aesthetically pleasing, and just like the exterior, the interior was black and gold, creating a masculine yet modern and expensive setting. If the food and drinks were as good as they claimed, Jonah’s would be getting all of my money in the future.

A waitress whom I complimented on having pretty nails took my order. I settled on crab cakes for the appetizer, lamb chops, seafood rice for my entrée, and their signature blackberry lemon drop with water on the side. Once she had my order, I handed her the folded black leather menu and pulled my phone out. I was so used to no one calling me that this was the first time I’d even looked at it since my lunch break, which was four hours ago. I didn’t even need it for the GPS since I’d used the one attached to my car to get here.

Seeing I had a missed call from Him, my heart accelerated. When I went to my call log and saw that the missed call was a day old, I frowned. My phone had been doing shit like that as of late. I would miss Baela’s call and wouldn’t be notified until the next day or days later. I guess it was Apple’s way of telling me it was time for a new phone. Anxiety spurted through me as I stared at his contact. I was more than twenty-four hours late seeing his call and knew it wouldn’t look right calling him back a day later. At the same time, I wanted to talk to him. It was crazy how I was saying I wasn’t looking for anything but, one sight of him and all that shit when out the window. Before deciding if I wanted to return his call, the waitress brought my crabcakes and lemon drop out.

Steam rose from my food, and the presentation was so lovely that I had to snap a picture. I wouldn’t be posting it to my stories, though, because Baela was known to hide in the supply closet and sneak on her phone while working, and I didn’t feel like hearing a tongue lashing from her. The food was just as good as the reviews claimed. I scarfed down the crabcakes quickly, and she was bringing my entree out when I got to the bottom of the lemon drop. I put in another order for the lemon drop even though I didn’t need it. Since I was good and tipsy, it was too good to pass up. Plus, I had some funds thanks to him.

As I bit into the lamb chop, something told me to look up, and when I did, the eyes staring back at me had me choking. The seasoned and tender meat had gone down wrong to the point that I had to pat my chest and sip water. When I returned to normal, I closed my eyes, hoping he would be a figment of my imagination when I opened them. Seeing that he was still standing there had my neck heating and my breathing slowing.

I hadn’t seen him in nearly a year, and even though it had been a while, the same hatred I harbored for him the day he left made an appearance. If I wasn’t in this nice ass restaurant, I would have hopped out this booth and pounded his fucking face in. Dutton. He was still the same fine ass boy because he damn sure wasn’t a man, but he looked more put together. Granted, Dutton’s womanizing ass kept some new shoes and a new outfit on because the women he dated made sure to keep him fresh but on his feet were a pair of shoes that I saw in Neiman’s that I knew costed well over fifteen hundred dollars. Not only that he was wearing a big ass ridiculous looking diamond chain that even though was shining, was too obnoxious. With the word Amiri stitched on the back of the jeans and the matching t-shirt I knew then, more than a woman was financing his life unless his ass was dating Giselda Blanca herself. On his wrist was a big silver watch that had to have cost some money, too. I knew damn well this nigga wasn’t out here shinning like new money when he had left me with rent he swore he would pay half on when in fact he’d only done that shit a few times. I loved my apartment but would have never picked a one-bedroom for nearly two thousand dollars. There were plenty of nice ones for half the price, and even though the neighborhood wouldn’t be as nice, I still had those options. I let Dutton sucker me into the shit and when the lease was up I let him sucker me into signing again like a fool knowing I’d struggled through the first year. Thankfully, I had a good job now, but he didn’t know that.

“Here, baby. I love your Benz.”

A pretty blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white girl in a floral skater dress that matched her eyes came alongside him and handed him a black and silver key fob. I was looking so hard that I could see the Benz emblem. This nigga. I doubted his uncle had put him on because he couldn’t sell water to a rich man dying of thirst. I also knew that Snow wasn’t financing his lifestyle. The white women here in Ausnor only fucked with black men if they had money. So how the fuck had he come up when with me all he did was take take take?

When the Blonde girl followed his line of vision and I locked in on her blue orbs too, because I was most definitely not looking away, Dutton cleared his throat and tugged her along. Oh hell no. This nigga had me fucked up. Grabbing my purse, I scooted around the booth to give him a piece of my mind when a dark shadow stopped me. Looking up, I gasped, and my suddenly dried-up cat was now drenched.

“Why you ain’t call me back yesterday?”

“Uh, hunh? I just got the missed call-”

“I’m fucking with you. I didn’t even know if that shit connected but with your response, I take it that it did.” He eyed me and even him calling himself reprimanding me was sexy.

He slid into the booth on the opposite side of where I was trying to escape, and when he reached his long arms around to pull me next to him, I melted at his side while my heart thudded in my chest. His long hair was crinkly and covering the sides of his face while hanging down his shoulders, and even though he was simply dressed in a black Nike hoodie, shorts, socks, and Gucci flip-flops with no jewelry outside of a watch, he was killing Dutton in every way possible. He smelled good, too. So fucking good. No longer were the fumes of the restaurant drenching my nostrils. It was his tantalizing cologne that wreaked of grown man, big dick, money, and heartache.

“So you pocket dialed me?”

He picked up one of my lamb chops I’d already bitten off and chewed the flavorful meat.

“Nah. I called you but had to hang up to take out the trash.”

Confused by his statement, I chose not to reply. I wanted to turn away so that I didn’t appear to be a creep, but no matter how much I willed myself to do so, I couldn’t tear my head away. He wasn’t dressed for the restaurant. He looked more like he’d walked in to get something to go, and that thought alone caused accusations to swarm in my head. Was he picking up food for himself and whatever chick was about to braid his hair? Imagining him sitting between the legs of another woman caused my body to heat, and not in a way it had the moment I spotted him.

Suddenly, a rambunctious laughter knocked me from my twin-induced trance and had my eyes creeping out of our bubble. There was Dutton’s fraud ass again but this time he was pulling out a seat for his date. I could have sworn he’d been seated in the back, so how was he now sitting a few feet away from me? Granted, he wasn’t close enough so that I could hear their conversation, but he was still too close for comfort. There were a few tables between us, and he would have to snake his body around to get a direct look at me, but the fact that he was in my line of vision had taken the last little bit of my appetite away. With the way this man was finishing off my plate, using my fork and all to eat my seafood rice not caring that he was swapping my spit, I wouldn’t have any food to eat anyway.

“Yeah, my brother did his big one with that new chef,” He sucked down on a lamb bone.

The waitress popped back up with my lemon drop.

“I apologize about the wait, girl. We had a rush out of nowhere, so this one is on me,” she smiled sweetly as she set my drink down. When she noticed him, she froze up.

“Oh, I didn’t know she was with you. I didn’t have her waiting long, please do not tell your brother,” her eyes became glossy, causing me to cover her hand with mine.

“It’s fine. I wasn’t waiting long.”

My assurance wasn’t enough because she was still watching him, waiting for him to tell her all was well.

“Aye, add some of these to my order. Get her another one to go as well.”

She nodded eagerly.

“Bring me a double shot of D’Usse, too. Bring the lady another one of those too, but bring that shit pronto, Betty.”

“Beatrice,” she corrected in a shaky voice.

“It’s going to be jobless if you don’t get a move on.”

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