Page 24 of If I Gave You My Heart
"Nah," he opened the passenger side door for me, "niggas don't do shit like this for you?"
It had been a while since a man had opened a car door for me. It sucked how in today's society, I truly believed that chivalry was gone because I didn't even expect a man to open a door for me.
I knew I better have gotten used to the treatment by hanging around Adonis. He didn't close the door until I found my comfortable spot inside the seat. Like most men, his car was clean, which shocked me because I had been in his room already, and that shit was clean, too. It usually was one or the other when it came to men.
I sat quietly on the passenger side as we made our way to destination one. When we made it there, I sat patiently and waited for him to come around to open the door for me.Iron Age: Korean Grill.I silently read the sign of the establishment that we were walking in. There was an awkward silence when we sat at the table. I could foresee that we would have many of those, but I quickly learned that Adonis was a man of very few words, which made me appreciate whenever he did open his mouth.
I watched as Adonis cooked our food on the small grill built into the table we sat at.
"How you want ya steak?" he asked.
"Medium well."
"Good. Had you said well-done, we were gonna just end this date right now."
"What's wrong with well-done steak?" I asked with a little laugh.
I needed to hear his logic behind this.
"Man, if anybody eats well-done steak, I know they done got paid once or twice to bite somebody."
I laughed loudly because the shit he said sometimes was hilarious.
We sat there for about two hours, eating and engaging in conversation. I learned Dom wasn't Adonis' blood relative because he was adopted. The way he spoke about the woman that adopted him made my heart warm. I wished that growing up, somebody would have loved me how he said Joy loves him. I reciprocated and opened up about my childhood, but I kept the abuse at a surface level. I realized that whenever I went too deep into all I endured as a child, whoever I told would give me sympathetic eyes. I didn't need anyone feeling bad for me.
As more drinks came, we kept the conversation going. Adonis asked what I did for a living, and I told him I used to work at a library back home and was looking into doing that again. Working at a library was more of a pleasure thing. I told him I had a couple of investments that paid the bills, but I had a passion for reading and writing. He listened intently, and he looked me dead in the eye when I spoke. Every once in a while, I would look away because staring into those brown eyes was indeed doing something to me.
"So what do you do?"
I turned the spotlight on him because I had enough of talking about my financials.
"I want to start a landscaping business out here. Like you, I have a couple of investments back home that pay the bills, but I want a business of my own."
A man who wanted to own his own business was a man for me. I didn't believe in that working for someone else bullshit. I never shamed anyone who did work for someone because to each is own, but I just knew that I always wanted to be my own boss.
"You'll get the shit done. You got this," I gave words of encouragement.
Adonis just looked at me and smiled. The smile was like he didn't believe what I was saying. I hoped I would be around to see his business be a success. I didn't have much success with relationships, and more importantly, somebody could possibly wipe me the fuck out. I had to get ahead of this bounty shit.
"Nyoka…"
"Huh?"
"You good, gang? You just went in your head."
I didn't realize until now how much shit was on my mind.I gotta reach out to Bombshell,I thought to myself as I pushed the possible thought of me being murdered to the back of my mind. Whenever I thought of the future, the facts of my present distracted me so badly.
"Yeah, I'm good. I'm sorry."
The server came with the bill, and naturally, I reached for my purse to pay. It was a bad habit I had. I was so used to taking care of everything and everyone that this had to be a form of PTSD. When I had first met Edward, I had done the same thing. My two lovers before him didn't have much money, but they loved me for me, so I footed the bill without care because the emotional stability they were giving me made up for the financials I handled on the back end.
When I looked up from digging in my purse, Adonis was already handing his card and the bill back to the server.
"Don't ever do that shit again." His tone was even.
"I'm sorry."
"It's cool. You're just always good with me."
