Page 4 of Verse Two
Ready to make my presence known, I spoke up just as she unjammed her handle.
“I thought I was trippin’, but it really is you. Wassup, Doll?”
I watched as the hand she was using to tug at her suitcase stilled. Slowly, she straightened up and met my gaze with wide eyes and a hanging bottom lip.
Fuck.
She still looked just like my nickname for her. In third grade, Dylan was obsessed with dolls. She was pretty as hell even then, so the girls in our class hated on her a lot. My homie Marcellus and I were her only friends in the class, and every day, she would bring a doll for each of us to play with during recess.
As a kid, I lived to make this girl happy, so instead of playing tag and everything else with the homies, I was usually sitting on a bench somewhere, chilling with Dy. I always thought her love for dolls was funny because, to me, she resembled one. From those large, round eyes to her perfectly shaped, pink lips, she had always been perfection.
For a minute, we stood there, just staring at each other. I didn’t know about her, but I was taking her in. It had been way too long since I’d gotten a chance to admire her pretty ass, and now that she was in front of me, it was all I wanted to do.
This wasthegirl. No matter how many women had been in my life since we lost touch, no one could ever top Dylan Ivie. Not even LaShontae, and she knew it, too.
Dylan closed her mouth then opened it again. She did that a couple of times before she finally delivered a reply.
“Brick.” As my name fell from her lips, she covered her mouth with both hands, causing her purse and phone to fall to the floor.
Without hesitating, I walked over. Bending down, I picked up her things. When I stood again, I caught a whiff of her scentand had to force myself not to grab her up right then. She always smelled good as hell.
“You good?” I asked as she took her things.
She cleared her throat then nodded. “Yea-yeah, I’m good. Oh my God, Brick. I can’t believe it’s you!” she said loudly before falling into my chest. I immediately took advantage of the opportunity and wrapped her in my arms. Burying my face in her neck, I greedily inhaled her cotton candy scent. She smelled as good as she looked, and that had me bricked up in the middle of the airport.
Lifting on her toes, she lifted her arms, and I bent down a little more so that she could wrap them around my neck.
“Damn, girl. I missed you,” I said, holding her tighter.
“I missed you, too.”
We stayed that way for quite some time until, finally, I pulled away.
“Since we both ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon, . . . you got a minute to catch up witcha boy?” I asked her, smirking. There was no way we were parting ways just yet. I wasn’t taking our reunion lightly or for granted, so I needed more of her time.
She blessed me with that pretty smile of hers and nodded.
“Of course.”
“Lead the way, Doll.” I grabbed both our suitcases and followed her away from the gate. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it happen, but if I was about to be stuck in New York for two more days, they were definitely going to be spent with Dy.
Three
Dy
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
I wrapped my lips around my straw and took a long drink of my margarita. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t think I would be sitting at an airport bar beside the one and only Brixton Ellis.
This man had been a permanent fixture in my thoughts since I moved from Terry, Chaney. When he asked me to be his girlfriend in eighth grade, I thought it was the beginning of forever. Everything with us had been smooth until my mother fell in love and moved us out of the hood.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved my stepfather. I never knew my biological one, and Reggie treated me like his own, so I thanked God every day for him. That didn’t change the fact that my mother finding her person cut my own love story short, though. I had been sick about leaving Terry—leavingBrixton—for weeks. I tried to run away several times, but my terrible sense of direction always had me knocking on my parents’ door after ten or fifteen minutes.
My mother used to tell me that I’d be fine as soon as I made new friends, but no matter how comfortable I got in Jai City, I never got over my first love. I eventually started dating, and I had plenty of friends, but I couldn’t ever shake the feeling that something—someone—was missing.
Now, here I was, watchingthatsomeone sip his whiskey. Time had been more than kind to Brick. What used to be short starter locs that barely reached his ears now stretched well past his shoulders. He had a crisp lineup, and his goatee was trimmed just as neatly.
I had always been obsessed with his bushy eyebrows and was glad to see that they remained unchanged. His sandy brown skin was smooth, and his smile was perfection. Brick had gone from a cute teenager to a sexy-assmanwho made my insides tingle.
