Can't Let Go - A Contemporary BWWM Romance (11 page)

“Antoine,”
Ayla said as she turned around.

Several
steps back from Ayla
was
Antoine, standing with his
hands in his pockets, probably keeping a safe distance from me.

“What
kind of dessert do you want?” she called back. “I’m going to get us something.
Want to share it?”

“Whatever
you want,” he said back.

“Excuse
me,” she said as she squeezed between us to grab a plate of tiramisu.

“Antoine,”
Julianne called over to him. “Come up here. I want you to meet Rashida.”

Neither
Antoine nor I had the guts to tell her we were already very familiar with one
another. It was probably in both of our best interests to pretend like we were
complete strangers.

“Mmm,”
Ayla said as she squeezed back into our little circle and stood next to
Antoine. She held a forkful of tiramisu up to his lips and fed him like a
little baby.

Antoine
seemed a little embarrassed, but he went with it.

“Oh,
you two,” Julianne laughed. “Rashida, you haven’t introduced me to your date
yet.”

“Oh,
I’m sorry,” I said as I placed my hand on Kevin’s arm. “This is Kevin Harris.”

“Nice
to meet you,” she said as she shook his hand. She didn’t let go though as she
peered at him through the corner of her eye. “You look familiar. Do I know you
from somewhere?”

I
recalled Kevin’s story about helping Ayla move some furniture, and I thought
for sure he was going to bring it up, but he stood there in silence. The cat
had his tongue or something.

“Anyway,
you four should get out of here. Go get some drinks or something. Get to know
each other,” she said. I could tell she’d had a few too many goblets of wine,
and she was clearly still reeling from winning her big award.

I
looked at Antoine and we exchanged awkward looks. I could tell he didn’t think
it was a good idea.

“On
me!” Julianne added. She could sense the hesitation. “Tonight’s a night to
celebrate, and you don’t need to stick around with us old fogies.”

She
reached down into her sparkly lavender clutch and pulled out a crisp
hundred dollar
bill and handed it to Antoine.

I
looked over at Kevin, who was staring at Ayla. Ayla scrunched her nose at him,
and I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell that meant.

“Go,
go,” Julianne said as she pushed Antoine and Ayla towards the door. “Get out of
here. The night is young.”

I
grabbed Kevin’s wrist and pulled his sleeve up to look at his watch. It was
only nine o’clock. It was going to be a long night.

“There’s
a bar next door,” Kevin said as we four made it outside. “Maybe just a drink
and then we can call it good?”

We
all chuckled nervously. None of us wanted to get drinks together. Julianne had
good intentions, but she was clearly from another generation.

The
bar next door was some sort of martini lounge, and we looked a little
overdressed for it, but it wasn’t that bad. We stood around a tall table and
perused the drink menus until a server came up to take our orders.

We
stayed mostly silent until the drinks arrived, and then it seemed like we all
breathed a collective sigh of relief. The sooner we downed our drinks, the
sooner we could split up and go our separate ways.

Ayla
ordered some sort of lemon drop martini, a sour drink for her
sour puss
expression. Her personality was flat, at least
around me, and I hadn’t really seen her smile the entire night besides when she
was congratulating Julianne for her award. I remembered hearing that Demarius
thought Ayla was a great girlfriend. I couldn’t see it. She was painfully
ordinary in the personality department.

I
watched as Antoine and Ayla whispered back and forth to each other. It couldn’t
have been more juvenile, but I wished more than anything that Kevin and I were
as close as Antoine and Ayla were. If I were to whisper anything into Kevin’s
ear, he’d probably think I was a giant weirdo. We so weren’t there yet.

“So
Ayla,” Kevin said to her.

“What?”
she
replied.
She was so rude.

“How
are you liking the apartment?” he asked. His eyes seemed to pierce hers, and
she seemed bothered by him.

“It’s
fine,” she said. “Antoine’s really made it feel like home for me.”

“That’s
good,” Kevin said as his eyes traveled to Antoine.

Good
old Antoine was oblivious to what was going on.
He was
hanging on Ayla with his arm around her waist and sipping his drink as he tried
to avoid looking anywhere near me.

There
was something going on between Ayla and Kevin, but I hadn’t the slightest clue
what it was about.

“How’s
the station?” Kevin asked.

“Good,”
she said. “Can’t complain about the early spring we’re having. Makes my job a
lot easier.”

She
leaned over and whispered something again to Antoine. He nodded and whispered
back.

“Excuse
me,” Antoine said. He sat his glass down and made his way towards the restrooms
in the back of the bar.

Against
my better judgment, I decided to follow him. There was a line, and it was going
to be the perfect opportunity to talk to him and see if he noticed the weird
dynamic between Ayla and Kevin.

“Hey,”
I said as I got behind Antoine in line.

He
spun around, shocked to see me, and all but rolled his eyes. “Hi.”

“Don’t
act so excited to see me,” I teased as I swatted his arm. Then I bit my lip.
“Um, have you noticed anything weird between Ayla and Kevin tonight?”

Antoine
guffawed and shook his head no, treating me like some sort of crazy lunatic.

“Like
she seems really annoyed by him, and I just don’t understand because he’s such
a nice guy,” I explained.

“I
haven’t noticed a thing,” Antoine said as he refused to make eye contact with
me. “Rashida, you’re being ridiculous.”

The
line moved forward. I was just a few minutes away from losing my one-on-one
time with Antoine.

“You’ve
not been paying attention to anything,” I said. “It’s really obvious. Did they
date before or something?”

“I
don’t know,” Antoine said in a staccato tone. “I don’t want to fight with you.”

For
a brief moment, it was like we were back together, arguing about something
stupid and piddly. It was both oddly familiar and comforting. I wondered if he
felt it too.

The
line moved forward again.
Just a couple more minutes.

I
glanced over at the table to see Ayla and Kevin deep into a conversation. If I
didn’t know any better, it looked like it was some sort of heated argument. I
saw him slap his hand on the table and turn his face away from her. I’d never
seen him lose his cool before. Ever.

“Look,
look!” I said as I tugged on Antoine’s arm and pointed to the table.

By
the time Antoine looked, Ayla and Kevin were just standing idly, sipping their
drinks.

“Oh,
forget it,” I said as I walked away. I turned back to look at Antoine, but he
was already walking into the restroom. He didn’t see what I saw.
Not at all.

Kevin
turned towards me and took a step closer. It was so unlike him. Within minutes,
Antoine returned and took his place by Ayla’s side.

“Are
you ready to go?” Kevin asked as he looked down at my drink. It was still half
full.

I
placed the martini glass to my lips and downed that sucker.

“Now
I am,” I said with a buzzed smile.

Kevin
leaned over and kissed my cheek.

“We’re
going to take off now,” he said. “It was great meeting you Antoine.
Ayla, nice seeing you.”

He
grabbed my hand and pulled me out of there before I even had a chance to
process any of it. It had happened so quickly.

“What
the hell was that about?” I asked him the moment we stepped outside.

The
night had turned chilly, and I immediately began to shake and shiver despite
donning a little black, satin shrug.
We
were
a long walk from the parking garage
yet.

He
yanked his jacket off and threw it around my shoulders.

“Let’s
walk,” he said.

“Okay,”
I replied. He was walking faster than usual, and I struggled to keep up with
him in my high heels. “Are you going to explain why you were acting so weird
back there?”

He
scrunched his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I
rolled my eyes, though
I
was
a
couple steps behind him
so he couldn’t see me.

“You
and Ayla just had some kind of weird thing going on,” I said. “Like she acted
annoyed with you or something.”