Page 106 of When I Thug You Like That

“According to my Amazon order, yeah. You said you wanted the Ube one, right?”

“Yessss,” she dragged out. “I said I wanted it. I didn’t mean for you to buy it.”

“I know, Ms. Independent. I wanted to.”

She pulled out the box again, this time smiling wider as she held it up.

“This shit so sexy. Thank you!”

Setting it down on the table, she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. My arms naturally found her waist.

I liked watching her excitement get the best of her. The purple had caught my attention when I was searching on Amazon. Out of all the colors, this one said her. I’d spent enough time listening to her talk about books to know that this gift would be something she’d get use out of.

“This was really thoughtful, Jamison. You really went the extra mile, and that says a lot.”

Her words landed differently. I’d bought women shit before. Jewelry, bags, clothes, hell, even sponsored trips. Spending money had never been hard for me because I always had it. Being thoughtful about said gifting had never been a thing. With Jai’ana, I found myself being more thoughtful and intentional.

“Glad you like it. Can we eat now?”

“And I’m the greedy one.” She shook her head and walked into the kitchen.

“Oh, before I forget, I did something else.”

She turned quickly.

“Jamison, if you bought me something else, I swear to God I’m gonna accept it.”

Her response made us both laugh.

“Good to know. But this ain’t something I bought for you. It’s something I did.”

“Oh, okay. What is it?”

Grabbing her oven mitts and putting them on, she opened the oven and pulled out the baked mac. That shit was golden brown perfection. I knew it was gonna be good just by the cheese bubbling at the top.

“I downloaded the Kindle app.”

“You did not,” she said, pulling the mitts off.

“I did.”

“Where? On your phone?”

“I mean, that’s generally where I download all of my apps.”

“Shut up. Lemme see, smart ass.”

I took out my phone, unlocked it, and opened the app. When I handed it to her, her mouth dropped.

“Boy!” she screamed. “I can’t believe you. This is so sweet.”

I grinned, knowing I’d scored major points just by being genuine.

“You got an account set up and everything.”

“I found us a new book to buddy read too.”

She laughed. “It’s you saying buddy read like you down with the bookish girlies.”