At that moment, I would have agreed to fly to the moon by flapping my arms. “Yes,” I breathed.
Although I was expecting it, it still came as a pleasant surprise when his lips met mine. The kiss only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was the best I’d ever had, which maybe wasn’t saying a lot since I’d only kissed two other boys.
“How much money do you have?” he asked.
I told him, and he turned thoughtful. “Keep saving,” he said. “This business is crazy—you don’t know when you’ll be out of work. I’ll also have you talk to my man about investing. I’ll talk to my housing man today about hooking you up with a place.”
I was about to tell him that I didn’t have enough money to buy a house or a building, but he stopped me. “I’ll front you the money,” he said.
I opened my mouth to protest but he held up his hand, stopping me. “It’s cool,” he said. “People know me, and even if they don’t respect me, they respect my bank account. Always remember, Jas, that with the right amount of money, you can get anything you want.”
chapter 8
Triple T and I spent the rest of the day just hanging out, getting to know each other.
He told me he had a younger sister my age who lived in Atlanta with his parents. He had been in New York for almost three years, and also owned a house in Atlanta, as well as one in L.A. He had his attorney come over; we finalized the contract for my work on Mocha Love’s single, and he let me hear the version of it that would be released to radio stations.
I knew I was good at what I did, but I exceeded even my own expectations.
Over dinner, Triple T asked me about my other musical interests.
“I heard you can rap,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
I had gotten over my nervousness about eating in front of him, so I nodded, since I had a mouthful of the best cheeseburger I had ever tasted. Once I’d swallowed, I said, “Yeah, I can do a little something.” I grinned at him, and he smiled and reached over and scraped something from my teeth. I started blushing when he held up a piece of lettuce for my inspection.
“I am so embarrassed,” I said, covering my face.
“Don’t be,” he said. “I just want you to know I’ve always got your back, okay?”
I nodded, still looking at the floor.
“Hey,” he said, lifting my chin. “Always know you can be yourself around me. You never have to be embarrassed or scared to say anything to me. Your spunkiness and outspokenness is one of the first things that attracted me to you.”
“You’re attracted to me?” I asked, looking into his eyes.
“No doubt,” he said. He leaned over and gave me a tiny kiss on the cheek, and I smiled. “So, let me hear you rap.”
I grinned and cleared my throat before freestyling for him. By the time I was done, he was shaking his head.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, thinking he didn’t like it.
“That was hot,” he said. “I’m impressed.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“When your album comes out, it’s going to be crazy,” he said. “You know I’m going to produce it for you, right? I already got some ideas.”
“You’d produce my album?” I said.
“No doubt. Why wouldn’t I produce my girl’s album?”
My heart slammed into my chest when he called me his girl. I got excited until I remembered that people said that all the time. I had called Loretta that more times than I cared to remember, and I knew I wasn’t trying to get with her.
I suddenly realized I hadn’t checked on my friend. I pulled out my cell phone and called her, but she didn’t pick up, so I figured she was still sleeping. I thought about leaving a message, but I figured I would see her in a few hours, so there wasn’t any point. She would be able to tell from the caller ID that I had called.
Triple T had made his way over to the piano in his living room during my call, so I followed him.
“Do you play?” I asked.
“Of course,” he said, and picked out a tune. “Do you?”
“I can do a little something,” I said.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me down so I was sitting between his legs. “Show me,” he whispered in my ear.
Chills ran down my spine.
I began playing an old-school tune, trying to ignore the trail of kisses he was running down my neck. At one point he snuck a real kiss, and I stopped my playing to return it. It seemed to last for about five minutes, and my body was on fire.
Triple T was making his way toward my breasts when reality set in. “Stop,” I said, pushing him away.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. His voice sounded really deep and sexy, and I gulped.
“We have to stop,” I said.
“Why?”
“Because I just met you.” I tugged at my shirt and tried to move away from him, but he held me firm.
“So? You know you want me as much as I want you,” he whispered, placing another kiss on my neck.
“T, that’s not the point. I’m still a virgin,” I said softly.
“Oh.” He nodded in understanding before kissing me on my forehead. “You know, Jasmine, your honesty is one of the things I love most about you.”
“You love me?” I said in amazement.
He looked deeply into my eyes before he said, “I love you.” Between each word, he gently placed a kiss on different parts of my face.
“But you just met me,” I said.
“That doesn’t change how I feel,” he said.
I smiled. I had been feeling the same thing, but I was too scared to admit it. I had heard people talking about love at first sight, but I’d never thought it would happen to me. “I love you, too,” I said.
He grinned, then turned serious. “I want you to know there’s no pressure on my end. When you decide you’re ready to take our relationship to the next level, just let me know,” he said. I nodded. “In the meantime, I think I’d better move.”
It took me a second to understand why. I had been trying to ignore his bulge pressing into my side, but when he stood, it was hard to ignore. I couldn’t believe I had done that to him.
“You okay?” I asked softly.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he said. “It’s nothing a cold shower won’t cure. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He gave me another kiss and then disappeared into his master bedroom, which he had shown me earlier. Inside was a marble-tiled bathroom complete with heated floors, a Jacuzzi big enough to swim in, a glass-enclosed shower and a sauna.
Figuring he might be a while, I started playing around on the piano. After a few minutes the words to a new song came to mind. I looked around for some paper, kicking myself for having forgotten my notebook, but I didn’t see any. I did spy a digital tape recorder. I hit Record and just lost myself in the music. The words and melody just flowed, and when I finished I was drained.
“That was amazing,” Triple T said quietly once I was done.
“How long have you been standing there?” I asked.
“Long enough,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me you could sing and that you could write?”
“I was going to,” I said, “but we got preoccupied. I hope you don’t mind, but I used your recorder.”
“Not at all,” he said. “Anything I have is yours. What good is having things if I can’t share them with the woman I love?”
I blushed. “Thank you,” I said simply.
“No, thank you,” he said.
“What are you thanking me for?”
“For just being you,” he said. He stared at me for a few seconds, and I felt myself becoming self-conscious. I rubbed my hair.
“What?” I said.
“I’ve never met anyone like you, and I don’t want you to get away. Jasmine, will you be my girlfriend?”
I felt my heart melt. I thought about asking if he was sure, but I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he was. “Yes,” I said, and threw myself into his arms. We
stood there grinning at each other.
“We should go out and celebrate,” he said.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Where are we going?”
“Let’s get some ice cream.”
“Cool.”
He made a call; then he grabbed my hand and we headed downstairs. Right in front of his building was a black-on-black Cadillac Escalade that was so shiny I could see my reflection, even though it was dusk.
“Is this yours?” I asked, when a man got out of the driver’s seat and held the back door open for us.
“Yeah, one of them,” he said, as though everyone had more than one car.
“How many do you have?” I asked, looking around the interior. There were television monitors in the headrests, along with a DVD player and Play-Station 3. I sank back in my seat and thought I had never felt anything so soft in my life.
“Twenty,” he said.
I turned and looked at him. “You have twenty cars?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah,” he said. “Tomorrow we can go get you one. I can’t have my girl riding around in some beat-up old car.”
I looked at him and rolled my neck. “My car is not beat-up,” I said.
“Okay,” he said, “but I’m still buying you a new one.”
“No, you’re not,” I said. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I make my own money, and when I decide to get a new car, it will be because I’m paying for it. Besides, you’ve already said you’re gonna give me the money to buy a place—”
His kiss stopped me. Just as I was getting into it, the car stopped, and he pulled away. “We’ll talk about this later,” he said.
“Okay,” I agreed, too breathless to say anything else.
We went into Cold Stone Creamery and each got huge waffle cones. I had never been there before, but I knew I would quickly become addicted. They used homemade ice cream and made any combination with mix-ins right before your eyes. I decided on the cake batter ice cream with brownie, Oreo cookies and caramel, and Triple T got cake batter with Snickers, Oreos and peanut butter. It sounded nasty, but it actually tasted pretty good.
As we ate, the workers sang several ice cream songs to the tune of different nursery rhymes. It was actually kind of cute. At one point, Triple T made up a beat, and I freestyled. We had the whole place, which was packed, rocking, and received a standing ovation.
Once we were done, Triple T got a pint of our special creations to go; then, we hopped back into his Escalade where his driver, Manny, had been patiently waiting.
“Where to?” Triple T asked.
I shrugged. “What time is it?” I asked.
He glanced at his diamond-encrusted watch. “Ten o’clock,” he said.
“Are you serious?” I grabbed his wrist to check the time for myself. When I saw he was telling the truth, I groaned. “Oh, man, my brother is going to kill me.”
“Why?” Triple T asked.
“I was supposed to meet him and Kyle at Loretta’s hours ago.” I searched for my purse so I could get my cell phone and call him, but I remembered I’d left it at Triple T’s house.
“Let’s head over there now,” Triple T suggested. He unhooked his BlackBerry from his belt loop and handed it to me. “Call them and tell them we’re on our way,” he said.
“You don’t mind?” I asked, already punching in the number.
“Why would I?” he said. “It gives me a chance to meet the people you love most in the world and to spend some time with you.”
Loretta answered the phone on the second ring. “Girl, where you at?” she asked, sounding more like herself.
“I’ve been hanging with—” I glanced at Triple T “—my boyfriend,” I said, and grinned, loving the way that sounded.
“What?” Loretta screamed. “When did you get a man? Wait a second.” She came back to the phone almost immediately. “Jas, why does my caller ID say this is Terrence Thomas’s number?”
“Because it is,” I said simply.
“Terrence Thomas as in Triple T?” she asked, not waiting for me to answer. “Triple T is your man? Since when?”
I shook my head. “We’ll talk about it later,” I said. “Are Derrick and Kyle still there?”
“Yeah, they were just getting ready to leave. We’ve called you like five times. Now I understand why you didn’t answer.”
“Tell them we’ll be there in a few minutes,” I said.
“Cool. Wait a minute. Did you say ‘we’? We who?”
“You’ll see,” I sang.
I was just about to hang up when I heard Loretta say, “Jas, you better not be bringing Triple T over here with me all bandaged up. I’m going to kill you.”
I just laughed. “See you later, Loretta,” I said, and hung up.
“Maybe we should take your peeps some food,” he suggested.
“Good idea,” I said. Even if they had already eaten, I figured they wouldn’t be able to resist. Triple T phoned in an order to a local pizza joint and was told the food would be ready in five minutes. I had never had service that fast.
“How’d you manage that?” I asked.
“I told you, the right amount of money will buy you anything,” he said.
When we arrived at Loretta’s, Kyle and Derrick were stretched out on the sofa, which doubled as my bed. As usual, Loretta’s mother was nowhere to be found.
“Hey, guys,” I said, putting the pizza on the coffee table and walking over to give each of them a hug. “Where’s Loretta?”
Derrick nodded toward her bedroom. “She muttered something about having to get dressed, then headed back there,” he said. “Where’ve you been?” He looked beyond me at T and I turned to introduce them.
Derrick was polite enough, but Kyle was not impressed, especially when I said T was my boyfriend. He got up in T’s face, looked him dead in the eye and told him, “If you hurt her, I will hurt you.”
I had never seen Kyle behave that way. “Boy, you are so silly. Go sit down somewhere,” I said, trying to play off his behavior.
T just stood there laughing. He looked like he was about to say something, but Loretta came switching into the room. “Hey, T,” she said, giving him a big hug and linking her arm around his. “I’m glad you could make it.”
She was talking as though she had personally invited him. I guess she was really feeling better. She had on this fitted shirt that barely covered her breasts, which were still bandaged, and these tight black pants that showed off more of her than I wanted to see. She had put on a long curly wig, which actually looked good on her.
“Hey, Loretta,” I said.
“Oh, hey, girl,” she said, not bothering to look at me. “So, T, can I get you anything?” She led him to the sofa and sat right up under him—an inch more and she would have been in his lap.
“Move, Loretta,” I said, and for a second I thought she was going to ignore me.
I grabbed her arm and helped her to the other end of the sofa.
“Why you tripping?” she said. “I was just trying to make T feel at home.”
“Whatever, Loretta,” I said. I turned and looked at Derrick and Kyle. “You guys hungry?”
As expected, they didn’t turn down the free food. We sat watching the end of the movie they were watching—well, everyone was watching but Kyle, who seemed to be staring T down.
After the movie was over, we sat around just looking at each other—or rather, Loretta was looking at T.
“What time is it?” Kyle finally asked.
I glanced at the clock on the cable box. “A little after midnight,” I said.
Derrick stood and stretched. “I should be getting home,” he said, trying to cover a yawn.
“Man, why you trippin’?” I asked. “You don’t have to work tomorrow.”
He looked at me and shook his head, and I remembered our curfew, which I hadn’t had to follow since I’d moved out almost a month ago. “I forgot you still live at home with your mama,” I said, laughing at my own joke.
/> Derrick was about to say something when Triple T jumped in. “Baby, that’s not cool,” he said. “You need to chill with that.”
I didn’t know whether to focus on the fact that he was calling me baby or that he had something to say to me in front of my friends.
T looked at Derrick. “I’ve been telling your sister that she needs to make up with your mom. Family is everything, man. She doesn’t realize what she has.”
I saw a level of respect light Derrick’s eyes, which annoyed me for some reason.
“But I do realize you’re talking about me like I’m not here,” I snapped.
“Sorry, baby,” T said, cupping my knee.
I grinned at him as I melted. “It’s okay,” I said. I had never had a guy pay me this much attention before, especially in front of my friends, and I loved it.
I glanced at his hand on my knee and felt my insides warm. When I looked at up, Kyle was staring straight at me looking like he wanted to chew cement.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head, then changed his mind. “I need to talk to you—alone,” he said.
“Whatever you can say to me, you can say to T,” I said, linking our fingers together.
“No, I can’t,” Kyle said. He grabbed my arm and helped me up off the couch.
When I tried to pull away, he looked at me. “Five minutes,” he said.
I looked at T. “It’s cool,” he said.
The minute we were in Loretta’s room, I turned to face Kyle. “What is your problem?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips.
“Why are you with this clown?” he said. He was trying to keep his voice low, but I had a feeling T could hear everything he said.
“What are you talking about?” I said. “T’s a good guy. He loves me, and I love him.”
Kyle barked a laugh. “Jas, you can’t be serious. You just met this dude. How are you gon’ say you’re in love with him?”
“Why do you care?” I asked. “It’s none of your business.”
He looked at me and closed the door to Loretta’s bedroom. “You are my business. You’ve been my girl for a long time, Jas, and I’ve always been real with you. I don’t trust this guy. There’s something about him I don’t like.”
Spin it Like That Page 9
