“I don’t need to see it to know you did good,” he remarked with a shrug. “My girl is good at everything she does.”
I smiled, all big and cheesy, showing all of my teeth and filings from those cavities that snuck up on me last year. But I didn’t care if I looked like I was sprung because I was falling in deep like — maybe even love — with Theseus Hood. Girl, who you kiddin’. You love that dude. I’d figured that out days ago, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to tell him yet.
We weren’t even officially a couple, but I didn’t care about that either. I knew I was his and he knew he was mine and some things didn’t need clarification. I wasn’t sure how we were gonna work, but I knew I wanted to at least try.
“You are slaying this dress today.” His appreciative glance made me sway a little.
I glanced down at the black and white dress I was wearing. I loved getting dolled up on the last day of shooting. Didn’t know why it made me feel great, but there was nothing better than knowing you slayed a project while slaying your look too.
“Thank you. I was hoping you like it.”
“I more than like it.” He kissed my forehead. “When do you head to LA again?”
“Tomorrow morning.” My face grew more serious when I told him, “But I was hoping we could talk tonight before I have to leave.”
“Anything serious?” he asked.
I worried my bottom lip. “Uh, just about us. I mean, the experiment is over and we’re done shooting the video. You have a grand opening to plan for your shop. I have my life in LA to get back to. But—” My phone started ringing with the ringtone I specifically set for my manager. I took my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and asked Theseus to, “Hold that thought.”
“Hey, boss lady.” I walked into to the corner of the room where no one was standing.
“Ivy, glad I got you. I just brought you a plane ticket to return to LA in three and a half hours. The client wants to view a few clips to help position the marketing launch party in a couple days, so they agreed to meet tonight. With the time difference, I figured you could make it just in time. This project was your baby, so I need you to pitch it.”
I glanced to at Theseus who was watching me curiously. I reallyyyyy wanted to talk to him, but I needed to handle this pitch to make sure I also spoke about how accommodating Theseus and his brothers had been. Had to plug in a good statement about my man. “Okay,” I told her. “Send me the flight info and I’ll be there.”
Chapter 15
“They call it falling in love because when love finds you and pushes you over the edge, you have no choice but to fall and pray to God someone catches you.”
~ Layla ~
THESEUS
“Bruh, quit cryin’,” Ares said. “She’s just heading to LA to handle some work shit. She’ll be back.”
“I’m not cryin’, dummy.” I shoved him in the shoulder. “I just wanted to spend the night celebrating together and we had some stuff to talk about. So, I didn’t want her to go tonight, but I get why she had to.”
When Ivy told me and the rest of her staff that she had to head to LA, the impromptu celebration party wrapped up pretty quickly. My brothers and I were now getting our shop back in order since we had a grand opening to plan soon.
Eros walked over to where I was staring out the shop window, watching an older couple walking down the street, holding hands just as the street lights cut on. “You love her, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yeah, man. I do. I wasn’t sure until today. I don’t know if she feels the same way, but I’d planned on telling her how I felt tonight.”
“Love?” Ares yelled. “Nigga, did you just say love? I knew y’all were getting serious, but damn. It’s been like, twelve days.”
“Idiot, no it hasn’t,” Eros interjected. “It’s been more like twelve years. Or maybe longer. You already know Theseus has loved Ivy since we were teenagers.”
Ares nodded his head. “Yeah, you right. You’ve been chasing her for years, Thes. And now you finally got her. I can see why you don’t want to let her out of your sight.”
“But you don’t have to,” Eros added. He started typing a bunch of stuff on his phone while I continued to stare out into the window even though that couple was long gone. I didn’t even know how long I stood there before my phone vibrated.
“There,” Eros said. “I just asked Layla to send me Ivy’s flight info and booked you on her flight to LA. She’s leaving out Midway Airport.” He glanced at his watch. “You got about an hour and forty-five minutes before it takes off.”
My eyes widened. “What do you mean? You got me a ticket? To meet her?”
“Yeah, bruh.” Eros was already pushing me out the door. “So get your sulking ass out of here and go with your girl to LA.”
I grabbed my jacket and glanced around. “What about the shop?”
“Get the hell outta here,” Ares yelled. “We got the shop. Get your ass to the airport and do that sappy shit where the couple runs to one another in slow motion while everybody stands there and claps, glad that he caught up with his woman just before the plane took off.”
Me and Eros gave Ares a blank stare. “What?” he said with a shrug. “Like y’all didn’t imagine the same thing.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Eros asked. “How would they run in slow motion? That’s just in movies.”
Ares shook his head. “Not true.”
I walked out just as Ares was demonstrating that one could, in fact, run in slow motion. I didn’t have time to check it out. I had my woman to meet.
IVY
Leaning back in my seat, I tried to ignore the fact that clearly, every parent in Chicago had decided to take their kids on a late flight to LA because it was babies galore. Crying babies. Busy babies. Stinky babies. Squealing babies. You know what the plane didn’t have? Quiet babies.
I closed my eyes, imagining that I was still at the shop with Theseus even though I knew I would see him in a few days. I hadn’t wanted to leave him, but I’d be damned if I wasn’t smiling inside at how amazing things had been with him lately.
Feeling like someone was watching me in my sleep, I opened my left eye to see nosy Nancy all up in my business. I figured it was my shirt since I hadn’t had much time to change before I left for the airport, so I’d quickly thrown on a Black Lush Entertainment original which was bedazzled with a man and woman in a compromising position. Still, I was the one wearing it, so I wished she’d stop staring if she didn’t like it. I’d kept my jacket on in the airport, but now, I was in my own seventeen inches of airplane space.
“Did you need something?” I asked in the nicest voice I could.
Instead of responding to me, she frowned and kept staring. Figuring she wasn’t gonna stop and not wanting to cause a scene, I closed my eyes again.
The only benefit of this flight was that I’d be able to catch up on some much-needed sleep since Theseus kept me up every freakin’ night with his glorious wish-I-could-throw-glitter-on-it-to-really-make-it-shine dick. Plus, I’d landed a window seat with Southwest Airlines, so unless someone sat between me and nosy Nancy, I’d be fine.
“Is this seat taken?”
Great. Now I’m even hearing his voice. I kept my eyes shut.
“It’s like that, huh?”
Okay, I’m really losing it. I opened my eyes and could barely contain my excitement when I noticed that my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me and Theseus was really on the plane.
I stood from my seat and walked as far as I could since my rude aisle companion wouldn’t move. “What are you doing here?”
He reached out to brush his hand against my cheek. “I couldn’t let you go back to LA without having that talk you promised me.”
I laughed. “But I was coming back! I didn’t even check a bag since I have clothes at my LA home. My boss just needs me for a meeting with a client.”
“And I need you, too,” he said, stepping closer to me and crowding Ms. Nosy. “I didn’t get a
chance to tell you how amazing these past couple weeks have been with you. For years, you’ve never been far from my mind, but now, I can’t seem to do anything without thinking about you, wondering how your day is going, what you’ve had to eat, calling you when I know you’re busy just to hear your voicemail.”
There was a round of aww’s on the plane and a grunt from Nancy. “I know the feeling,” I told him. “I’ve had a crush on you since I was fourteen, but that’s nothing like the way I feel for you now. The way you make me feel wanted and appreciated. Cherished and valued. You make me feel … loved in a way I never have before.”
“That’s because I love you,” he declared, his eyes briefly dropping to my lips. “I’ve been in love with you since I first saw you walk down the hallway in high school, and I’ve kept up with you over the years because I knew you would turn out to be an amazing woman, even though you’ve always been the perfect woman for me.”
I was sure the smile on my face looked obscenely huge, but I didn’t mind as I told him, “I love you, too, and I didn’t expect us to get here, but I’m glad we did. I’m not perfect, but I agree that we’re pretty good together. So I hope that even though we live in different states, we can find a way to make it work.”
He stepped even closer so that both of us were probably squishing Nancy. “We will make it work. Even if I have to move to LA and open up a shop there, we’ll make it work.”
I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to do that because I had the type of job that would let me relocate to another state, but he didn’t give me a chance. His lips beautifully molded onto mine faster than I could react, his tongue diving into my mouth, halting all of my words and thoughts.
People cheered in the background and babies continued to cry, but I paid them no mind. After years of keeping myself distant from love, I had finally figured out why. Finally realized that my heart hadn’t been ready to love the man of my dreams, because he hadn’t found me yet. Or I guess, he hadn’t found me again, since according to Theseus, I was never far from his heart. And thanks to that crazy social experiment—which I was still nervous to see when it aired—I’d faced my fear of not being loved back and found a man who loved me for being no one other than myself.
Epilogue
“Happily ever after’s are for suckas! And as they say, suckas are born every damn day.”
~ Layla ~
Two months later…
THESEUS
“Baby, you sure about this?”
She played with the tripod of the camera she’d set-up in the corner of the bedroom. “Yeah, I’m sure. Since I work in the industry, I’ve never wanted to do a porn video in the past. But I’m trying to connect more with my talent to become a better location and recruitment manager. What better way to do that than to do what they do? Plus, it’s an item on my goal list.”
I shook my head. “Always the overachiever.” Secretly, I was excited to create our own porn video, but then again, anything that involved making love to Ivy was always a good idea.
“The video we filmed in your shop was one of the easiest ones yet, and I know you had something to do with it. I was able to connect with the talent in ways I never could before since you were laying down some good D.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Just good?”
She glanced back at me. “Not just good, bae. Great! Phenomenal! Amazing! Awe-inspiring! THOTastic!”
“THOTastic? Where you get that shit from?”
She waved me off. “Doesn’t matter. Bottom line, I need to do this just like I needed to do that social experiment.”
I smiled. My baby had killed the experiment, and even though I couldn’t believe she’d put herself out there like that, she’d gotten mad respect. She’d never said my name, but lots of folks who knew both of us from Detroit had guessed she was talking about me, which meant er’body and they mama felt like they had a front row seat to our relationship. It didn’t bother me that much since in the end, I’d gotten my girl.
I sat down on the bed as she continued to fidget with her camera. “It still blows my mind sometimes when I think about how you went from having an eight-date rule to basically having me on standby, ready to drop everything when you get horny.”
She smirked. “What can I say? A bad boy can cause a good girl to make bad decisions.”
“I think I was a good decision.”
She smirked. “You were a good regret.”
“That’s an oxymoron.”
“Doesn’t matter. Don’t think I don’t realize that you didn’t take me out on a legit date until after you got some. Experiment or not, if the date ends in sex, then is it really a date though?”
I nodded. “Hell yeah, it still counts as a date. The best kind of date.”
She laughed, but I knew she peeped all the things I did for her. I wasn’t Prince Charming, but I always held open doors, massaged her feet after a long day, cooked dinner when she was too busy to eat. Ivy deserved to be pampered and I was just glad I was the lucky bastard who got to spoil her.
She had that look in her eyes that told me she felt the same, then confirmed by telling me, “You’re the right man for me and I appreciate you. Even if you turned me into a bit of a freak in the sheets.”
“Shhh, you betta not let my mama hear you say that. She’ll have you standing in the corner balancing bibles to get your mind right.” I glanced around as if she’d pop up even though Ivy and I were at her apartment in LA alone. We’d chosen to keep her place since we were often there, or in Detroit or Chicago. My mom was thrilled to hear I was finally dating Ivy since, like I said, everyone back home knew I had a thing for her.
Ivy’s parents were happy, too, even though I wouldn’t have been their first choice. Dating their youngest child—especially when that child was a girl—was harder than I’d thought, but I’d started to grow on them when they realized since I have a shop in Detroit, they’d see her more. I talked her into visiting me back in our hometown twice a month. Then, we met in LA three times a month, and were typically in Chicago any chance we got.
“Your mom is probably a freak, too,” Ivy said.
I shook my head. “Nah, my mom is a saint. Ain’t no freak in her blood.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “Whateva.” She bent over to open the tripod more, and my eyes went straight to her ass. She was wearing a short navy blue skirt that I loved, some black heels, and a graphic tee that said Can’t Wait Until My First Tattoo. I laughed since I knew the shirt was a lie. It had been a couple months since I’d gone to the airport to tell Ivy that I loved her, and on the plane ride that day, I’d tried to talk her into letting me tattoo her, but she wasn’t goin’.
Deep down, I knew she was scared of the needle and the fact that she’d be permanently putting something on her body, but I was cool with it. I loved Ivy just the way she was. Tattoo virgin and all.
“Okay,” she said. “It’s ready.”
I nodded my head, not knowing what I should do next. I took off my shirt … because, well, I needed something to do.
“I’ve always loved that tattoo,” she said, running her fingers over my words wrapped in a ribbon design. “You said this tattoo is the first one you ever did in your shop and it was for your dad, right?”
I nodded. “It was.”
She touched my second favorite part of the design with the exception of my dad’s name. “Did you add ‘Until we meet again’ after your dad passed?”
“It was on my skin before I had Eros add the tat I’d done for my dad.”
Squinting her eyes in confusion, she sat next to me on the bed. “Oh, okay. I didn’t know you’d lost someone else close to you.”
“Sort of.” My eyes held hers. “Do you remember the first day we met?”
She scrunched her forehead. “I think so … Was it right before homecoming my freshman year? I think Ares introduced us.”
“It was right before homecoming, but he didn’t introduce us.” I ran the back of my left hand over her right cheek. “I’d b
een hiding out in that room that was in the east wing of the school, taking a minute to myself after we won the homecoming game. I should have been celebrating with the school, but—”
Her eyes widened. “But you told me that you weren’t up for all the homecoming craziness that day, even though you were the star in that game.”
I thought back to that day. “How could I forget …”
Sixteen years ago …
At the sound of someone squealing and the door opening, I glanced up from my artwork and locked eyes with the girl I’d been hoping I’d get a chance to meet since school had started.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone was in here.”
“You good,” I told her. “You can come in if you want. I was just working on some stuff.”
To my surprise, she walked into the room and sat at the seat next to me. Today, she was wearing a cute maroon dress, a blue jean jacket, and some black combat boots. Just as she did every day, she had her good-girl vibe, which still kept my undivided attention no matter how many times I saw her.
“I’m Ivy and I’m a freshman.” She squinted her eyes. “You're a junior, right? Ares’s brother?”
I hadn’t gone to the same middle school as my brothers, but I was sure she already knew that Ares was my brother. Plus, my mom had been the Sunday school teacher for the past few months and even though I managed to dip out of a few classes, I knew for a fact that Ivy was there every Sunday. Still, I played along and told her, “Yeah, my name is Theseus. Ares is my younger brother.”
She nodded her head. “Cool. He’s cool I mean.”
Now it was my turn to observe her more closely. “Do you like him or something?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh no, nothing like that. We’re just classmates.”
Bad Decisions Good Regrets (Social Experiment #2) Page 13
