Page 73 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

Instead of giving me the skeptical look my obvious question likely deserved, she nodded and opened the door. “Yeah. Let’s go, I’m starving.”

The walk to my truck was a quiet one and, for the first time in the three years that we’d known each other, the silence between us was awkward as fuck.

I hated that shit.

I fucking hated it and I had no one to blame but myself. I knew that, which is why I was here trying to fix things.

In the parking lot, we climbed into my truck and buckled in as I navigated out onto the street and headed toward the restaurant. It was quiet for a few minutes as we rolled along before Jucee spoke up.

“You’re not playing music.”

My eyebrows shot up and I stole a quick glance over at her. She was staring at the dashboard, her face pinched into a frown. Then she turned toward me.

“You never ride in silence,” she uttered—no, accused.

Her voice was a bundle of tightly woven cords. She sounded put off, as if I was doing something wrong by not having music on. Like I was committing a heinous crime. Brows lifted, I reached over and pressed the power button on the radio, instantly flooding the vehicle with the latest mix I’d made.

“My bad,” I murmured, wondering why I felt so guilty. “I guess I just had a lot on my mind and I didn’t even think to turn anything on.”

Although my eyes were back on the road, I could feel the intensity of her gaze on the side of my face. It truly hadn’t occurred to me that she would think anything of the fact that there was no music playing, and I wasn’t lying when I said that I had a lot of my mind, but she was correct when she said I never rode in silence. There always needed to be some music in the background no matter where I was, always some new song that I needed to be listening to. There was always something.

But today, right now? That something was on pause until I mended this thing between me and Jucee. The regularly scheduled programming could resume when things felt regular again.

Besides, her breathing was a little heavy and slightly erratic. I might not have noticed it if the music had been blasting, but in the silent truck I could hear that very well. And maybe—this might make me sound like a psycho, but—hearing her breathe, knowing that those breaths were uneven and a little fast-paced, made me feel good. It warmed my chest a bit and took away some of the sting of her withheld affection, because it meant that she was nervous too. And if she was nervous then that meant she hadn’t made her mind up about us, and if she hadn’t made her mind up about us, then there was a pretty good chance that I could fix this. There was an in for me there, and that brought me some comfort.

Nothing else was said as I drove us into Third Ward and parked in a lot on Almeda. We got out of the truck and walked up a block until we reached Turkey Leg Hut. It was just after eleven on a Wednesday and there was no line at all. We walked right in and were seated immediately. We chose to sit on the patio, figuring it would give us more privacy to have our conversation. Under the white tents we were shielded from the sun and there were fans going, so it was bearable and not too bad at all. A few minutes after we were seated, a young guy with a thick afro puff gathered at the top of his head came over to us.

“How’re y’all doing? My name is Denny and I’ll be your server today. Can I get y’all started off with some drinks?”

“What’s up, Denny? I’m gonna have this frozen strawberry lemonade that you guys have, ’cause this picture looks amazing.” I nodded at Jucee. “And she’ll have the sweet tea.”

To his credit, Denny looked at Jucee with his eyebrows raised, waiting for confirmation from her. When she nodded, he returned the gesture and wrote the things on the notepad he carried.

“We’ll also have two ice waters, please,” Jucee added before he could turn and walk off.

Pulling out her phone, Jucee scanned the barcode sticker at the edge of the table and began to peruse the menu that popped up on her phone.

“I know you want to talk,” she began, raising her eyes up to meet mine before dropping them right back to the screen, “but let me just figure out what I want to eat first.”

I nodded. That was reasonable. I’d been to the Turkey Leg Hut before, but Jucee never had, even though she’d been in Houston for three years. It was a very popular restaurant that was infamous for its long lines and even longer wait for the food. Coming during the week was the perfect time to not only treat her to a meal she’d been waiting to have, but also to lay all my cards on the table. This was also a calculated move for me, because Jucee was always more malleable with a full stomach. Whether her stomach was full of laughter, my strap, good food, or drink.

“No problem at all,” I said as I followed suit and scanned the QR code for the menu. “I was thinking we could share a turkey leg stuffed with crawfish mac and cheese, and you can get whatever else you want on the side. What you think?”

She moaned. “That sounds amazing! Yes, let’s do that!”

Chuckling, I scrolled the page until I found the section of sides and decided what else I wanted to order. When I was finished, I darkened my screen and folded my arms on top of the table and stared at the woman across from me. Now that I’d accepted how I felt about her, and I allowed myself to feel those feelings, I was no longer scared by the depth of emotions I had just by seeing her. Watching her now, the way her eyes lit up as her thumb dragged up and down her screen, excited me. I loved it. I just loved looking at her.

Taking in the warm hue of her skin, the gloss on her lips, remembering the way they felt against mine when I kissed her at the gym, wanting to taste them again, the way her hair was styled. It had been in a bun at the gym, but she’d taken it down when she came out of her bedroom. The braided yellow tassel earrings that hung from her earlobes that matched her outfit. The way we sort of matched despite the fits not being exactly the same. She had on the city’s basketball team colors and I had on the city’s football team colors. It was as if we had planned it that way, but we were just on the same wavelength like that, and that said something to me. It meant something.

But just because we were on the same wavelength when it came to outfits, and because the sex was always amazing, and because she was my very best friend, it didn’t mean that we had to be together. I wanted to be with her, more than I ever wanted anything in my life, which was saying a lot considering I always wanted to be in the music business. The way I felt about Juleesa Marie Jones was unlike anything I had ever experienced before, and that terrified me. But I loved her enough to fight past the fear.

I just needed her to love me enough to give me a second chance and an opportunity to undo the shitty things that I had done when I was trying to fight this thing between us.

“You two ready to order?” Denny placed our drinks on the table and then tucked the round server under his arm and pulled his notepad back out.

Pulling a pen from behind his ear, he looked at us and waited. I nodded at Jucee to go first. She rattled off her order as Denny scribbled everything onto his notepad and then turned to me. I gave him the order of the turkey leg and decided on sides of dirty rice and cowboy beans. Once he had everything, he started to back away when Jucee called out to him.

“Hold on now, Denny. Let me taste this tea before you go, because if it’s not sweet enough I’m going to need something else.”