Page 67 of One Good Reason

“We wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

“Bertha!” Mrs. Jessie called out. Sticking her head in the door, she asked. “You ‘bout ready for your bath?”

“Ummhmm. Miss missy here got a hot date she needs to get ready for.”

“It’s not a date Gema.” I groaned.

“Chile.” She waved me off. “You done stood in that bathroom and curled your hair. It’s a date.” She laughed.

“Mrs. Jessie, get her out of here. She talking crazy now.”

“Don’t wanna hear the truth. Come on Jessie… I’m ready.”

Pulling her covers back, I helped Gema out of the bed and sat there while Mrs. Jessie assisted her to the bathroom. It was times like this that I would miss if anything ever happened to her. Gema knew exactly what to say to make me feel better about a lot of shit. Maybe I needed to listen to her and get back intotherapy. Surely that would help me through a lot of the issues that were arising.

By the time Law arrived to picked me up, Mrs. Jessie had bathed, fed, and put Gema down for the night. I knew he was as eager to speak with her as she was him but the two of them had been out all day and she had grown tired. I promised him that the next time I took her out for breakfast, I would let him join us.

Sitting across from him in the restaurant, I stared at his handsome face. My issues were in the back of my mind but the longer I studied the way his brows dipped as he perused the menu, I knew everything Gema had said was right. Law wasn’t the person who hurt me and regardless of how much money he had, he’d never made me feel like my molester had. I guess I could let up on him and be his friend again.

“Something on my face?” he asked without peeling his eyes away from the menu.

He looked good so you damn right I’d been staring a hole through him. Donned in a tan shirt with blue strips going across his chest, it was hard not to stare. The blue trousers matched the strips and the dark brown leather loafers he wore set his look off. A simple gold watch sat strategically on his wrist and his cologne was so overpowering, it tickled my nose every time he moved.

“If you were really studying the menu, you wouldn’t know I was looking at you,” I tossed back.

“You sitting over there staring a hole in my face, Talitha. Of course, I know you’re staring.”

“What are you ordering?”

“I guess the rack of lamb. You?”

“I don’t know,” I huffed. “I Yelped the menu earlier today and now I think I’ve changed my mind.”

“Get whatever you want. And if you don’t like it, order something else,” he answered like that was the solution. I wasn’t about to order a bunch of random things off the menu. That was absurd and wasteful.

“Can I have a piece of your lamb?” I asked, just to fuck with him.

“As long as you don’t mind it being medium rare.” He shrugged.

“Medium rare!” I shrieked. “That’s full of blood.”

“I’ve never been one to shy away from a little blood.” Law winked and focused back on the menu.

“I hate when you do that,” I tittered. “Does everything have to be so sexual with you?”

“I wasn’t meaning it like that,” he lied. “But since that’s where your mind went, appease me.”

“Appease you how?”

“Why does everything I say or do have to be a sexual innuendo?”

“Have you had a conversation with yourself? You speak in double entendres. It’s the bane of your existence.”

“You are so full of shit.” Law laughed. “I was being serious. I’m a grown ass man, blood doesn’t make me squeamish. You can take it however you want.”

Picking up my glass, I downed the rest of my French 75.

“Have you ate today?”

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