Page 34 of Bruised Hearts

“Yeah, if you go find her. She’s not home.” He didn’t comment on it, and I appreciated that. Tonight was about fun, I didn’t want to think about her absence or anything else that would piss me off.

“Well, who is this?” Briana had a slick smirk on her face.

“Landon,” I said through gritted teeth.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Landon.” The way she said his name had me ready to knock her ass out.

“Wish I could say the same. Let’s go, baby.” He grabbed me around my waist and walked me out the door. If I hadn’t pushed so hard for this date, I would have been ready to give him some cat. We climbed in the car and I had a thought.

“Do you even know how to drive?”

“I made it here, didn’t I? Now, put your seatbelt on and trust yo man.” My man? Those two words gave me butterflies while sending my nervous system into overdrive. Not responding to his declaration, I did as he asked as I waited in anticipation. I watched frantically out the window trying to guess where we could be going. I didn’t expect us to pull up to The Real Food Academy. I know it was a cooking school, so I was confused. I told him I wanted a regular date, but we could have gone to a real restaurant. Not having students cook for us. We climbed out, and headed inside.

“Reservation for Mercer.” The lady handed us some aprons and now I was confused.

“What are we doing here?”

“We’re on a date,” he said nonchalantly.

“I know that jackass. I mean, what kind of date is this?” I looked around and saw a bunch of Stepford wives and a few couples pouring wine as they stood at stations.

“We’re taking a cooking class. Come on, this is our spot over here.” I followed him to our set up.

“Nigga, I know how to cook.”

“Do you though? I remember you saying you were about to, but I never got a biscuit. Besides, if you know what you doing, this should be a breeze.” I put my apron on, but I must say I would have never expected him to pick here for a date.

“Why here?” he shrugged as he began grabbing utensils. His ass was really taking this seriously.

“Because it’s low key. You said you wanted Landon, and I figured this the last place somebody would recognize my ass. Now hush up, I’m trying to hear the instructor.” Shaking my head, I listened as well because I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of it if I fucked this up. We were making pasta and steak. So, I knew I had this in the bag. Well, I thought I did until she started instructing us on how to make the pasta from scratch.

“Do it supposed to look like that?” I looked at Landon’s and his shit was about as thick as a finger.

“Worry about your lil baby thin pasta. My shit gone be fye.” As soon as he said that, his shit broke into pieces.

“At least mine don’t look like crack. Did you even use water?” he ignored me while he tried to fix his pile of mess. Mine wasn’t good either, but it was better than his. Landon reached over and grabbed my wine, so I tried to snatch it back.

“Mannn, give me some. You see a nigga over here frustrated.” His response made me actually look at him causing me to fall out laughing. He had flour on his forehead and shirt that probably cost a fortune. Pasta was broken up everywhere, and his pot was burning.

“Baby, let me help you.” I stepped in front of him and grabbed all of his scraps. Adding some water to it, I put it in a ball and kneaded. Once I had it the right texture, I grabbed some and put it through the roller. Now his shit was looking better than mine.

“Aight, I got it from here.”

“I bet you do.” A few minutes later, the instructor came by looking over our work.

“Landon, this is really good for your first time. You sure you haven’t done this before?”

“Naw, I’m just like that. A nigga can do anything he put his mind to.” She patted him on the arm before looking at mine.

“You need to thicken it up some. Maybe Landon can show you how to do it.” The hoe walked off while his ass laughed.

“You want me to help you, baby?” Grabbing his pasta, I balled it up and threw it on the floor.

“You ain’t shit.” I laughed hard as he walked towards another station to pick his dough up.

“Hey, you’re Breaker. Can I get a pic?” One of the husbands recognized Landon. He looked to me for my approval before he answered. I nodded giving him the okay.

“Yeah.” They took the pic and then he walked back to our station. I dropped my pasta in the water and put my steak in the pan.