Page 29 of Smoke N' Stroke

“So… I think I want to go to the dispensary and pick something out.”

His smile was wide.

“What’s that smile about?”

“I know where we can go. MJ distributes his product to a few dispensaries in the city. There’s one I like the most though.”

“Is this where you send your patients?”

“Oh nah. I wouldn’t go where I send them, not with you. This is a spot I’ve been to personally.”

“You got a script?”

“You want to know the legalities of everything, or you want to get high and stop thinking so hard for a minute, big head?”

“Hush. You gone get enough of talking shit about me, Dr. Booker."

"I’ll never stop. Now close the door so I can help calm you down until we can get some smoke.”

“Wait a minute. Dr, Patton said…”

“She said not where others can see. So close the damn door.”

I did exactly what he said.

20

NALA

APRIL 20, 2024

“Oh, this is nice… really nice.”

Dark brown eyes studied me with amusement, his slow smile seeming pleased at my predicament.

“Mmmhmmm. Told you.”

He took a hit of the joint before passing it over to me. Who knew hand-eye coordination would be required for such a task but I inwardly applauded myself when my fingers clamped around the shrinking beauty and pulled her to my lips without fumbling it and embarrassing myself. Maybe it was the perfectionist in me but even doing something like smoking weed, for the first time,meant I needed to do it right. Not to mention being with this sexy ass man, made me feel more seen, more vulnerable than ever.And safe, Nala. You feel safe.

I did feel safe I thought. He watched me closely as I took a less tentative drag this time and avoided that hacking cough from moments ago. A bitterness filled my mouth as the warmth of the smoke moved into my throat and I filled up my lungs to hold the fire inside. After a few moments, I released what remained of it into the haze-filled living room.

“Is it like this always or just because it’s my first time?” The thought hung in my mind longer than usual but eventually, my mouth was able to communicate.Damn, this shit made you slow.

“Well, the next time you’ll have fewer questions or at least I hope.”

My body was so … so something …. I felt lighter than a feather as if I were floating up into the stars with him right beside me. Even thinking about it, had the visual of a dark space peppered with speckles of white light appearing in my mind. The delayed realization of his sarcastic words had me eventually reaching out my hand to make contact with him. The perpetual lack of density caused by my condition made what I intended to be a smack on his shoulder result in a light tap. Even in the corner of my mind where I could make out Jazmine Sullivan crooning:

“You feel that fire, just let it burn…There's no runnin' beneath your turn…”

I could still hear his melodic chuckle. Seeing his eyes half cast and the gentle bite to his bottom lip made the energy emanating from my intoxicated state travel to every body part he had ever touched. My nipples tingled, my pussy throbbed even as the rest of me felt…loved. Damn, what was in this plant that had me ready to say fuck healing, I needed dick.Healing dick. Yeah, that’s what I needed.

A stupid smile spread across my face and even when I felt him watching me from the recesses of my mind because, at this point, I could only focus on an insignificant detail in this room. The cup sat on the coffee table, surrounded by a bag of chips and a box of cookies for munchies. That red cup had my attention and I couldn’t let it go. I don’t know why, but that’s where my eyes went and stayed until I realized my mind had gone to nothingness and I didn’t like that. Where was I drifting off to?

Oh yeah,healing dick. Wait his eyes were on me,that’s where I had been… and now there was that feeling again spreading throughout my floating body. My nipples, my cat—everything wanted him. Finally able to move my head to the left I stared at him, I found his attention already on me like my body already knew. He was weakening whatever little will I had left with just his eyes. They were so beautiful and they loved looking at me.

He reached for me but was stopped short. His phone buzzed and seemingly unaffected by the joint we smoked or that my body was yelling out to him, he lifted it in his palm and began a Facetime video with a dark-skinned man who could have been Djimon Hounsou’s doppelganger. I tried to school my features into a serious nonhigh way and listen.

“Hey, man.”

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