Page 25 of Continuum

“Okay, I would but I’m getting picked up in the next ten minutes for a breakfast date and—”

“Oh-my-fucking-God!” she squealed so loud that I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “You’re going on your third date in twelve hours?”

Smiling, I didn’t think about it like that.

“Technically, yes.” I continued despite her excited yelp. “I’m having breakfast with Kwame and we are spending the day together.”

“What happened last night? It must’ve been good if you went to a late dinner and are getting up again for breakfast.”

I checked myself out in the yellow sundress. “Yeah, it was a good time. We um…” I put the call on speakerphone and tossed it on the bed so I could put on my shoes. “After dinner, we came back to my place. And once he left, I cleaned up the sitting room, took a shower, and collapsed in the bed. I didn’t look at my phone again.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait… he came over?! You should’ve started with that!”

I giggled before launching into a quick and dirty retelling of what happened with Kwame. Even as I was telling my best friend, I couldn’t believe it. The twenty-year-old version of myself was losing it. Hell, the thirty-seven-year-old version of myself was blown away. It was still so surreal that I ran into him like that.

I posed in the mirror, taking in how I looked. I was both cute and casual with my sundress and sneaker combination. But because my body was soft and full, the curves made the outfit sexy and a standout.

It’s perfect!

“Oh wow,” she breathed. “That… that’s just wow. If I weren’t so happy for you, I’d be jealous. Just a whole night of you being taken care of? Sheesh! I wish!”

“It was so unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I mean, I’ve had great experiences before, but he made it all about me. Completely.”

“I’ve never had—” She stopped talking abruptly. “Tara is calling and I know she was worried sick. I’m going to merge the calls.”

“Okay, cool.” I checked the time. If I could catch them both up at the same time, it would save time anyway.

“It’s about damn time!” Tara exclaimed as soon as the call connected.

“Hey Tara,” I greeted her. “I’m sorry I hadn’t gotten back to you yet.”

“You know you’re dead wrong,” she started. “I’m only accepting your apology because Italy took the time to explain to me who Kwame Mitchell was and how you were too scared to shoot your shot in college. Otherwise, I would still be thinking that you ran off with some sketchy guy at the bar.”

“There’s nothing sketchy about Kwame,” Italy teased.

“What does that mean?” Tara asked.

“So, long story short, after a great dinner at Al’s, we came back to my place where he got me off twice without ever fucking me.”

“Well, bitch, now is not the time to be skimpy with the details,” Tara replied. “How did you go from getting dinner to being dinner? Run that shit all the way back to the beginning.”

I laughed as I told a condensed version of the same story again. I wanted them both to be on the same page and I wanted to tell them more, but it was a few minutes until ten o’clock. I knew that Kwame would be outside at any moment.

“Do you think he has something wrong?” Tara asked. She lowered her voice. “With his dick?”

I rolled my eyes as I went downstairs. “No, I don’t think that.”

“He was being a gentleman, Tara!” Italy admonished. “He was showing respect! Good men exist.”

“I mean, they do…” Tara agreed with a tinge of skepticism in her voice. “But how many men do you know that arethatrespectful?”

“It is rare,” I admitted. “But there was something really genuine about it. I don’t know how else to explain it. It didn’t seem like a move he was putting on me. I think he really just wanted to wait until I was sober before we had sex.”

“If you believe it, I believe it,” Tara said in that tone that made it clear that she didn’t believe shit Kwame said. “Just make sure his reason for not fucking you isn’t because he wanted to be able to tell his wife or girlfriend that he didn’t put his dick anywhere he wasn’t supposed to.”

I pursed my lips. I didn’t believe Kwame was being dishonest with me, but I couldn’t deny that Tara got in my head a little bit. I shook my head and brushed it off.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” I replied.

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