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“Thank you.”
“You know you my pretty lil baby, right?” Her smile was bashful as she took a small step in my direction. “You know how hard it was to see you and not talk to you? Not touch you?”
“I was trying to do the right thing,” she muttered. “Peyton and I… we’ve been in a rough spot lately. Last night was the first night we actually had fun and…” She shrugged. “I didn’t want to ruin that.”
“It’s obvious you’re committed to your relationship, so why are you here?”
Malaysia twiddled her thumbs and avoided my eyes. “I missed you.” Her laugh was silent before she bit down on her bottom lip. “We were in the same room and I… I missed you.”
Heather knocked on the door and let me know my client had arrived. I ran my hand down my face and sighed.
“I want you, Malaysia.” Finally, I closed the space between us. “And I will chase you to the end of the earth.” Cupping her cheek, I lifted her head. “Only if I know you’re going to let me catch you.” I placed a kiss to her forehead. “I think we should stop talking until you break up with him.”
Her eyes closed, and she inhaled a deep breath. With a nod, she allowed her eyes to flutter open.
“Okay.” She agreed quietly.
I kissed her forehead again before opening the door. Malay walked out briskly, and I took a moment to compose myself before heading to my studio. This wasn’t how I saw our visit ending, but I knew it was for the best. No matter how much I wanted her, I wasn’t going to be her side nigga. She was either going to have two boyfriends or break up with him, but this hot and cold shit wasn’t going to work.
9
Malaysia
November
“Why don’t you just go talk to him? Clearly, you want to.”
Licking the corner of my mouth, I looked over at my sister. She was right. I did want to talk to Aspen. We hadn’t seen or talked to each other in two weeks. It was her idea I come over since he was here so things wouldn’t be awkward when we gathered for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving.
Another holiday where Peyton and I would be with our families instead of each other. We never spent holidays with our families together, and that was another reason why I knew in my mind that we weren’t going to be together forever—even if my heart didn’t want to believe it. Things had been better between us since Denali’s party. We were more intimate and putting forth more effort, but my feelings for Aspen made things… cloudy. I thought about him too much. Craved him too much. Compared Peyton to him too much.
“What if he doesn’t want to talk to me?”
Enjell chuckled and gently pushed me off the island of the kitchen. “Go talk to that man. I can promise you he wants to talk to you as much as you want to talk to him.”
With her encouragement, I headed into the living room. I sat next to him, leaving less than an inch of space between us. Our necks craned at the same time, and when our eyes locked, we smiled.
“Hi,” I spoke.
“Wassup, pretty lil baby?”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” His eyes shifted to the bouquet in the center of the coffee table that I’d created. “Dejvi said you did this. This is dope as hell.”
“Thank you. Bouquets are kind of my thing. I love making them. Not just flowers. Money, candles, candy, books… any kind.”
“That’s creative, Malay. You got some pictures of what you can do?”
“Of course.” I pulled my phone out and went to the album that had my creations and handed it to him.
“Wow,” he mumbled as he swiped from one picture to another. “You are so fucking creative. You speaking my language with this shit. I love this.”
For some reason, his admiration, his interest, his approval… it warmed me. Peyton said what I did was cute but never showed any real interest in it. And I got that. I mean, it was bouquets… and he was a man… Why would he care?
“Thanks, Aspen.”
