Page 32 of Verse Two
“Good evening, Mr. Ellis and Ms. Davis. I am Andrés, and I’ll be the one spearheading your wine tasting experience, if that’s okay.”
“Sounds great,” Dy said, with more enthusiasm than she’d had since I picked her up from her mom’s house.
Andrés nodded. “All right,” he said, “today, we’ll be exploring six different pours. We’re going to get started with something light and end on a bold note.”
He pulled out two glasses and the first bottle of wine. He explained what type it was as he poured us up. I could barely focus on my glass because of how drawn I was to Dy’s juicy ass lips wrapped around hers.
She closed her eyes and gave a low moan of approval.
“This one would be bomb with some sushi,” she finally said.
“Look at you, sommelier in training,” Andrés said with a laugh. I cut my eyes at Dylan, and her ass was blushing. I tasted the wine, and it was cool, but I was more of a cognac guy myself. Wine never really did it for me, butIwould do anything to make my Doll smile.
Glass by glass, dude walked us through the stories behind the wines. He told us where the grapes came from, how long they aged, and all kinds of other shit. I tried to pay attention, but Dylan’s face as she focused on the lesson was much more intriguing to me.
She is so damn beautiful.
Her cardigan fell slightly off her right shoulder as she swirled her glass of Malbec. Her face was much more relaxed now, and she wore a comfortable smile. Her eyes were low, but when she placed the glass to her lips, she closed them completely. To say that I was obsessed with this woman’s beauty was a major understatement.
At some point during our tasting, a waitress came from out of a door behind the bar and took our food orders. By the time we were finishing our last glass, our plates were coming out.
We both ordered a ribeye, but Dylan’s was cooked medium while I ordered mine medium-well.
Andrés poured us another glass of Dylan’s favorite during the tasting, before disappearing behind that same door.
As soon as we were alone again, the tension between us that had disappeared during the tasting returned to the room. We ate silently for a while, until I placed my fork down and turned toward her.
I watched as her breath hitched, and she cast her gaze downward. Placing a hand on her thigh, I gently turned her barstool so that she was facing me.
She was looking everywhere except me, but I ended that when I lifted her chin with my fingers.
“You’ve been quiet since I picked you up. Something’s on your mind. Tell me what it is.”
She glanced at the door behind the bar and bit her lip, hesitating. For a minute, she didn’t answer me, and I was fully prepared to make my request again, when she finally spoke up.
I wasn’t sure what I expected to her to say, but it damn sure wasn’t her next words.
“I saw LaShontae yesterday.”
And there it was.
Her tone was low, and her eyes were glued to mine. She didn’t have to say anything else for me to understand how badly I had fucked up.
Dy had nothing to worry about as far as LaShontae and I were concerned, but I knew LaShontae painted a picture totally different than I did when they ran into each other. When Dylan asked me about her in New York, I brushed our relationship off like it was ancient history.
At the very least, I knew LaShontae informed Dy that our relationship was much more recent than I alluded to. The worst-case scenario would be that LaShontae made it seem like we were still together. Either way, it was now on me to fix what I broke.
“Doll—”
She put a hand up to stop me.
“She said that you two are together. Like, . . . right now. I didn’t necessarily believe that, but a quick scroll on her social media let me know that she wasn’t just your high school sweetheart.”
I dropped my head. Social media wasn’t my thing, so I didn’t check it often, but I knew LaShontae loved putting me on her page. There was no telling what my Doll saw on there. Decidingthat honesty was my best bet, I sighed and took Dy’s hands into mine. The fact that she didn’t pull away gave me a little hope.
“I wasn’t lying about our relationship being over, but it was much more recent than I made it seem. I’on know why the hell I did that, man. I was enjoyin’ being in your presence again after all these years, so when you brought her up, I didn’t want to say anything that killed our vibe. I apologize for not being straight up about my relationship with that girl. I should have told you.”
She licked her lips and looked away briefly. Her voice was soft when she said, “Yeah, you should have.”
