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“But you love her anyway.”
“That I do.”
“How’d y’all meet?”
“She and my brother attempted to date way back when we were teenagers. It didn’t last past two weeks, but Xi’s been around ever since. As much shit as I give her, she’s a great friend. Annoying, but great. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
“That’s how I feel about Rae. She’s feisty as hell but has a heart of gold. I wouldn’t have made it through these past few months if I didn’t have her to keep me going. There’s no telling where I would be.”
“In that case, I’m grateful for her, too, because pushing through all the bullshit life threw your way landed you here with me.”
I wasn’t sure what made me say it, but thankfully, it didn’t create an awkward moment. Nyx simply blushed and cleared her throat. “I’m going to grab that beer for you and another shot for me, then we can call it quits, okay?”
“Bet.”
It didn’t take her long to get the drinks, at least not as long as I thought it would, and as promised, we settled out the tab right after finishing them. Our night ended back at my spot, with us in the kitchen, rummaging through damn near everything to find something to eat.
“Why don’t you have something in this house that doesn’t have to be thawed out and prepped? What kind of man are you? Where’s the hot pockets and noodles?”
Chuckling, I pulled out a jar of peanut butter. “I don’t eat that shit. You better get on this peanut butter and jelly train or starve.”
“I should have eaten before we left the pub,” Nyx grumbled.
“You did,” I reminded her.
“Did you just call me fat?” She momentarily glared at me, just before we both burst out laughing.
“I’m not even going there with you. Do you want a sandwich, though?”
“Yes, please.” Releasing a deep breath, Nyx settled into one of the kitchen chairs. I kept a careful eye on her as she fleetingly spaced out. The serene expression plastered across her pretty face filled me with contentment. For once, she wasn’t snapping or nervously twitching her nose every two seconds. A habit I don’t even think she knew she had.
Nyx seemed comfortable.
Relaxed.
It was all I wanted for her, and I was glad that she could find it with me.
“Tonight was fun, huh?” she said, snapping back into reality.
“Yeah, I gotta hand it to you. It was. I wasn’t expecting to have that much of a good time,” I admitted, pulling two paper plates out of the cabinet before grabbing the bread.
“See what happens when you step out on faith with good company? You learn something new about yourself.”
“And what did we learn tonight?”
“How many people you can scare off with that brooding persona of yours. And you have the nerve to call me mean.”
I grinned, never taking my eyes off of what I was doing. “If people are intimidated by me before we’ve even exchanged a word, it sounds like that’s a personal problem for them. They ain’t living right.”
Pursing her lips, Nyx shot me a skeptical look. “So you didn’t purposely try and deter anyone away from our table at least once tonight?”
Of course, I had. Especially niggas who had been eyeing her the entire time we were at the pub. I wasn’t about to admit that shit to her, though.
“Nah.”
“You lie like a rug,” she snickered. “I’ll leave you to your fantasy world, though.” Nyx relaxed for just a second before shooting up excitedly. “Oh! Guess what?”
“What?”
