by Sephiri J
City had called to let me know he was going to pick me up at 9:00 so we could go to dinner and then to a club. I was nervous about this date because I didn’t know what to expect with him. I’d told Sade about everything that happened at the convention including running into Dontrell’s ass. She wanted to know everything about this date, so we’d decided to meet up for brunch tomorrow morning.
I felt like something was off with her, but she still didn’t want to tell me what was up. But I knew by tomorrow’s brunch, I would get it out of her. She was my real life sister, it felt, and I could tell when something about her energy was off.
But, right now, I was concentrating on making sure I looked good for this date. My phone started buzzing on the bed, and when I turned to pick it up, I saw that it was City.
“Hey,” I said, answering it on speakerphone.
“What’s up?” his deep voice said over the line.
I smiled a little.
“Nothing much. Getting ready,” told him as I went to sit on the edge of the bed.
“I’m outside. You want me to come in?” he said.
My heart jumped when he said he was there, and I stood up to look out the window. Sure enough, I saw his black Range Rover double parked on the street.
“No, I’ll be out in a second,” I said and reached for my purse.
“Aight,” he said then hung up.
I ran into the bathroom to pee before I left because I hated using the bathroom when I was out. Glancing at myself one last time and straightening my blouse, I walked to the front and opened the door. I jumped when I opened the door and saw City standing in front of me.
“Shit, you scared me,” I said with my hand up to my chest.
He grinned at me. “My bad.”
“I told you I was coming out. What’s up?” I said as I looked up at him.
He was tall, and his body looked so tight. I wanted to reach my hand out and rub it down his chest, but I stopped myself.
“I know. But last time I was here we didn’t get off too good, and I didn’t get to see inside your place. You gon’ show me around?” he said as he looked behind me.
I looked behind him to his car that was still double parked in the street. “You can’t leave your car like that, City.”
He sucked his teeth then looked back at me. “It’s good. We not gonna be in here more than a minute.”
I shook my head then stepped to the side, so he could come in.
“You got a nice place. How long you been livin’ here?” he asked as he walked through the living room.
I was proud of the way I decorated my place. My furniture was more modern contemporary, and my color scheme of grey and white with a pop of red in the flowers, throw pillows on the couch, and some of my artwork on my walls made me feel real cozy whenever I came home.
“About two years. My parents bought it for me when I finished college,” I said. I don’t know why I was so nervous with him in my house.
He nodded. “They hooked you up.”
“Something like that,” I said and shrugged.
He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “What? You and your people don’t get along?”
“We get along as long as I’m doing what they want me to do,” I said and looked away from him. “If I do my own thing or speak my mind, they get crazy. I’m surprised they didn’t tell me they were taking my house back after what happened at my wedding,” I said.
“Hold up. You were about to get married?” City asked then turned to look at me. I realized I hadn’t told him any of that.
“Yeah.” I nodded slowly. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
He chuckled. “Aight. Let’s go. You hungry?”
“Yeah,” I said as we walked outside, and I locked the door.
As we walked toward his car, I saw a man standing on the side of City’s Range beside a black Fiat. He looked pissed.
“Is this your car?” he asked as we walked up to him. His pale skin was red and splotchy, and he was heavyset.
City ignored him as he walked to the driver’s side.
“Yeah, this is us. Sorry we were in your way,” I said as I walked to the passenger side.
“You know it’s against the rules to double park. I’ve been waiting like 15 minutes to get out. I should have had you towed,” he said while looking at us with disgust. I felt myself getting upset with the way he was looking at me.
“Aye, you got a problem?” City said and walked from the driver’s side around to where we were.
“Yeah, I was just telling your girlfriend that I should have you guys towed. Have some respect for other people’s time,” he said to City.
City walked up to him with a mean mug on his face. “You been out here two minutes. The fuck?”
“I’ve been waiting for fifteen minutes, thank you. It’s always people like you who have no consideration for anyone else,” he said, and I felt myself get angry.
City got even more upset. “People like me? I should stuff your fat ass in your clown car and shut you the fuck up. How you fit in this shit anyway? Got your belly hangin’ out the window cuz you can’t sit in it straight. Don’t talk to me or my girl again if you see me, you heard? Get the fuck in your car and wait for me to go, and don’t make me say that shit again,” City said and got in his face.
The man’s eyes bulged, and I could tell he wasn’t expecting all that to come out of City’s mouth. He didn’t attempt to say anything else, but he turned and opened his car door. Without another word, he sat in his driver’s seat and closed the door. He looked straight ahead of him like we weren’t there.
City chuckled and looked at me.
“Matter fact,” he said loud enough for the guy to hear through the rolled up window. “I gotta take a leak. I’ll be back.” He turned to me, and said, “give me your house keys.”
Without a word, I handed it to him and watched as he sauntered back to my house. He glanced back at the Fiat and shook his head before he disappeared inside. Looking at the guy sitting in his car, his face was all puffed up like he was about to explode but he didn’t look at me or get out the car. I couldn’t help but laugh at the hilarity of the situation, and I sat in the passenger side and scrolled through Facebook as I waited for City to come back.
Five minutes later, he sauntered back out.
“You ready?” he asked as he handed my keys back to me.
“Uh huh,” I said and watched him walk to the other side of his car.
After taking one last look at Mr. Fiat who looked like his feelings were hurt as he sat in his car, I closed the passenger door, and City drove off.
“You good?” City asked me as he drove down the street.
“Yeah. That guy is my neighbor, though. I don’t want any problems with these people,” I said.
“Fuck them people. He was buggin’ for no reason,” City said. “How long you been living here? You never had no issue with that nigga before?”
“He always starts shit. About the trash or my grass. Or when I have friends over, he says I’m too loud,” I said truthfully.
“See. He a miserable motherfucker. You know he probably stay in his house jackin off to animal porn or some weird shit,” City said, and I burst out laughing at the thought.
“Stupid,” I said as I laughed, and he chuckled.
“He won’t give you no more problems, though. He knows I’ll come for him now,” he said. “I ain’t really need to take a piss. I just said that, so he would know not to fuck with you. And he ain’t say shit to you when I was gone, right?”
“He didn’t,” I said and laughed. “So, what were you doing inside if you weren’t in the bathroom?”
He chuckled. “Sitting on the couch,” he said, and I squealed. He was too much.
“Aight, so we going to my boy’s spot on the beach. What you know about Jamaican food?” he asked.
“Not too much. I had some Jamaican patties one time, but that’s about it,” I said.
“I’m ’bout to sho
w you a whole new world baby girl.”
My pussy jumped when he called me that, and I smiled a little.
We made small talk all the way down to the beach, and when we got there, he valet parked, and we got out. The restaurant was small, but the ambience was nice.
“City!” a tall, dark skinned man with dreads said who came from the back of the restaurant as we walked in.
“Jermaine, what’s good, my nigga?” City said as they slapped hands. “This is Bo. Told her we would come through and get some of that jerk you got up in here.”
“You sure you ready for this?” the guy named Jermaine said, grinning at me with brilliant white teeth. He had a heavy Jamaican accent.
“I was born ready,” I said back to him, and City laughed out loud.
“Okay, okay, I hear you. Come with me, man. City is my boy from way back when. If you’re cool with him, we are cool,” Jermaine said.
I looked at City, who was grinning at me. We walked to the back patio where there was a steel band playing music and a bar.
“This is nice,” I said as I looked around at the dimly lit area.
“I’ll send the waitress now to get you started,” Jermaine said and hit City on the back as he left.
The music that the steel band was making sounded tropical and soothing. I loved this place already. City sat, and I sat across from him and looked at the menu. There were so many choices, and I didn’t even know where to start.
“What do you recommend?” I asked, not sure what to choose.
“Everything I ever had in this place is good as fuck. I’ve had the jerk pork, curry goat, oxtail and fried snapper before. But since you ain’t never had Jamaican food before I’d say you should probably stick to the jerk chicken and rice first. See how you like it. It’s spicy though, can you ride with that?” he asked me. His eyes pierced mine, and I felt my stomach do a flip.
“I love spicy,” I threw back at him. “I can handle anything.”
His left eyebrow went up, and then he chuckled. “I’m not gonna forget you said that,” he said then looked back at the menu.
I didn’t answer because I know what he meant, and I wasn’t about to go down that road with him in this minute. The vibe in this place was dope as fuck. The weather was perfect, and the music made me feel like I was on a tropical island somewhere. There were people dancing on the dancefloor and others just chillin’ by the bar.
When the waitress came over, we both ordered a rum punch. City ordered the oxtail with rice and peas. I ordered jerk chicken with rice and peas and a side of plantain.
“So, you gon’ tell me about this wedding shit you mentioned earlier?” City said when the waitress left.
I sighed and nodded. Quickly, I spent about five minutes explaining what I found out about Dontrell and what I did at the wedding. When I got to the point where I played the voicemail for the church, City laughed out loud.
“Shit, so you a whole ass gangsta, huh?” he said, and I giggled.
“No, I just don’t take shit,” I said and shrugged. “So don’t fuck this up.”
He laughed again. “You never met a nigga like me before, so I’m not worried.”
“What does that mean exactly?” I asked curiously.
“You heard me. Exactly what I said,” he answered and sipped his drink.
“Okay, but what’s your story, though?” I prodded. “Everyone has a story.”
“You right. What you wanna know?” he asked.
“Everything.”
He chuckled. “That’s impossible to tell you tonight in this restaurant, Bo. But you hang with me long enough, you will know enough for your ass to be fallin’ in love.”
I rolled my eyes at his cocky ass. “You think so, huh?”
“I don’t need to think to know that’s what’s up. That’s always how it goes,” he said.
“I know. I heard you always got a lot of bitches around you falling over themselves to get at you,” I said a little icily. I wasn’t the jealous type, but this thing I went through with Dontrell definitely had me on the defensive.
“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “Bitches wanting me is never the problem. I can’t help the way a bitch approaches me. But my dick discriminates like a motherfucker. The baddest bitch could be in front of me with her pussy out. My dick will stay on soft. It takes a certain type of bitch to get my attention. I got a lot of girls put in applications, but only a couple can actually say they made it.”
I listened to him, unsure of what to make of his explanation. If I went from what the blogs said and what I’d heard about him from other people, I would have thought he was the biggest hoe. But he was sitting in front of me and telling me that he wasn’t that type. I guess only time would tell for me to even know what or who to believe.
“Here you go,” the waitress said to my right, and I turned to see her approaching us with a tray of food.
When she put the plates down in front of us, my mouth instantly watered. The jerk chicken on my plate looked incredibly delicious. I could smell the spices, and I hadn’t even put it in my mouth yet. I looked over at City’s plate, and the oxtail he ordered look juicy. I’d never had it before, but it smelled so good I knew I’d have to get him to give me a taste.
“Smells good as fuck, right?” City asked.
“It does,” I said as I lifted my fork and scooped up some of the rice.
“I’m ’bout to fuck this up,” City said and bit into his food.
The rice was delicious and had a coconut taste to it. But when I tasted the chicken, I felt like my taste buds were melting. It was just the right amount of spice and flavor. My mouth was so happy.
For the next twenty minutes, we talked about the food, our lives, and what we did at work. City was impressed with the fact that I had my own photography company. Although it was just me and relatively new because I’d only been doing it for about a year or so, he said the fact that I’d gotten an invitation to the convention as a photographer said a lot about my work. I appreciated that because no one else, other than Sade, had ever said anything like that to me before.
He told me about his shop and how he had grown it from one shop to now 5. He seemed really proud of his accomplishments, and I could see the passion he had for what he did when he spoke. It was sexy as fuck to see a black man who wasn’t just handsome as all hell but smart and driven to make something of his life. I was loving it. The way I was looking at him now was completely different from how I saw him when he ran into my house about a week ago. I could see that he was more than just a hoodlum with a loud mouth.
“How you like the food?” City asked when I put down my fork.
“I loved it. I can’t believe I never heard of this place before,” I said rubbing my stomach. I was full as fuck.
“Yeah, it’s in the cut, so not too many people know about it. But its real chill,” he said while leaning back in his chair.
“So, what’s your real name?” I asked, looking over at him.
I was curious about him now. He had this cocky persona like he didn’t give a fuck, but I knew there was more to him than that. He showed the world ‘City’, but I wanted to know who he really was underneath all those layers.
He raised an eyebrow at my question. “City not good enough for you?” he asked with amusement in his tone.
“I know your mom didn’t name you City. What’s your real name?” I prodded.
He looked at me like he was trying to decide if he should tell me or be difficult, but then he chuckled. “Dominic. But nobody calls me that, so I bet not hear you shouting that out in the streets.”
I laughed. “I didn’t plan on it. I was just curious. You don’t look like a Dominic.”
“The fuck that mean exactly?” he asked, sitting up in the chair and staring at me.
“I mean, I didn’t expect you to say Dominic,” I said sheepishly.
“What you mean? You thinking I was gonna say Tyrone or Marquis?” he said then burst out laughing.
; “No, that’s not what I meant,” I said defensively while rolling my eyes.
“It’s all good, lil ma,” he said while shaking his head at me and finishing the last of his rum punch.
“So, what exactly is the reason why you were running from the cops that night you came into my house?” I asked.
If we were going to get to know each other, that was one of the first things he needed to explain. That wasn’t shit that happened every day to regular people, so I needed to know if that was normal for him.
He started to laugh and then licked his lips. That got my pussy jumping involuntarily again. He really did this shit to me.
“So, let’s just say I got into it with some nigga at his shop because he was talking shit. So, I had to shut him up. The cops came through, I split. Somehow, I ended up in your bed, and you know the rest,” he explained all nonchalantly.
“Who was the guy you got into it with?” I asked curiously.
“You ask a lot of questions,” he said and chuckled.
“Yeah, that’s the only way you know things, right?” I chided.
“If you gotta know, the nigga was my brother. Half-brother, anyway. But I don’t recognize him for that, he’s just another nigga with a tattoo shop talkin’ shit,” he explained.
That wasn’t what I expected to hear at all. Hearing that City had a brother who he didn’t get along with made me want to ask a whole other set of questions. But before I could say anything else, he stood up.
“Let’s go shoot some pool,” he said and nodding to one of three pool tables over in the corner.
I stood and walked behind him to the tables. I hadn’t played pool in a couple years, but as soon as I picked up the cues and the ball, I was good. He talked a lot of shit and won the first round, but I won the second.
“You wanna go again?” I asked him.
He glanced at his watch. “Nah, let’s bounce. I got somewhere else we need to be,” he said as he walked back to the table.
“Where we going now?” I asked as I watched him throw a hundred dollar bill on the table.
He reached back for my hand, and I didn’t even have to think about putting my hand in his.
“I’m takin’ you to one of my favorite spots,” he said and winked at me.
