Love Delayed (16 page)

“You think too much,
Zo. You didn’t have to plot to get me to hit,” he murmured.

I snorted, “Oh, really? Like you would’ve made the first move before my thirtieth birthday.”

I felt the rumble of his quiet laughter in his chest against my head. “I was coming. You’re just too damn fast.”

“Yeah! The girl who kept her virginity until
twenty, and had to trick a man by playing hide-and-go-seek in his mansion to get rid of it. Picture that.” I rolled my eyes into the air.

Stent laughed
and his arms held me tighter. We sat for a while. There was so much in the air between us, but I wasn’t savvy enough to confront it. The sound of Stent’s stomach growling pulled me from my sleepy state.

“You’re hungry.”

“Yeah,” he breathed lazily. “I didn’t have my usual protein drink after my run.”

I started to get up. “Let me warm up dinner.” I d
on’t think I ever sounded so domesticated.

Stent grabbed my wrist. “Relax for a minute.
Soak your muscles. I’m gonna shower and change the bedding before we eat.”

And that’s what we did. We didn’t talk much for the remainder of the night. We weren’t troubled, just different. I sure as heck felt different. I felt full and
…accomplished. I’d finally let go of my virginity to a man I loved. No matter what happened going forward—good or bad—I’d never regret giving it to Stenton.

When we finally crawled into bed that night
on clean bedding, I adjusted my body into Stent’s hard and warm frame and shivered when I felt his lips kiss my shoulder goodnight.

The next day, I woke
up to an empty bed. I knew immediately Stent was off to work out. I slowly made my way down to the kitchen. My body ached in the same manner it did after an exercise when I hadn’t for so long.

After deciding on waffles, eggs and bacon, I slipped my earplugs
in and got to work. I zoned out, frying bacon, whipping eggs and battering the waffle-maker. I was so engrossed in my head that I nearly dropped the tongs when Stenton grabbed me from behind. I snatched my earplugs out and turned to him, steam shooting from my ears.

“Are you crazy?”

He couldn’t stop laughing. He held on to his belly as he hurled over in laughter. I wanted an explanation, but he could hardly breathe. I gave him time to recover as I returned to cooking. He was still sweaty from working out. Stenton looked younger and peaceful when he laughed. Although we did a lot of that, it never got dull seeing him mirthful. I felt my anger about his scaring me ebb the longer he exposed his teeth.

“What are you so engrossed in that you could be scared like that?”
He pulled at my earplugs and listened.

It was Marvin S
app’s “In the Garden”, one of my favorite morning worship songs. He looked at me with a sober expression.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Morning worship
,” I offered while turning over the bacon.

Stent returned a firm nod, being respectful of my
unpopular practices, I guessed.

“I guess you’re eating in your sweats because
breakfast is served in less than five. This food won’t stay warm throughout a shower.”

He raised his long arms then slapped them against the outside of his thighs.
“If you accept me as is, I am.”

At the
mammoth island, we ate and were successful at avoiding the neon pink elephant in the room. Not only did I wake up sore, I also fought with guilt. What I did was a bit sneaky. I didn’t regret making love to Stent at all, just the way that I’d gone about it.

“So, what’s on the agenda today?” I asked.

“If we’re not playing any more games, I do have some action flicks I’d like to catch up on.”

“Are they gruesome?”

“No.” He shook his head as he took a sip of his juice. “But considering what you watched the first night we got here, you should be able to more than stomach the movies I have in mind.”

“Okay, then I can pick the next activity.”

Stenton rolled his eyes, adorably. “What would that be?” He feigned annoyance. 

“Teaching you how to cook.”

He paused his chewing and gave me a blank stare. “Cook?” he mumbled with a mouthful. “For what?”

“Because we should all at least know how to fry an egg…successfully.”

“I don’t need to learn how to cook, just work to pay someone else to do it for me,” he garbled before swallowing his food.

I shook my head. “You need to know how to cook to fend for yourself in the event you
’re without a cook, like now.”

“But you’re here and you can cook.”

“What if it wasn’t me? What if I couldn’t cook?” I challenged.

He held his glass to his mouth as he replied, “
Zo, no other female alive could get me to drop everything and come up here on the fly. So I knew like hell you could cook or else we’d starve.”

“But you assumed I could cook. You shouldn’t do that, Stent. I don’t mind cooking. I love it actually, but everyone should know how to cook. You could find yourself stranded with another woman who can’t cook. Just look at it as an added skill.” I shrugged again and turned
my attention to my plate. “Some girls like men who cook.”

From my peripheral I could see Stent froze
n on his stool. I don’t know why I
had
to mention him being with another woman. He was with me and that’s all that should have mattered. Then why was I going the jealous route? I’m never jealous.

Does
sex do this to women?

No! I will not be that woman
.

“Okay,” I heard him murmur. I braved a glance up at him. “You can teach me how to cook.”

The doorbell rang, stealing our attention. Stent grunted and mumbled some expletive-filled phrase before standing to get the door. I was left wondering if learning how to cook for women was his motivation for consenting.

Silly girl!

I heard mumbling outside of the massive kitchen. Then clear words grew louder just before Alton turned the corner and entered. He was wearing a black goose, sweats and
Timberland
boots.

“
Noooooooooooooo!” he sang, almost in a tormented fashion. My brows knitted. Alton’s upper body slammed down into his legs, bringing his athleticism to life, as he continued crying out the word.

He was not the only person surprised. No one knew Stenton and I were friends. It was our secret. In my deluded mind, I
was still afraid of Angela finding out and feeling betrayed.
So what she’d slept with Alton enough to forget her strong attraction to Stenton.
This wasn’t good for me…at all.

Alton continued with his
melodramatic antics, throwing himself into the wall next to him. Falling into the counter, holding his chest. “I can’t believe this shit! Why ain’t nobody tell me?” He turned to Stenton and cried, “Are you serious, Stent? I thought we were bro-besties, man!” Then his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “Fucking Angela lied again! Zo ain’t no damn virgin, I see!”

I gasped at not only his brashness, but his knowledge of my virginity. Stenton’s neck collapsed and he covered his face with his hand. I was mortified.

“Did she tell you that?” I asked, aghast.

“Yeah, but I
kinda believed her. You do come across a little Virgin Mary-ish, Zo. I mean, church girls lose their virginities before their asses are even baptized. Y’all are the best pieces of ass…all freaky and shit! Trust me, I know. Angela was my latest conquest.”

“Aye, man!” Stenton growled.
“Don’t come over here with that bullshit.”

Almost at the same time, I grounded out,
“The only ass I see here is you, Alton!” I got up to leave the room.

Stenton grabbed my arm at the same time Alton jumped to the entryway
in an attempt to cut me off. Stenton protectively pulled me into him, my back to his broad chest.

Alton touched his chest, gesturing his heart. “Ah,
Zo, man, you know it ain’t no disrespect! We all know you carry yourself with class. It’s just that Stent, my man right here, ain’t give me the heads up.” He lifted his hand to motion to Stent above me.

“I can’t believe she told you that
!” I yelped, referring to Angela.

That little wench!

Stenton’s arms around my wrists clenched.

“Why not?” Alto
n grimaced. “Everybody knows ol’ Ally-boy is trustworthy. I can keep a fucking secret. At least that’s what I thought.” He threw a nasty glare at Stenton. If I wasn’t so livid I would have laughed.

“Look,
” Stenton spoke up. “I don’t give a shit what you think you know or what you thought you knew, I just wanna make one damn thing clear: this doesn’t get back to Angela. What Zoey wants her or anyone else to know is up to Zoey. You big ass, loose-lip, don’t open your fucking trap.”

Alton’s forehead
stretched as his chin angled towards the floor. “And am I the one who can tell Angela? I know she’s even a bigger liar than I knew her to be when she tried to throw a baby on moi.” He tented his hands in his chest, pointing to himself. “Ha!” he yelled. “Nisha will have my ass on a skewer! I’m still on punishment behind Angela’s lying ass.”

I lowered my head
, shaking it. “Of course, Alton, you had no involvement in that debauchery,” I murmured loud enough for him to hear.

“I didn’t! She fuckin’ seduced me…each time!
” I slightly jumped in Stent’s arms, turning to catch his reaction to Alton’s usage of the word
seduced
.

Is that what I
did to him last night?

Apparently he caught my questioning
glare. Stenton’s lips twitched up into a knowing smile.

“
Y’all was there to witness that shit. I almost called y’all to the stand when Nisha was trying my ass.” Alton held out his arms, motioning for me to hug him.

Stent let my wrists go, encouraging this make up session Alton was attempting. I strolled over
, hesitantly. I was still seething from Angela’s big slip of the mouth. How many others had she told?

“I know I’m an ass,
Zo, man. I can’t help it,” Alton’s voice was with less bravado. I was falling for his white flag, hard. “You are good peoples to me. I ain’t mean no disrespect,” his voice cooed as his arms wrapped around me. “Damn, you smell good as hell. Mmmmm!”

I jumped from his
fold.

“I’m just kidding,
Zo. Damn!” He laughed as he held his arms out defensively. “Just kidding. You got this dude over here ready to pounce on my ass like a fucking cheetah, man,” he jeered as he walked out of the kitchen. “I’m going running downstairs then I’m watching T.V. Holla atcha’ boy, StentRo!” Alton called over his shoulder.

I turned to Stenton, not knowing what to say about his rowdy friend.
He was pinching his nose trying to control his laughter.

“I can’t believe what the wind blew in,” I hissed.

“Yeah, and because I slipped up and told him I was in town last night while caught up, playing your fucking game, he’ll be here all damn day,” Stent informed with amusement in his voice.

I turned in the direction where Alton had just left. “He’s going to work
out—”

“…here, shower here, and relax here. Yes,” he cut me off to clarify. “Thanks to his summer fling, Alton’s officially on time out at the order of Tynisha. They live next door in
Upper Saddle River. This is his asylum.”

“Oh,” was all I could say, piecing together the crazy life and relationship between Alton and Tynisha. This had to be a full time job for her
, like raising another child. But I wondered why she would be okay with him hanging out at Stent’s place. It said a lot about her perception of Stenton.

I felt his warm lips on my forehead, reminding me he was still in the room. “I’m going to take a shower. We can watch a movie and then cook whenever you’re ready,” Stent murmured before leaving me there in the
kitchen.

I went for my phone, prepared to text Angela and give her a piece of my mind. She knew better than to share that with a stranger. Not that my virginity was a big deal to me, but it was private.
What if I told Stenton about all her sexcapades with men over the years?

I had all my words planned out, but when I picked up my phone I couldn’t do it. I knew Angela was in a bad place with the pregnancy and the last thing she needed was her past with Alton coming up at
such a delicate time.

The day progressed. When Stenton was done with his shower, we made the marinade for the chicken we were going to prepare that night. It was cute watching his lanky figure in a massive kitchen, matching his size, but it being the most
awkward room for him at the same time. We made a few snacks and took them to the theater room to watch movies with Alton. Alton offered me a beer and Stenton darn near bit his head off. I didn’t understand why, but like Alton, I respectfully sat back without questioning it. The doorbell rang again and Stenton jogged out of the room to get it, returning twenty minutes later to finish the movie.