Page 3 of Taste The Smoke
Still staring at him, Kenya said, “Um, yeah, something like that. I’ll call you later.”
“Ask him to sit down. Ain’t no man gonna come across a crowded bar to ask if you’re all right if he doesn’t have some kind of home training.”
“I can’t just ask a perfect stranger to sit down,” she whispered, aware that the man still stood there staring at her expectantly.
“Sure you can. He sounds like theperfectman to banish the other one from your thoughts.Ask. Him.”
“We’ll see. Bye.” She could still hear her sister yelling into the phone when she disconnected. Where Phaedra had always been the outgoing one, Kenya tended to be a little more reserved. She shook herself. “I’m sorry. Um…yes, I’m okay. Thanks for asking.”
“Sounds good. Enjoy your evening.” He blessed her with a knee-weakening smile and started to walk away. Kenya placed a staying hand on his arm and felt the muscles bunch under her fingers. She quickly pulled back. “Why don’t you join me?” He stared at her for what seemed like forever, his head angled as if weighing her offer.
“Are you sure?”
This had to be the most impulsive thing she’d ever done. Channeling her older sister’s extroverted personality, she nodded. “Yes.” She gestured to the seat across from her. “Please. I’m Kenya. Kenya Grant.”
“Alonzo Bennett,” he said in that dark honey voice as he folded his tall body into the chair. “You were expecting someone?”
“Until he called twenty minutes after I arrived to cancel on me.”
“What an idiot,” he mumbled, shaking his head.
For the first time, a smile spread across her face. “That’s the same thing my sister just said.”
“Seems like there’s a lot of that going on tonight.”
Her brow lifted. “You, too?” What woman in her right mind would stand him up? But at least that confirmed he was single.
A grin kicked up on the corner of his mouth. “Something like that.”
Before she could ask what he meant, a server came over. “I see your other party has arrived. What can I get started for you?”
“I’d like a mango margarita, blended, please,” Kenya answered. She glanced over at Alonzo.
“I’ll just have a coke.”
She waited for the young man to walk away before speaking. “So, you’re just going to make me look like a lush all by myself over here?”
Alonzo laughed. “One drink doesn’t qualify you as being a lush. I had a drink at the bar. One’s my limit when I’m out.”
That confession earned him a brownie point. “Something we have in common. So, you mentioned that you’d been stood up, too, or something like that.”
“Let’s just say deliberately leaving me waiting for kicks is not my idea of a woman.”
Her mouth fell open. “You have got to be kidding me. I mean what grown woman does that?” She felt offended on his behalf and almost wanted to apologize.
“I don’t know and I didn’t stick around to find out.”
“I wouldn’t either.” The server returned with their drinks.
Alonzo lifted his glass. “To good conversation.”
“And no drama,” Kenya added.
“Amen.”
Both laughed as they touched glasses. She took a sip of the fruity drink and started to let her guard down a little. “I don’t know if you’ve already eaten, but I was going to order a couple of appetizers.”
“I haven’t, and they look big enough to share.”
