Page 24 of Blind Spot
She shook her head.
“What’s wrong with you? Thought you would’ve been hitting the streets.”
“I’ve got a really bad headache. I’m not feeling too well.”
I knew she suffered from headaches, and she had since she was in her teens.
“Listen, I cooked, so let’s get some food in you, and then you can take something for it. You still got those meds?”
“Yeah, I just didn’t want to take them on an empty stomach, and I didn’t have the energy to get up and cook anything.”
“It’s a good thing that I’m always looking out for ya then, huh?”
She smiled weakly, and her shoulders dropped. “Yeah. I guess.”
I felt bad because I knew that last night was on her mind. “Hop in the bed and let me feed you.”
“I need to throw something on first.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
Charly rolled her eyes at me and replied, “Since when have we started doing that?”
She had always got dressed in front of me, but that had all stopped once she was in a relationship with my brother.
“Since you and Ramon.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Well, that’s over now, so can we get back to being us?” Her eyes searched mine, and they were more open than I had seen them in a long time.
I could see the hurt, the desire, the trust, and everything else she held for me in that one gaze.
“Yeah.”
She turned and walked to her dresser and grabbed a T-shirt and some panties. I turned away as she dropped her towel to throw her panties on. There was no way that I could sit and watch her and not get turned on. It had always been a thing for me, but I always played it off like that shit hadn’t bothered me.All these years later, and I wasn’t with anyone, and neither was she . . . I didn’t want to tempt myself too much.
“It smells good,” she stated as she climbed onto the bed beside me.
Sitting in bed together had always been a thing we shared, too, and if I didn’t do it now, I knew she would feel the weight of it. The last thing that I wanted was to have this uncomfortable chasm between us.
“It is good. You know ya boy can burn.”
“That you can. Both of your parents were great cooks, so . . .”
We ate in silence before we finished our meal. Charly turned and asked, “What are you getting into today?”
“Nothing much. I probably will get a shape-up later, but I don’t have anything on the board. Why?”
“Just wondering.” She set her empty plate on her nightstand and scooted down in bed.
I got up, grabbed my plate and hers, along with our glasses, and placed them back on the tray. “I’ll be back,” I declared as I took them to the kitchen and rinsed the dishes. I placed everything in the dishwasher and returned to her room with a bottled water.
“Where are your meds?”
“On the top shelf of the organizer in the bathroom.”
I nodded and headed in there to grab them. The bathroom was rich with her luxuriant brown sugar and vanilla scent. I turned to look in the mirror and gripped the counter.
“Chill, man. Don’t fuck shit up. Y’all have been good all these years. You got this, my nigga.”
