Page 14 of The Tempted

The light changed to green and Nikki drove off, leaving the bakery behind. I glanced up and noticed we were only a few blocks away from the house I grew up in the house I shared with my parents. My parents, who were dead.

“Turn left here,” I said my voice was barely above a whisper and I wasn’t even sure she heard me.

Nikki glanced over at me.

“You sure about this?” she asked me her voice all soft and concerned.

I nodded, encouraging her to make the left as I had asked her to. She turned down the street where my parent’s home stood, the fourth house from the corner.

“Slow down,” I said. She slowly rolled up in front of the house, giving me time to take it all in. It was exactly as I remembered nothing on the exterior had been altered at all. I knew that Victor had taken care of the house after we picked up and left. He had rented it out and would mail my mother a check every month. I always wondered why my mother never sold the house. Funny how she hung onto it even though she tried so desperately to escape this life of ours.

“Do you remember my Aunt Gina? And my Nana, Big Red?” Nikki asked pulling me away from my trance. I tore my eyes from the house I apparently now owned. I think I owned it if not me who else? I looked blankly for a moment, trying to remember what she had asked me.

“My Nana, Big Red,” she repeated.

“She’s about four feet eleven we’ve dubbed her the incredible shrinking women,” she lifted her hands to the sides of her head. “Big poufy orange hair that she thinks is red talks like a truck driver although Aunt Gina says she’s slowed down on the f-bombs.”

“You’re talking about your grandma? Of course I remember her,” she used to slip me five dollars, ask me to rob her a few cigarettes from someone, and then stash them in her straw pocketbook. That was our little secret though no need for Nikki to know about her grandma’s shenanigans.

“She and Aunt Gina used to rent the house,” Nikki said, nodding towards my old house.

“They don’t anymore?” I asked curiously.

“No, Aunt Gina packed up Red and her two dogs, Pepsi and Cola and moved to a fifty-five and over community in Florida. She said there weren’t any viable men left in Brooklyn.” Nikki smiled and for some reason that made me smile too.

“So, who lives there now?”

She looked passed me at the house as she answered. “Nobody.”

I didn’t know how that was possible considering how my mother had received a check from Victor last month for the rent. I glanced back at the house for a moment before hitting the heel of my hand against the dashboard.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said.

“Where do you want to go?” she asked as she changed gears putting the car into drive.

“Anywhere but here,” I said, rubbing the stubble along my jaw. I needed a shave desperately.

“So back to Anthony’s?” she asked.

“Or there,” I said, feeling my pockets for my sunglasses. Fuck they were in my suit jacket that was well I had no idea where I had left that. I opened the glove compartment and smirked because girls were so damn predictable. I snatched the sunglasses that I knew would be in there and fitted them to my face. Girls were so predictable.

“Hey!” She exclaimed. “Those are my Gucci’s!”

“They’re only sunglasses,” I said, mimicking her reaction to the mustang. She snarled and damn me straight to hell if that wasn’t the sexiest snarl I’d ever seen. I needed to get laid. I must’ve been going through withdrawals or something because there wasn’t any logical explanation for what I was thinking or feeling every time I was around Nikki. It’s as if my dick had a mind of its own or something.

I wonder if I was transparent and Nikki knew exactly what I was thinking. If she did, she didn’t mention it. I didn’t ask where we're going. It didn’t matter. She turned onto the belt parkway. Apparently, little Nikki had a heavy foot because once we were on the highway, she took off with her mustang like a bat out of hell. No more than fifteen minutes later she was pulling off the shoulder of the Belt Parkway where there were a few cars parked. She turned the car off, and I looked out the window. The Belt Parkway Promenade was off the side of the highway. People came here to walk, jog, ride their bikes and enjoy the view of the water and the Verrazano Bridge. When I was a kid, my dad and I would even fish here. When I was a teenager, I’d bring girls here to make out. Good memories.

“This okay?” Nikki asked beside me. I removed the sunglasses I was wearing and met her skeptical gaze.

“It’s perfect,” I said. Her full mouth blossomed into a smile before she reached for her door. Suddenly I had an overwhelming urge to keep making her smile. Besides her incredible ass, her smile owned me.

We were out of the car, walking side by side along the water in silence for a while. I knew what was consuming my mind, but I wondered what she was thinking. She wrapped her arms around herself and I cursed myself for being a drunken fool and not knowing where the hell I had left my jacket.

“Are you cold? We can go back to the car.”

“No, it's fine,” she said.

I sighed running my fingers through my hair I stopped walking. She looked at me over her shoulder after taking a few steps. Her eyes questioned mine as I shoved my hands into my pockets.

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