“I wanted to give you a heads up; Shalom came with a date.” Jay says walking past me to get the front door. I look at him open the door and there she is; beautiful as ever. She walks in smiling at Jay and then someone walks in behind her. He greets Jay and then places his hand at the small of her back. I feel heat rise in my face. Shalom looks around the room and I wait for her to see me. I take a sip of my drink looking at how stunning she is. She’s wearing a strappy, loose dress. But the material is clinging to her curves. Her body is showing just enough for you to see that she’s all woman under all that dress. Her skin looks sun-kissed and inviting. It looks so smooth and soft. Her eyes find me and I can feel the electricity from across the room. I look at her unable to take my eyes off her. She takes a big gulp of air and I see her chest move up and down slowly. I can tell she can feel exactly what I’m feeling. I caress her with my eyes, letting her know that she should be stan

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask him when he hands me a glass of wine. “How am I looking at you?” He asks standing in front of me. He sits next to me waiting for me to say something. I take a sip of the wine and look at him. I can’t believe he’s playing the dumb game. He knows how he’s looking at me. I can see the lust written all over his face. I might have been out of the dating game for a long time but I can tell when a man is looking at me with lust. He needs to stop looking at me like that because I’m not sure if I can keep my hands off of him. Tonight was a very emotional for me and being here with him is adding to that emotion. I have a lot of sexual tension stored from all of the lack of sex. I was hoping Charles and I would get to the sex part but he bowed out so quickly I didn’t know what hit me. “How is your son taking to living with you?” I ask changing the subject. “He hasn’t moved in yet” He says smiling a little. “Why is that?” I ask moving a little bi

“Wait, so you had sex and then you ran away?” Noni asks staring at me confused. “Did he kick you out?” She asks looking at me her face scrunched up. “No, I told you. I left.” I say and she looks at me like what the hell girl? “Was the dick that bad?” She asks looking at me like she’s really trying to figure me out. “No, it was amazing.” I say feeling goose bumps form around my whole body. We had an amazing night. He was amazing; I have never had a night like that with anyone. My body is still buzzing from the way he made me explode. “Then why did you leave at the first sign of sunlight. If it was as good as your face is telling me it was then you would have stayed. I don’t get it, what went wrong?” he says concerned now. “I got overwhelmed. He made me feel things. I opened my eyes and panic set in. I didn’t know what to do. I saw the door and I ran.” I say feeling so open and exposed; I don’t know what to do with the way she’s looking at me. She looks like she’s judging me hard. I

“This looks and smells amazing.” I say sitting at the kitchen table Kane and my mother set up for our lunch. “Turns out Kane can really cook. I was just helping out.” My mother says smiling at him sweetly. They exchange a knowing look between them and I look at Kane curiously. He seems so comfortable around my mother. What happened in this kitchen in the last half an hour? “I picked up a few skills in Cuba.” He says smiling at me. “Well thank you both for making lunch.” I say smiling at both of them. “Shall I say grace?” My mother asks offering both of us her hands. “Sure.” I say taking her offered hand and bowing my head. She says the prayer and we start eating when she’s done. “Kane tells me you two have known each other for a long time.” She says and I look at Kane like what the hell dude? He looks at me confused. Why would he tell my mother that? She’s going to bring up all the times I sneaked out at night in high school. She and I would fight all the time when I sneaked out

“Why are you so far from me?” I ask Shalom who is sitting at the edge of the bed looking at me nervously. “Come here.” I say offering my hand to her. She looks at it and then at me but she doesn’t move any closer. I can see in her eyes that she’s not sure and she’s hesitant. I know that she has some misgivings about me and my new single status. But that is not something she has to worry about. She’s who I want to be with, she’s right where she’s supposed to be. I’ve tried to let her know that everything that happened in the past has no effect on the now but she doesn’t seem to hear me. I know that it’s going to take more than words for her to trust me full and I get that I have some work to do, but I can’t lie and say that this is easy. I am holding myself back to give her the space to make her mind up about us, when all I want to do is grab her and make love to her forever. I want her so bad, every time I’m with her I wish we were naked and intertwined. My body is drawn to her,