Page 18 of If I Gave You My Heart
"Aye, bruh, help her out," Dom told Adonis when I started walking toward the table with the burger buns and paper plates.
I could feel his light brown eyes watching me when I walked past him.
"Aye, we gone take some shots first."
So he speaks,I thought to myself when Adonis had opened his mouth. He had a country slur that wasn't like everybody else that lived in Georgia. He grabbed the biggest bottle of Espolòn that I had ever seen and then started pouring shots into small, plastic, red shot glasses for everyone. I damn near curled my upper lip over my nose in disgust because I hated tequila straight.
"Do y'all have anything dark?" Talia asked. She must have picked up on my facial expression.
"Oh yeah, bruh, crack that bottle of Henny open for Talia's cousin. This young lady here only drinks dark," Dom said to Adonis as he pointed to the table.
"Oooh, I'm scared of you, young man," Adonis joked as he went to grab the bottle.
I lightly chuckled because I was already used to everyone's reaction when they found out that I preferred my liquor to how I did my men: strong and dark. Adonis went to open the bottle, and I reached my hand out to stop him.
"Aht-aht." I held my hand out, tapping and blessing the bottle before he could crack the seal.
Adonis' distinguished brow lifted in confusion. Talia reached around me and then tapped the top of the bottle in his hand. Although I had the pleasure of traveling a lot because of work, I was still a Brooklyn girl at heart. So whenever a bottle was on the premises, I was going to tap in.
"That is some ghetto shit," Dom said, and then Adonis laughed behind him.
"So muthafucking ghetto, so now is it okay to open it? I don't wanna fuck y'all voodoo up," Adonis added.
Both me and Talia laughed. I could already feel that the night was going to be an interesting one. I loved a nigga that looked good, but if he could make me laugh, that was ten times better. I know that I told Talia that I wasn't ready to date, but Adonis' ass could laugh me right on out of my panties if he wanted to.
∞∞∞
The night was starting to wind down, and when Talia and Dom disappeared, I was sure she was tucked away in one of the rooms, showing him that my uncle had raised a hoe.
"Take a shot, gang."
I looked up from my phone and saw Adonis standing in front of me with a shot glass. It wasn't the red ones we had been drinking from all night but an actual glass cup. I could see the brown liquid resting in the cup, waiting patiently for me to down it.
My head was lightly spinning because I knew about four shots ago, I had hit my limit.
"You drinking or are you thinking?" he asked me as he quickly took a shot of his own.
I reached my hand out for the glass and threw the Hennessy back. Adonis sat beside me on the couch, and his cologne invaded my nostrils.
"You ever played Incohearent before?"
"No," I didn't really play any games growing up, and as an adult, I didn't have the time.
Adonis stood from the sofa and opened a drawer to the entertainment center under the television. He pulled out this box before sitting back beside me. I couldn't help but notice the print in his Nike Tech sweats as he walked back in my direction. He briefly explained the rules of the game before we started playing cards and trying to make these crazy phrases out.
"Man, at this point, I'm beating ya ass so bad you're about to have to take a shot for every card you don't get," Adonis teased with a laugh.
"I'm good on drinks." I leaned my head back on the chair because it was spinning for sure, "I gotta eat something."
"Oh shit, the ribs."
Adonis jumped up from the sofa and headed toward the backyard, so I followed him.
He lifted the top to the grill and then smiled.
"Ooooh, these shits gone be so good. Sit down, pretty lady. I'll toss some on a plate for us."
I smiled at his compliment and then sat at the table. Those ribs were falling off the bone.
