Page 17 of Intercept My Heart

“Are you sure? I don’t mind paying for myself.”

“You’re good. I asked you to come here with me, so I wouldn’t ask you to pay.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll pay the next time.”

“So you’re going to let me take you out again? I thought for sure I’d messed up our friendship for good.” I smiled as I watched her fidget in her seat.

“No, it wasn’t that bad. Plus, I have to realize there’s a lot about me you don’t know. I can’t get upset when you express yourself.”

“Cool. As long as you’re not going to block me once you get home.” When I first asked for her phone number, she told me no. It wasn’t until I started picking her up from work that I realized she didn’t have a phone. I took her to the Verizon store and helped her get a phone. All teenagers should have a phone, and in her case, it was needed. I texted her from time to time to check in, but she usually kept it brief.

“I won’t block you. At least not tonight.” There was something infectious about her laugh.

“I see you’ve got jokes. Let’s get out of here.” I grabbed her bag as well as mine. I didn’t want our night to end, but I held on to the fact that I’d get to see her tomorrow. The air was chilly, so I took off my jacket before putting it over her shoulders.

“Well, aren’t you the perfect gentleman?” Rae snickered.

“I do what I can.” We both started laughing as we got in the car. Her house wasn’t too far away, but I wanted to take the long way to prolong my time with her.

“So, tell me something no one else knows about you.”

“That really doesn’t narrow down much. No one knows too much about me.” The sadness in her tone caused me to turn in her direction.

“I wanna be the exception to that. If we’re gonna be friends, we should know everything about one another.”

“Friends,” she whispered back. “I don’t have many of those. Actually, now that Ciera’s gone, I guess I could use one.”

“I’ve heard I’m a pretty good one, but you’re more than welcome to find out for yourself.” Her smile barely reached her eyes, letting me know there were a lot of things on her mind.

“Do you work tomorrow? I need you to send me your schedule to make sure I don’t miss a day.”

“You know you don’t have to keep picking me up, right? I don’t mind catching the bus.”

“You may not mind, but I do. You’re too pretty to be riding the bus at night. There are way too many weirdos in the world, waiting to take advantage of a pretty woman.”

“It’s a little too late for that,” she mumbled under her breath.

“What was that?” I pressed, even though I heard her the first time. I just wanted to see if she’d elaborate.

“Do you really think I’m pretty?” She wore a sincere look on her face. We pulled up to a red light, and I shifted in my seat so she could see my face when I answered. My finger cupped her chin so she could look me in the eyes.

“The word pretty doesn’t even begin to describe how gorgeous you are. You really should look into modeling because your beauty should be shared with the world.” I wasn’t the romantic type, so I prayed I didn’t sound too corny.

Charae reminded me of a butterfly. In biology, we learned about the metamorphosis a caterpillar went through until they fully developed into a butterfly. That was how I saw Charae. Right now, she was a caterpillar who couldn’t see how special she was because she was still going through her transformation.I hoped I was around to see her when she finally came into her own. I knew it was going to be something special to see. The urge to kiss her was strong, but I knew she wasn’t ready yet.

“Thank you for tonight. I’ll probably be eating these leftovers for the next couple of days.”

“Anytime. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night, Dinero.”

“Later, Charae.” I watched her walk to the door, taking notice of her hesitation when she stepped closer. Maybe Drake would be able to answer some of my questions when I saw him tomorrow. There were some things that weren’t adding up to me, and I needed to get to the bottom of this.

A whilelater

“Aye, are you coming to my game tomorrow night?” Dinero asked as he drove me home. This had become our normal routine, although I protested it.

“I don’t know. Football games really aren’t my thing. It’s not like I have anyone to go with.” I hadn’t seen Ciera since she left, and that was who always wanted to go to those things.

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