Cuffing Season

by Danielle Allen

  “Call me when you get home.”

  “Call me when you get to Pittsburg.”

  He backed away, never taking his eyes off me. “I’ll let you get back to it. Have a good night.”

  I grinned. “Bye, Luca. Drive safe.”

  He started to turn around and then he stopped. “You look incredible, by the way.” He glanced over my shoulder and smirked. “Vanessa, keep an eye on my girl.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I know you’re wondering why we are airing an extra segment, but while we were having a meeting tonight, some late breaking news came my way. And wowwwwwwwwwww… Country have you checked social media in the last ten minutes?” City Boy exclaimed to kick off the special addition podcast.

  “No, I haven’t. Checking now,” Country Boy responded.

  “Check the messages on the Date Night page.”

  “Okay—oh wowwww!”

  “Date Night listeners! We have breaking news. Yesterday, we talked about the reasons why cuffing a ho isn’t the way to go but fucking her has some definite perks,” City Boy started. “Per our reports, Luca Romano went to Savor to very publicly celebrate Serena. He brought her flowers and stuck his tongue down her throat. We were sent a video of the PDA, and it looks legit.”

  “This is a real video. He’s claiming her with this move right here. He’s claiming her for all to see. It doesn’t look like he cares that she’s been around.”

  “Maybe he’s used to dating hoes. He doesn’t live in the real world.”

  “What?”

  City Boy chuckled lightly. “Hear me out, Country. He’s a well-known photographer. He’s out here photographing models all the time. He’s probably slept with most of them, and they’ve probably slept with a lot of guys, too. Maybe that’s that Hollywood lifestyle. Hollywood is on some other shit. Think about all the celebrities you know who have slept with each other, costars, fans, and whoever else. Hollywood always seems to want to turn a ho into a housewife, but those same rules don’t apply in the real world.”

  “But Ser-Venus isn’t Hollywood. I mean unless her fashion line becomes the new certified slut wear and she blows up. She isn’t Hollywood, and this isn’t Hollywood either.”

  “Think about all the people who have hooked up and then went on to do movies together or record music together. A lot of these celebrities are out here being hoes and because it’s so common, nobody really thinks twice about it. So maybe that’s why he’s cool with kissing on her in public knowing that she’s been with so many men.”

  “That makes sense,” Country Boy agreed. “But it couldn’t be me.”

  “It couldn’t be me either. And the reason it couldn’t be us is because we live in the real world. Luca has been back here for what? A month or two? And he was in California before coming back here, right? He hasn’t been here long enough to shake off the Hollywood lifestyle. But I think the more likely reason he’s with her is that he doesn’t know she’s a slut.”

  “How could he not know? She addressed the rumors at her fashion show tonight.”

  “She didn’t deny that she was a slut though. She just said it was none of our business.”

  “That was a dope song choice though,” Country admitted with a chuckle.

  “Oh, and it looks like her shirt says ‘slut’ in the video, doesn’t it?”

  “I can’t read the whole thing, but it looks like it said ‘fine slut’ on the front. I mean… she is fine and she is allegedly a slut, so it works. How could Luca not know?”

  “He may think she’s being cheeky. If he doesn’t keep his ear to the streets, he may not know. Once he’s settled into the real world and starts getting to know more people in the area again, he’ll probably start hearing the stories. And all it’ll take is for him to be confronted by the truth before he drops her.”

  “Does this man not have friends? If I was going to cuff someone and my friends knew she was branded a ho and didn’t tell me, I’d be mad.” Country Boy made a noise. “Just thinking about it has me pissed off. Don’t let me go down that road blind.”

  “That’s why we need to tell him.” City Boy’s tone was serious, almost grim. “We owe him that. If he chooses to fuck with her after he knows what a slut she is, that’s on him. But bro code won’t allow me to let this man unknowingly turn a ho into a housewife.”

  “Are you serious right now?”

  “As a heart attack. If we don’t, that karma will come back on us. I’m not trying to meet someone and find out after feelings are involved that she’s a slut. I don’t want that for my boy Luca. And besides, Serena will turn into one of those ho inspirational stories. All slutty women will feel that after sleeping with everyone and stretching their pussies out, they deserve to be cuffed.”

  “Come on, City. Chill. And the name is Venus, remember?”

  “Everybody will be having a ho phase if Venus gets cuffed. It’ll be like Hollywood. And then all of a sudden, being a slut is just an accepted way of life for these chicks. And who wants that?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Are you with me, Country? We’ll invite Luca down here for a conversation and have special guests in the building. And we’ll record it for our Date Night listeners, so they can see how it plays out.”

  “Luca Romano is not going to come on the show to talk about his girl being a slut. Come on, City.” He laughed. “He’s going to walk out of here so fast. Think about it… we have video of him going to an opening of a club. It’s packed to capacity. And he’s carrying roses. All signs point to that man being all up in his feelings for her. You don’t do that for a piece of ass. He’s not coming here.”

  “Then we’ll go to him. We’ll just record it.”

  “I don’t know, City…” Country Boy cleared his throat. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Especially since someone is probably going to let him know why he’s being confronted.”

  “What’s not a good idea is him turning this ho into a housewife! Do you want Luca to be at dinner with Venus, and Marcus come strolling in with his multimillion-dollar basketball contract, or Trey and Jeremiah coming through with their NFL contracts telling Luca that they fucked his bitch?”

  “That would be disrespectful.”

  “Do you want to live with that kind of karma coming your way, Country? This on the spot interview will be good for everyone. Luca can hear that his girl is a ho from us and promote whatever he has going on right now. We will have good karma, and we honored bro code. Honestly, it’s a win, win. This is going to be good.”

  “Lord, help us all,” Country Boy groaned.

  City Boy laughed. “Okay, that’s it for this special podcast tonight. We just wanted to give you this late breaking news! So, listeners, if you see Luca Romano out and about, send us a message. If you see him, let us know. We want to talk to him. Tune in on Friday and we’ll have video of our conversation with Luca, we’ll answer more of your emails, and we’ll be taking calls based on the topic we post on social media between eight-thirty and nine. Check us out next week. You don’t want to miss it. I’m City Boy—”

  “I’m Country Boy…”

  “And this is Date Night with the Lost Boys,” the two of them said in unison.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Luca: I was hoping to catch you before class, but the day ran long. If you haven’t made it to class yet, give me a call.

  Serena: I have class every Monday until seven and it’s six o’clock… Of course, I’m in class! Haha!

  Luca: Why are you texting me if you’re in class? As a professor, I can tell you that that’s messed up.

  Serena: First of all, you’re not a professor!

  Luca: Oh, ok. You have jokes. You’re going to pay for that when I get back.

  Serena: Haha… And when will that be?

  Luca: I just got finished with the shoot, and I’m grabbing something to eat. I should be on the road in about an hour.

  Serena: I’m glad you’ll be on your way back soon.

  Lu
ca: Can I take you to breakfast in the morning?

  Serena: Yes! I can’t wait to see you. You can’t do what you did Saturday night and then leave. I’ve been thinking about it nonstop.

  Luca: It wasn’t easy to leave. Believe me, it was very hard.

  Serena: Haha! I’m in class, and I refuse to feed into your double entendre.

  Luca: Ha! You need to be paying attention in class anyway. I’m going to eat so I can get on the road.

  Serena: I’ll call you after I’m home and settled. Drive safe!

  My heart fluttered at the thought of seeing him again.

  From the moment Luca walked out of the club, our match up was the only thing anyone talked to me about. A few people mentioned my fashion show, and people who had no connection to Hamilton University assumed it was my birthday. By the time I arrived on campus on Monday, the word on the street was that despite my gold-digging past, Luca was my boyfriend and we were serious. All I could do was shake my head at the ridiculousness.

  “You can’t blame them for thinking that you two are together, though. That was so romantic how he arrived with all those roses,” Kate swooned, her green eyes wide as we walked to our cars.

  “That was sweet,” I admitted, unable to hide the smile he put on my face.

  “What are you going to do about The Lost Boys?”

  “I didn’t listen to the whole thing. Someone sent me a link, and I couldn’t get through it. It was a lot of the same stuff they were saying last time, so I shut it off. I’m not going to help their numbers by listening to it. I’m hoping the whole thing will blow over. I don’t think there’s anything I can do at this point? Besides the fact that they are assholes, is there anything else that I need to know?”

  “They said they were going to get in touch with Luca.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay. Thanks for the heads up.” I let out a humorless laugh. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

  “Speaking of…” She scrunched her nose. “What are you going to do about Corey?”

  I tossed my stuff in the backseat of my car before looking over the hood at her. “He asked me to remove myself from his fashion show, so I did.” I shrugged. “I signed up for five shows because I really do think it’ll be good experience to see what works and what doesn’t work behind the scenes.”

  “Oh, good!” She wiped her brow. “I was worried you only had three.”

  “Nope. I’m good to go.”

  “I can’t believe he’s mad because you’re dating Luca. He thinks that’s why he didn’t get into Luca’s seminar.”

  “Luca doesn’t even talk to me about seminar stuff.” I rolled my eyes. “And anyone who has ever read anything Corey’s written knows good and damn well that’s the reason he didn’t get in.”

  “That’s what I was thinking when I overheard him say that.” She shook her head. “I’m about to meet Paul for dinner. Wish me luck.”

  “You don’t need luck with DJ Poison, but good luck and have fun!”

  We said our goodbyes, and then I headed home.

  After dinner, laundry, and a shower, I climbed in bed and called Luca.

  “Serena Brooks,” he answered on the second ring.

  I smiled. “Luca Romano.”

  “Are you tired? You sound tired?”

  “Monday’s are usually my longest days, but I’m okay. How are you? How was the shoot?”

  He told me the ins and outs of the shoot, the client, and why it ran long. I listened to his excitement and his frustration, and I loved that both had equal passion attached to it. It was clear that he loved his work and took it seriously.

  “I love hearing you talk about your work. The passion in your voice is really sexy.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah. It just shows how deeply you care about your craft, and that’s sexy. That’s passion.”

  “That’s how I feel about you.”

  My stomach flipped. “R-really?” I stammered, pushing myself up in bed.

  “Yeah. When you talk about Simply Serena, there’s so much passion in your voice. At dinner that first night, I knew you were someone who would get it.”

  “Oh!” I exclaimed. “I see what you’re saying now.”

  “What did you think I meant?”

  “It’s silly,” I giggled. “I thought you were saying that you felt that same passion for your work for me.” I paused. “Because you said ‘that’s how I feel about you’ right after I described how much you cared and how passionate you were. I told you it was silly.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “It’s not silly.”

  “I don’t know why I thought that’s what you meant. We’ve known each other for two weeks—why does it feel like it’s been longer than two weeks?”

  “It has. It’s been seventeen days.”

  I laughed. “You only know that because I said it last night.”

  “You said sixteen days last night.”

  “Congratulations, you know how to add.”

  He snickered on the other end of the line. “It does feel like I’ve known you for longer than that though.”

  “Probably because we think so much alike.”

  “Yeah. What am I thinking about now?”

  “That gift you said you had for me?”

  “Wow, I really was actually.”

  “Are you serious?” I yelled. “That’s crazy, right? What do I win?”

  “You don’t have class on Fridays, right?”

  “That was a sharp change in subjects,”—I laughed—“but yes, you are correct.”

  “The last Friday of the month. Come with me to New York for a few days.”

  Holy shit! To New York? To meet his mom and grandma? We are not there yet! I don’t even know what this is! Is that what’s happening? We aren’t there yet.

  “For…?”

  “I have this thing I have to do.”

  “Okay.”

  “You sound uncertain.”

  I fidgeted with the comforter. “Is this like a meet the parents type of thing because I don’t think—”

  His laughter cut me off. “Hell no.”

  I sighed with relief. “Okay, good.”

  “No need to panic. We’re not going to the Bronx.” He stopped and made a noise. “Although now I don’t know if I should be offended or not by your reaction.”

  I chuckled hard. “No, don’t be offended! I didn’t mean it like that. If we happened to run into your family, that would be fine. But a planned sit-down dinner felt like too much, too soon.”

  “You’ve been my girlfriend for two days. I’d need to make sure you were in love with me before I subjected you to them.”

  The grin that spread across my face was goofy as hell, but I couldn’t help it. “So, I’m your girlfriend?”

  “That’s what I hear. If you listen to gossip, that’s what the word on the street is.”

  “I don’t listen to gossip.”

  “Neither do I.”

  I exhaled loudly and dramatically. “But in this particular case, I think they may be on to something. I need to check the sources though.”

  “It’s only one source. You can check it though.”

  “Who’s your source?”

  “Her name is Serena Brooks.”

  “And what did she say exactly?”

  “You tell me when you check with her.”

  “I just checked with her and she said, and I quote, ‘holy shit, Luca Romano is my boyfriend despite the fact that he doesn’t eat carbs,’ end quote.”

  His amusement traveled through the phone and wrapped itself around me. “I’m a grown ass man. I’m not going to explain my carb intake to you, woman!”

  “If you want to deprive yourself of the best things, you go right ahead, sir.”

  “You are the best thing. And as long as I have you, I’m not depriving myself of anything.”

  “You just gave me butterflies,” I admitted with a giggle.

  “Good. I’m trying to give you more
than just butterflies though.”

  I inhaled deeply. “Oh, really? Like what?”

  “Can I come by?”

  “Tonight?”

  “Right now.”

  I didn’t even have to think about it. “Yes.”

  “Okay, I’m going to take your exit and stop by for a minute.”

  “I have my scarf on already. And I’m not wearing anything sexy.”

  “I don’t care. I just want to see you, and I have something for you that can’t wait until breakfast. I need to give it to you now.”

  Oh, shit!

  I pushed my sheets off of me. “How long before you’re here?”

  “Ten minutes.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you soon.”

  It was the longest ten minutes of my life. When he finally knocked on the door, I looked down at my black leggings. I’d pulled them on since I’d gone to bed in just a t-shirt and panties and I didn’t notice how much lint was on them.

  What did I wash these with?

  I opened the front door and forgot all about that lint.

  I was nervous and excited as I grinned up at him like I’d never seen him before. “Hi.”

  He stared at me, looking almost as nervous as I felt. “Hi.”

  “Come in.” I gestured for him to come in, and I noticed the big box under his arm.

  He stepped through the door, leaned down to kiss me, and then walked into the apartment.

  I smiled, closing the door behind him. “You want to take your jacket off?”

  He sat the box on the loveseat and then turned back toward me. “No. If I take it off, I’m going to get comfortable and I need to get home, unpack, and send a copy of a contract out.”

  “Oh, okay. And I’d love to see where ‘home’ is for you.”

  “We can go tomorrow after breakfast, if you want.” He looked around. “This is nice. Definitely can see your style in here.”

  “Thank you. Let me give you the tour.”

  I showed him around my space, and we ended back in the living room. “You have a nice place.” He stared intently at me. “I hope you’re able to find some place for your gifts.”

  I did a little excited dance. “Can I open them?”