Page 6 of Aug
I do care. I thought, stepping forward. The elevator doors parted. It was time to exit, but Tiana had yet to move.
Keep standing there and I’m going to assume you want to come home with me.
“Tiana,” I said, instead.
“Yeah. Right. My floor. Thank you. Goodnight, Aug.”
I wasn’t sure when she started calling me that shit, but I grew a bit more rigid each time it left her mouth.
Ignoring her dismissal, I trailed her down the hallway. She stopped in front of her unit, just two doors down from the elevator. Her head tilted sideways as she peered up at me.
“Goodnight, Aug.”
“If you think I’m leaving before you’re safely inside, then you’re sadly mistaken, Ti.”
“Ti?” She asked, rearing her head back with the corners of her mouth lifted, “Are we giving out nicknames, now?”
I tipped my head toward her door. Obliging, she placed the fob against the keypad. The door unlocked, giving her access to her unit. I remained in the hallway, watching closely as she dragged her body inside.
She’s going to sleep good as hell tonight.
Though I wished it wasn’t alone, my time would come soon enough. And, when it did, I was certain it would be well worth the wait.
“Goodnight, Aug,” she said for a second time.
I paused and planted my feet firmly on the ground. Her makeup was still flawless. Her smile was wavering. Her cheeks were high. Her eyes were low.
Don’t. I chastised, knowing exactly where this was headed if I didn’t uproot my feet and head in the other direction.
Tiana was for the taking. I planned to take her ass down, too. But, she deserved more than some dick after a drunken night. That would come. First, I wanted to play with her mind. Then, her heart. And, then her pussy.
Not in a way that niggas did women they had no good intentions for. But, more so, like I’d done with my prized car collection as a young boy. I made sure to keep them clean, oiled, shiny, tires rotated, and ready for whatever my day tossed at them. Their engines were always in tip-top shape. There wasn’t a day they weren’t prepared for the road.
“Goodnight, Ti.”
Her lips curled a little more as she hugged the door. She rested her head against it, peering in my direction.
Her hair is pretty.
Small pieces draped her face, but most of it was up in a ponytail. Every time she moved, the ponytail whipped in another direction.
She is so pretty.
Makeup enhanced her brown features. There was a golden glittery product on the tip of her nose, the dip in her top lip, and on the highest points of her cheeks. It made her glisten, quite literally.
Her aura is so pretty.
Tiana pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and shifted her weight. Though she’d told me goodbye, she wasn’t ready for me to leave. However, she wasn’t sure how to ask me to stay either.
Instead of making the decision to do so harder, I twisted on the ball of my foot and started for the elevator. There would be so much more to our story. Much more than tonight. Much more than our desperation to feel each other on a more intimate level, a sexual level.
I’d taken that route countless times. It never ended how the women imagined it would. So, I was sparing Tiana and me the possibility of this shit blowing up in our faces if we didn’t ease into something that could last a lifetime. Rushing into our thing was beneath us both. Or so it seemed for now.
I stepped onto the elevator once the doors opened. My feet felt like bricks as I picked them up, one after the other. In the center of the cart, I waited for the descent. I pushed my hands in my pockets and leaned my head backward until my eyes landed on the ceiling.
Go home, August. I coached.
As the words echoed in my head, my palm began vibrating.
