Page 114 of Curvy Girl Summer

I nodded. “I had to.”

She put her hands together. “Thank God. I was so scared I’d have to tell him that not only did I tell his business but I also scared you away.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he’d forgive me for that.”

“He’d forgive you. Your brother loves you.”

“My brother also loves—I said I’m coming!” Her outburst to security, who was waving her over to the other side of the bar, interrupted her sentence to me. She smiled at me. “Duty calls.”

Her brother also loves what?

I didn’t want to speculate, so I cast my gaze around the after-work crowd that had started to creep in. I spun around on the stool to see if I recognized anyone in there. Each week, the number of people seemed to grow. Although it wasn’t crowded yet, there were about twenty-five people spread out over the space. Usually, I was the first one there, so it was a little noisier than normal. I was happy that people were finding out about it because I wanted it to succeed. I’d grown attached to the place.

“No!” I gasped as my turning caused my bag to knock my phone off the bar. Face down, it hit the floor hard.

I hopped off the stool, and as I bent to pick it up, I prayed that my screen wasn’t cracked. Still standing and with my eyes closed tight, I took a deep breath.

Please. Please. Please.

Letting my fingers slide over the glass, I braced myself for the worst. Slowly, I turned it over in my hand and opened my eyes.

“Oh, thank God,” I sighed with relief before spinning around.

Caught off guard, I inhaled sharply when I found Ahmad’s eyes on me. My body tingled under his gaze and my heart thumped against my chest as soon as I realized what was happening.

“You’re here early,” he greeted me as he continued carrying a crate behind the bar.

“A little.” Climbing back on my seat, I eyed his biceps as they bulged under the weight of what he had in his hands. “That looks heavy. You need some help?”

“Nah.” He hoisted it onto the shelf against the mirror. “I can handle the weight.”

It seemed my body took what he said differently from how my mind did. Even though his back was to me, I looked down in hopes he couldn’t tell my cheeks flushed. I was so in my head, I missed part of what he was saying.

“Leon?”

“What about my boo?” I joked.

He was taking the bottles of top-shelf liquor out of the crate and placing it on the shelves. He stopped what he was doing and gave me a look. “Yoooo, you two are both on some bullshit.”

“I’m just kidding,” I laughed along with him. “I wouldn’t date your friends.”

He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead, he turned his back to me to continue restocking the alcohol. “So, who is the lucky guy tonight?”

“Wait.” I waved off his question. “What were you about to say?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking about something Leon said.”

I watched his body move as he reached over to grab an almost-empty bottle of tequila and replace it. “Are you going to share?”

“He just said that I might be scaring off your dates and that maybe I’m a little too protective.”

“You don’t scare off the dates,” I assured him. “Let Leon know that the dates talk a good game online and just don’t back it up in person.”

“That’s what I told him. From their attitude to their clothes, they just haven’t been good enough for you. I haven’t even had to flex on most of them.”

“That’s true,” I agreed.

“Like that one dude with the suit,” he continued. “He came here on a date looking like a shifty pastor.”

“Ol’ taking-money-from-the-collection-plate-looking ass,” I joked.

---