Page 16 of You Make Me Feel

I walked out of her office and headed to mine. We were about to go to Chuck’s Sandwich Shop downtown. She loved their baked potatoes, and I loved their burgers. I could already taste it. I took a deep breath as I grabbed my keys and phone from the desk. Kinisha didn’t seem to trust me, but she should have been questioning that nigga she was seeing. Surely, she had to know he was a ho, but I suppose that wasn’t my business.

When I got to the parking lot, she got in her ride. I gave her a head nod, and she rolled her eyes playfully. The more I was around her, the more I wanted to know, but it didn’t seem she would be too forthcoming with any personal information. I turned up my radio to hear Silk Sonic’s rendition of “Love’s Train,” originally done by Con Funk Shun. I had to say, they’d done it justice. Remakes were hit and miss, especially the classics. In my opinion, they had to be just as good or better.

Lucky Daye had done a good job with Earth, Wind & Fire on the remake of one of their songs, so it went over well. However, I wasn’t too fond of the Isley Brothers remake that included Beyoncé. “Make Me Say It Again, Girl” was one of my favorites by them, but that remake didn’t hit home for me. I was an old soul. I loved seventies, eighties, and nineties music, particularly R&B and soul. Some of this new shit was lacking big time.

After parking, I saw Kinisha walking toward the entrance. I quickly got out of my car and made my way to her. It looked somewhat crowded. Sure enough, there was nowhere to sit when I stepped inside. She turned to me and said, “Looks like we’ll be taking this to go.”

“Yeah. You wanna go to a park or go back to the office?”

“The office. I hate eating outside. I don’t want nothing flying near my food.”

Well, picnics are out of the question.“Noted. Well, can we at least eat in the lounge together?”

She frowned slightly. “Yeah . . . sure,” she said hesitantly.

I knew if I didn’t ask, she would go straight to her office with it. The whole point of us going to lunch together was so I could spend time getting to know her more. She faced the front for a moment, then turned back to me. “Oliver—”

I shook my head as I stared down at her. “We’ll talk about it later.”

I already knew she was about to try to shoot me down. She wasn’t about to do that in a restaurant full of patrons. She wasn’t about to do that, period. When we got to the counter and she ordered her potato, I immediately ordered my burger and paid for everything. “Oliver, I could have paid for my own food.”

I just stared at her. She eventually looked away but remained silent. This woman didn’t know how to let a man do things for her, and I planned to change that. Obviously, Jarod hadn’t done shit for her, but she was still giving him her time. That could be for one thing, and one thing only. They didn’t sit together at church, and I saw them speak only once or twice. I assumed he was her sneaky link. While I wanted her to know she wasn’t being as discreet as she thought, I chose to leave it alone.

She would swear I was stalking her if I told her that I saw how she stared at him or put an extra sway in her hips when she thought he was looking. That nigga only wanted what was between her legs, and maybe that was all she wanted too. I needed to mind the business that paid me until I no longer could. I could only sit idly by for so long, watching her make a fool of herself. I truly believed her stress involved him in some way.

While waiting for our food, she said, “Thank you, Oliver.”

I simply nodded, not offering her any words. Honestly, I was slightly irritated that she couldn’t see the good man standing before her. I wasn’t pressuring her to be mine. I was just trying to do something nice for her. However, I could feel that she would push me past the point of aggression I wanted to go. It wasn’t that I would do anything she didn’t want me to do. I could tell that she was interested. She was trying to convince herself that she wasn’t.

Once our food was ready, I grabbed the bag and headed out of the restaurant as she followed me through the crowd. I held the door open for her. She smiled politely, thanked me, and then headed to her car. When she got to it, I was right behind her to open the door. Her gaze softened as she stared at me. It was like she was trying to figure me out. There was nothing about me that she needed to figure out. I’d told her that I went after what I wanted. Plain and simple. I was pursuing my future.

When we returned to the office, Devin was up front, looking like he was about to come unglued.

Kinisha frowned slightly. “You okay, Mr. Taylor?”

“Yeah. Just some personal stuff. I’ll be back, y’all.”

I nodded as he grabbed his keys and headed out the door. I didn’t know what was happening, but it must have been serious. Kinisha glanced at me, and I shrugged my shoulders, indicating I didn’t have a clue about what it could have been either. We made our way to the lounge area and had a seat. I unbagged our food and handed her container to her first, then took out mine. The smell of that burger had my stomach growling.

“Dang. You hungry?”

“Yep.”

“Oliver.”

I looked up at her. “I’m sorry, but I was trying to tell you in the restaurant that I’m involved with someone. I can’t be trying to get to know someone else when I’m not sure where the relationship I’m pursuing is going.”

“I can promise you that if you don’t know after three weeks, then it ain’t going nowhere. I make my intentions known from the beginning. When I pursue a woman, she will definitely know exactly what I expect to gain from being with her. Regardless of whether men express that, after three weeks, they know, especially if y’all are spending a lot of time together.”

She looked down at her potato and played in it with her fork. I took a bite of my burger as I stared at her. When she didn’t say anything, after swallowing what was in my mouth, I said, “I didn’t say that to make you feel bad. I said that to put you up on game. If you were mine, I would tell you that I want to know everything about you, from what side of the bed you wake up on to if you wear a bonnet on your head at night. I would be interested in every detail about you, Kinisha. But I mean, that’s just me.”

She stared at me momentarily, then said, “Neither of us have questioned anything about each other. While I want to speak freely, I don’t know you well enough yet. You seem trustworthy, but I don’t typically trust people with my personal issues so soon.”

“It’s cool. I’m gon’ still be here until you do.”

“Why?”

“Because I want you.” I grabbed her hand and held it in mine. “I want you to be mine. I pay attention to you when we’re around each other, and I can tell you’re a good person. A li’l nasty, but you have a good heart.”

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