Page 12 of Where Is the Love

“Aww, nigga. Ain’t nobody give a shit about that. Brixton here because he tryna become our nephew,” Jasper said.

Storm’s frown came back as he stared at me. He and Jess were close. She’d told me as much. I knew they would all be protective of her because of her last heartbreak. “One day. I’m not rushing. As long as we’re progressing, then I’m good,” I said as Jessica approached.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me away from them to a table. “I am not about to let them grill you like I’m not a grown ass woman.”

I chuckled, but once we sat, I could feel the tension. She turned to me and said, “Normally, I wouldn’t have said a thing, but I at least owe you a warning. I’m about to be extremely petty from Petty University, majoring in pettiology.”

I frowned, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about. “What?”

“That muthafucka brought his ass to the country anyway, and now he’s about to get his feelings hurt. I’m glad we had our intimate moments yesterday morning, because if we hadn’t, you would think everything I’m gonna do tonight was fake. I just wouldn’t be doing all this shit in front of everybody.”

“All what shit?” I asked.

I glanced around, trying to figure out who she was talking about. She grabbed my beard, answering my question silently, and pulled my face to hers and kissed me on the lips. She didn’t have to worry about me, because I could be just as petty as her. If somebody here was fucking up her vibe, she knew I would have her back. I grabbed her hand and pulled her from her seat to me and continued pulling her until she was on my lap.

When I did was when I noticed him. He was sitting near Nesha and her husband, and he looked pissed. “I’m gon’ be doing the most. I hope you’re not easily embarrassed, Brix.”

“When it comes to you and this beautiful body, there ain’t much you can do to embarrass me. I’ll fuck you right here in front of your family.”

She turned to me, and I noticed her cheeks had reddened. Maybe I would be the one embarrassing her ass. I wrapped my arms around her waist, but she stood from my lap. Grabbing my hand, she pulled me, so I stood. “I’m sure you want to eat. You know we have the works. I haven’t eaten yet, because my mood was fucked. For the life of me, I still don’t know why he showed his ass up here.”

“Well, I believe we’re about to find out, because he’s making his way over here.”

She turned toward him with a deep frown on her face. I swore she looked like her uncles when she frowned. When he got close, he nodded at me. I didn’t reciprocate. Although this was petty bullshit to Jess, in my mind, she was already mine. When I didn’t reciprocate, he cleared his throat. “Jess, can I talk to you?”

“Hell no. You shouldn’t even be here, and you’re being rude.”

“I didn’t mean to be rude. You know that.”

He glanced at me again as I wrapped my arm around Jessica’s waist then walked away. I was confused as to why he would even approach her while she was with another nigga anyway, talking about he didn’t mean to be rude. His entire approach was rude as fuck. We continued to the steam tables, and when I saw that deer meat, I was in heaven. She glanced at me then grabbed the tongs to begin fixing our food.

I held my plate while she loaded me up. Despite that nigga popping up here, I could tell that her feelings were still on her sleeve concerning him. “You good, Jess?”

She only nodded as she put a scoop of rice dressing next to my deer sausage. My hand remained at the small of her back as we made our way down the line, with her putting a little of everything on my plate. Once we got back to our seats, I noticed Jess was somewhat quiet. Before I could address it, she grabbed my fork and began feeding me like I’d done her yesterday morning. I scooted closer to her. “You know you don’t have to put on a façade for me. I can tell you still have feelings for him. You know I will give you whatever you need.”

She lowered her head then looked back up at me. “Can we go outside?”

“I got’chu, baby.”

I grabbed her hand and led her outside to my truck. After grabbing the blanket from the back seat, I spread it out in the bed and helped her up there. Once she got situated, I passed our food to her from the side of the truck then went to the tailgate and hopped in and sat next to her. She turned to me and said, “This is nice, Brix. Thank you.”

I gave her a slight smile as she ate some of her rice. “This is actually kind of romantic. I didn’t think you had it in you,” she said.

“There’s still quite a bit you need to learn about me. One of those things is that I’m a grown muthafucka, and I behave accordingly. You need tenderness right now. I’m trying to provide what I believe you need.”

She set her plate beside her and made her way to my lap. I set my plate down as well and wrapped my arms around her. She took a deep breath. “It’s been over three months, and he won’t leave me alone. How am I supposed to move on if he won’t respect my boundaries? I need peace away from him.”

“Make him respect them. If you have to call the police, then do that. Tell Nesha to tell her husband to stop letting him come around.”

“He’s probably the one helping him, hoping that he’ll get me back.”

“Well, you’ll have to talk to them too. I think it will stop if they know how serious you are about moving on.”

While I was giving her advice and being here for her comfort, I couldn’t help but remember that Nate was still in the picture. She wanted to move on, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she wanted to move on with me. Showing her tenderness when she was feeling a way was nothing new. Although we hadn’t seen one another in years, this interaction was familiar. The deep kissing and groping weren’t, but it wasn’t hard to fall into that.

From what I gathered from conversation and simply from paying attention to her was that she was a sexual being. I believed she was in high school, too, but she had to keep it under wraps. I knew she wasn’t a virgin by the time we graduated. I never hid my sexuality from her, even when it wasn’t directed at her. So it didn’t shock me that we’d ended up in the positions we were in. Had I not been living back at home with my mother, it would have gone down Thursday night.

Her lips were so fucking soft. I didn’t want to stop kissing her. We’d kissed before but as friends, similar to the first peck she’d given me. When I kissed her again, I almost expected her to resist somewhat, because the old Jessica played hard at times, like shit didn’t get to her. I knew better though.