by Alison Mello
I’m embarrassed that I don’t remember every detail of the evening, and I can hear him moving around out there, which means I have to face him. I can’t even sneak out. I expel a deep breath, realizing I need to do the walk of shame.
A slight knock on the door has me frozen. Do I speak up or pretend I’m still sleeping? I glance over at the clock on his nightstand. It’s almost ten.
“Yeah.” Is all I can manage right now.
“Can I come in?” He sounds nervous.
“It’s your room.” I pull the soft comforter up as if it’s a security blanket.
He opens the door and peeks his head in. “Good morning.” He smiles and steps into the room, wearing low cut jeans and a tight muscle shirt. His unruly hair tells me he hasn’t showered yet. Bentley always has his hair done nicely. “Breakfast is ready.” My lady bits respond, wanting something other than food for breakfast, but I’m not that kind of girl. I go to pull the sheets off but realize I’m wearing only panties, so I quickly stop.
My eyes go wide. “Give me a minute, and I’ll be out,” I swear my cheeks heat to a bright shade of red.
He grins. Shit, he knows I’m not wearing anything. “No problem. Take your time.” He starts to leave but stops and calls back over his shoulder. “There’s a spare toothbrush under the sink if you’d like to brush your teeth.”
“Thanks.” I throw on my pants and run to the bathroom barefoot in search of a toothbrush to remove the cotton from my mouth. It’s disgusting. I stare in the mirror, thankful that my setting spray held up, and my face isn’t a total mess. I’ll wash up when I get home.
I slowly make my way down the hall, following the smell of bacon and eggs. “Smells good,” I tell him looking at the floor.
He chuckles. “I’m not much of a cook, but eggs, I can do.” He glances over at me with a small smile on his face, but it quickly falls when he senses my discomfort. He turns the burner off, pours us each a cup of coffee, and comes over to me. “What’s wrong, Jade?”
With my eyes focused on the floor, I say, “I… um…I…” I’m stumbling over my words. I know what I need to say but can’t seem to get it out. I have no idea how to tell him that I’m not in the habit of going home with random men, and I certainly don’t sleep around.
He lifts my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye. “I know.”
I expel a slow breath. “You do?” My brows furrow.
He nods. “And I want you to know, nothing happened. I gave you my bed because you didn’t want to go home. I slept on the couch.”
My eyes go wide. “You slept on the couch.” I slap myself on the forehead. I can’t believe he gave up his bed for me. “This is not getting any better.” I shake my head and start to walk away, but he pulls me back to him. “I’m sorry, Bentley. Why didn’t you just bring me home?”
He chuckles. “First, you asked me not to take you home. For whatever reason, you didn’t want to be alone. Second, why are you sorry? If I were worried about it, you wouldn’t be here right now. You didn’t want to go home, and I’m your friend, so I wasn’t going to leave you by yourself.”
I’m not sure what comes over me, but I jump up and wrap him in a hug. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.” He wraps his arms around me, and I instantly melt. I fit perfectly with him, and it feels so good. I look him in the eye. “I really appreciate it.”
He tucks my hair behind my ear. “Anytime.” His stomach growls. “I think I’m hungry. Are you ready to eat?”
I laugh. “I am.”
“I’ll be right back with a couple of plates.” Just like that, our moment is broken, and while part of me is glad, I’m also sad. It felt good to be in his arms. He left me sitting at the table while he gets our breakfast.
I grab my phone to check my messages. I didn’t tell my roommate that I wasn’t coming home last night, and I don’t want her to worry. I’m about to send her off a message when I realize I have a few texts and a bunch of notifications on my Instagram account. I open the app to see what’s going on and discover that I’m tagged in a bunch of videos of Bentley and I dancing. I take a moment to watch the clips and video after video shows the same thing. Bentley and I are incredibly hot dancing together. I mean, we’re hotter than Jackson, and I ever was.
My jaw drops when he presses his forehead to mine. I lean in close, just as our lips are about to touch, he spins me around. I burst into laughter. His hand wraps around my waist, he pulls me close, and our hips move to the music. When the song ends, the crowd cheers us on. Bentley holds my hand up, and I bow my head in thanks.
Jackson ruined our moment when he came rushing in. Oh man, they caught this all on camera too. That’s not good. I want to stop the video, but I can’t seem to stop watching. This is a blur to me. I only remember bits and pieces of this. This is why I don’t drink a lot.
Then it all comes back when I hear the words leave Jackson’s mouth. “You can have her. I just didn’t know you were into leftovers.” My eyes go wide as I watch Bentley almost flatten Jackson. He’s so sweet the way he defended me, but I’m glad they didn’t fight.
My jaw drops, and a tear runs uncontrollably down my cheek. I look up to see Bentley standing there with two plates. “I take it you saw the video.”
I nod. “Leftovers. That’s all I am to him.”
He puts the plates down and takes the seat next to me. “Jade, you can’t let what he says define you. Those words are the words of an angry man. He’s mad that you are moving on. He wants you to be home wallowing in self-pity. That’s bullshit.” He lifts my chin and wipes away my tears. “You’re too good for that, and you deserve way better than that.”
A small smile plays at my lips. “I can’t believe you threatened to flatten him.”
He smiles. “It pisses me off that he treated you the way he did. I would never treat you or any other woman that way.” He shakes his head. “My mom raised me better than that.”
“Oh, really.” You know how many men say that, and then they turn around and treat a woman like shit.
He nods. “If she found out I did something like that, she would fly down here and whoop my ass.”
I burst into laughter. “No, she wouldn’t.”
“Wanna bet?”
“As a matter of fact, I would bet on that.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Okay, I’ll call my mom right now and with no pretense to the situation, ask her what she would do. If I’m right, you spend the day with me. If you’re right, you do whatever you want today.”
I narrow my eyes. “What if I want to spend the day with you?”
“Well, that’s a win-win for me.” He smirks, and we shake on it.
He pulls his phone out from the pocket of his jeans and dials his mom. She answers on the second ring. “Hi, sweetie. How are you?”
“I’m good, mom. How are you?”
“I’m great.” She responds cheerfully. His mom sounds super sweet.
“Good, listen, I have a friend here, and we have a question for you.”
“Okay.” She responds, sounding leery.
“If I cheated on a girl, what would you do?”
“Boy, don’t you dare, you know full well I would fly down to Miami and whoop your ass.” She says with sass. “You don’t dare treat a woman like that.” She barks into the phone.
He’s laughing, trying to keep his voice down, so she doesn’t hear him. “I didn’t, mom. Just proving a point. Thanks.”
“You better not.” She warns. “I gotta go, you best behave yourself.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He cuts the call.
“Oooohhh, she got mad.” I shake my head. This woman scares me.
“Yeah, my mom is awesome, but she’s no joke either. I quickly learned not to mess with her.” He laughs. “I guess we’re spending the day together.” He digs into his eggs with a huge smile on his face.
“Tell me about your mom?” I dig into my delicious breakfast, although eggs aren’t hard to screw up. Maybe I should treat
him to a Jade home-cooked meal for taking such good care of me.
“She is the type of mom that knows when to be your friend and when to be your mom. I can go to my mom about anything, and she will always have my back.” He’s grinning ear to ear. The love he has for her is written all over his face.
“What about you?”
I shrug. “My mom and I are cool, but not tight like you and your mom.
He nods. “I’m sorry, Jade.”
“It’s okay. She shrugs. “We have our moments. She was really cool when I went home. For the first time, she let me vent and listened and then told me I was better off without him.”
“It sounds like she tried.”
“She did.” I push my plate away, finished with my breakfast. “Mmm, Bentley, that was delicious.” I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I took that first bite.
“Glad you enjoyed it.” He finishes the last of his.
“So, what are we doing today?” I ask, curious as to what he has in store for us.
“What do you want to do?”
I shrug. “I don’t have any clothes with me, and there are only so many places I can go looking like this.”
“Well, we could hang here. Or we can go to your place so you can change, and we can go out and do something.”
I glance out the window and smile. “It’s a beautiful day. It’s a shame to spend it indoors.”
“I guess that means we need to go to your place for some clothes. That doesn’t tell me what you want to do, though?”
I grin. “How do you feel about walking on the beach?” I ask with a shrug. “We can play it by ear and just go with the flow.”
He grins at me with a sparkle in his eye. “I love it.” He gets up from the table. “I’ll clean up and then we can go.”
I sniff and wave my hand across my face. “You shower. I’ll clean up.”
His brows furrow. “Hey, I don’t stink.”
I burst into laughter. “You don’t, but go anyway, so we’re not wasting time.”
He shakes his head. “You sure?”
“Positive, go.” I demand shooing him out of the room. I need a minute to myself. I’ve never been a rebound kind of girl. I don’t date men just to move on from the last one, but I’m noticing the effect Bentley has on me more and more. The problem is I don’t know how I feel about it. My mind is reeling.
“Fine, I’ll be right back.” He disappears into his room to get what he needs. His apartment is really nice but small. He has a small eat-in kitchen with granite countertops and newer appliances. It only has one bedroom and a small bathroom with matching granite. The living room is right off the kitchen, and he has a small balcony that faces the water. The view is actually quite stunning.
A cat I didn’t realize he had is wandering through my legs as I clean up what little mess is left from our breakfast.
“Hello there.” I bend over to give it some attention.
It begins to purr when I take a seat on the floor to pet it and play with it. “You are super cute.” I coo, scratching behind its ear.
“His name is Mushu.” I jump, not realizing he was there watching me. He chuckles. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.
My brows shoot up. “Mushu?” What man names his cat after a Disney movie?
“Yeah, like from Mulan.” He explains as if I’m an idiot for not knowing where the name came from. He takes a seat beside me.
“I know who Mushu is, but why? No offense, that’s not a very masculine name for a guy to have for a cat. I was thinking like Tiger or something like that.”
He glances over at me with a slight smile on his face. “As I told you before, my mom and I are very close. We always have been. Growing up, we watched a lot of Disney movies as a family, and my mom’s favorite was Mulan. Every time it was her turn to pick the movie, she would pick that. As I got a little older, I started to complain. Well, my father pulled me aside once and explained that when it comes to women, our job is to do whatever it takes to please them, and if watching this movie makes my mom happy, it’s our job to do it.”
“That’s so sweet.” I gush.
He shrugs. “At that point, I was at the age where I was noticing just how much my mother really did for us and I didn’t want her to ever doubt my appreciation so when she asked to watch it, I would always show her how happy I was to spend that time with her. When I got this little guy,” he pets the top of his orange cat's head. “His name was a no brainer to me.”
I don’t even know what to say right now. Bentley has to be the sweetest and most considerate man I have ever met. “I love that you named your cat so you would think of your mom.”
“Thanks. Are you ready to head to your place?”
“Sure, I just have to find my shoes, and we can go.” He helps me up off the floor.
“They’re in my closet.” He leads me back to his room. I note that he has made his bed. I like a tidy man. Opening the closet door, he points to my shoes neatly placed beside his.
“Bentley, is this how you dress for work?” I take in all of his suits, dress shoes, and ties. When I turn, he has a slight blush coloring his cheeks.
“Not always. I can wear polos and nice khakis most of the time, but yes, I have to wear suits from time to time for meetings.”
I run my fingers over what appears to be a tailor-made suit. “I would love to see you in this sometime.” I pick up the tan suit.
He steps closer to me, forcing me to look up to meet his glare. “Let me take you out for a nice dinner sometime, and I’ll wear it.”
I laugh. “Are you serious?”
“Dead.”
I nod, putting it back. “I’ll think about it.” Holy shit, Bentley just asked me on a date. My lady bits are cheering me on, screaming for me to say yes, but my heart is pounding in my chest with fear of ruining another friendship because I dated a dancer.
“Good, let’s go get you changed. I want to hit the beach.”
Chapter Eight
Bentley
Jade left me sitting in her living room all alone while she and her roommate, Katia, slipped away to chat about God knows what. Suddenly the door to the bathroom closes, and Katia storms into the living room, taking a seat across from me. She glares at me with an evil eye, sitting there with her arms crossed at her chest, staring me down as if I’m a piece of shit. To be honest, the woman is quite frightening, and I’m not sure how to handle her.
“You have a really nice place.” I glance around her well-decorated living room. Her apartment doesn’t have the view that mine does, but it’s still close to the water, and she’s done a nice job of decorating and maintaining it. Jade told me she has two bedrooms and two baths, which is ideal for two women sharing an apartment.
“Thanks,” her response is curt.
“So, how long have you known Jade?”
She narrows her eyes, debating her next response for a moment before she answers, “Since she moved to Miami.” She states with attitude.
“Cool.” This is getting really uncomfortable. I have been in some crazy situations with clients who are upset because they don’t agree with my analysis, and none of them have intimidated me the way this chick does.
“What do you do?” I ask, trying to make small talk to pass the time.
She raises one eyebrow. “Cut the shit!” She jumps up from her seat, taking the few steps needed to stand directly in front of me.
“Excuse me.” She stands over me like a mom angry with her child.
“Jade is my best friend. I know every detail of what that bastard put her through, and she is finally starting to get over him. I don’t need some hot, horny dude walking up in here and taking advantage of my girl.”
I’m blown away by her response, not surprised but blown away. “Well, it’s a good thing I have no desire to take advantage of her. You do realize that I’ve known Jade for a while too?”
“You’re telling me you don’t like her as more than a friend.”
I laugh.
“I didn’t say all that, but I’m a gentleman. I don’t want to be her rebound.” Her brows shoot up. “I adore Jade and almost beat her ex’s ass last night. The last thing I want to do is hurt her.”
“So, you weren’t trying to hook up with my girl last night.” She looks at me as if I’m crazy.
“No, I wasn’t. She didn’t want to come here to sleep alone. I brought her to my place and tucked her into my bed. I slept on the couch.” I shrug. “Eventually, I would love to hook up with her, but not right now.”
She narrows her eyes. Her wheels are spinning, trying to figure out if I’m real or not.
I stand up and let out a deep breath. “Listen, I have adored Jade from the moment I laid eyes on her, but I respected the fact that she was in a relationship. For now, I want to be her friend and if things progress then so be it.”
“He’s for real. He even slept on the couch last night.” Jade confirms my story from the door of the living room, wearing a pair of jean shorts and a tank top. The woman’s body is a work of art.
Katia pokes me in the chest. “Hurt her, and you and I are having it out,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Yes, ma’am.” I walk over to Jade. “You ready?”
She nods. “I am.” She’s trying to hide the laughter in her voice but isn’t very successful.
“You two are going to be the death of me,” I mumble, walking out the door.
When we get outside, I expel a deep breath. “She’s intense, isn’t she?” Jade asks as we walk to the gate of her community.
I shake my head. “I’m not even sure that’s enough of a description for her, but I have no other words right now. She does realize we’re friends and we’ve known each other a while, right?”
“Yeah, she also knows I spent the night at your house.” She shrugs.
“Yeah, that’s obvious. Why didn’t you tell her I slept on the couch?”
