Kiari
“You can’t be serious.” I picked my phone up for the third time tonight and each time I’m still in disbelief at the fact that I’ve been sitting at this restaurant for the past ten minutes and my date had yet to show up. Hell, he hadn’t even sent a text.
Fed up, I reached beside me to grab my bag and stood. I was almost out the door when my date Malcolm came strolling in like he had no care in the world. I knew I should have just eaten at Deanos. Malcolm approached me and reached out to grab my hand.
“Kiari, it’s like that?” He had the nerve to ask.
“You do realize you’re over ten minutes late.”
“I know, and I apologize it wasn’t intentional. If you could give me a second chance, I would love to spend some time with you.” This time when he reached out to grab my hand, I allowed him.
His handsome face held a breathtaking smile with his dimples on full display. For that alone I went against my better judgment and allowed him to guide me back to the table I was recently occupying. Malcolm pulled out my chair and allowed me to sit down before he pushed me back in and rounded the table to take a seat.
We sat and looked at the menu occasionally stealing glances at each other before the waitress came over. When her eyes landed on Malcolm though, she paused, but not long before she recovered and gave me her attention. Red flag number one.
“Good evening, what can I start you guys off with to drink?”
“I’ll have a strawberry lemonade,” I told her to which she nodded her head and smiled.
“And for you?” she asked directing her energy towards Malcolm.
Her presence didn’t bother him one bit, he looked over the menu like her presence didn’t matter and ordered a rum and coke with a glass of water. Once she jotted down his drink, she walked away to prepare the drinks. Part of me wanted to address Malcolm about the girl, but I figured in due time he would show his hands and when he did, I just hoped it was after I got my meal. A bitch was hungry.
“So, how was your day today?” I asked Malcolm.
“It was smooth, you know, nothing major.”
“Nothing major? Well, what did you do?”
“Chilled with my niggas, made a couple moves.”
Strike two. Ain’t nothing less attractive than a man who couldn’t hold an intelligent conversation. Instead of asking another question I sat back and observed my surroundings secretly thinking about how I fucked up with an idiot once again. Thank God, the waitress was on her way back with our drinks. Again there was an awkward exchange from her, which he ignored once again.
“Are you guys ready to order?”
“Yea I’ll…”
“She’ll have a cobb salad with light ranch dressing, and I’ll have the ribeye with a baked potato and steamed broccoli.” Both the waitress and myself looked at Malcolm like he had lost his mind.
“Excuse me, I can order for myself. Scratch what he said, I’ll have the cajun chicken and shrimp penne pasta with an extra breadstick.”
“I never said you couldn’t order for yourself, but when you’re with me I’ll be doing the ordering. I already allowed you to get the strawberry lemonade which is full of sugar, there’s no way I’m going to allow you to get pasta that’s full of fats and carbs.”
Strike three, he’s out.
“Malcolm I’m just going to chalk your comment up to you not knowing any better. What you need to understand and comprehend is that you don’t have the power to allow me to do anything. Last time I checked I didn’t come from your nut sack, which means you ain’t my daddy. Even if by some odd chance you were, he was an ain’t shit nigga, so again, you have no authority.”
“Watch your mouth, Kiari.”
“Lord, let me get my shit. This is what I get for not listening to my first instinct when it told me to leave after you were ten minutes late,” I ranted as I grabbed my belongings. “Oh, and baby girl, I don’t know what y’all got going on, but the fact that he sat in your face with another female and ignored your presence speaks volumes. You’re way too beautiful to be putting up with this bullshit.” I glanced over at Malcolm who looked like he was minutes from exploding before I rolled my eyes and made my exit.
As soon as I got in my car I immediately clicked on his contact, blocked, and deleted him. See, this is what I get for going against my one rule by trying to date a client. Malcolm came into the shop maybe a week or two ago to get a chest tattoo of his native country’s flag with claw marks ripping through his chest to reveal it.
All I saw was beautiful milk chocolate skin with a breathtaking smile. At first, I wasn’t paying his advances any mind, but somehow within the session he weaseled my number out of me. We had been talking on and off since then and tonight was supposed to be our first date. A straight shit show, is what it was.
I pulled up to my house thirty minutes later after I stopped at Sonic and got me a cheeseburger, tater tots, and a nerd slushie. Since there was no way I could eat without taking a shower first, I placed my bag in the warmer I purchased for reasons like this and headed straight for the shower with my slushie in hand.
By the time I was finished with my shower I barely wanted to do anything besides sleep, but other than those fries from earlier and the small breakfast this morning I hadn’t ate anything else. So I headed back to the kitchen, grabbed my food, a bottle of water, and got situated on the couch.
I turned the t.v to “Live PD” and got comfortable. By the time I finished my dinner, I only had enough energy to grab a blanket from the basket beside the couch and lay back down. My eyes were heavy yet I couldn’t fall asleep for some reason.
After five minutes of trying I reached over on the coffee table and grabbed my phone. Going to my favorite guilty pleasure I brought my Instagram up and hit the explore page. The first thing I laid eyes on was none other than Marco’s sexy ass. I tried to get Kwame to hook me up with him, but he claimed I would mess up his money.
Granted I hadn’t had the best track record, but I also hadn’t had anyone worth behaving for. I mean we all saw what happened tonight. I learned a long time ago how to play the game and not let the game play you, and until the men that try to enter my life change, I don’t plan on changing. Well, that is unless that man was Marco.
At this point I was scrolling through his page being nosy trying to see if he had a girl. I was so deep in his page I didn’t notice I was back in 2018 until my damn thumb accidentally double tapped his picture.
“Ahh!” Quickly unliking the picture, I clicked out of the app and tossed my phone back onto the table. “This cannot be life!” I’m taking my ass to sleep.
Flopping back onto the couch, I threw the cover over my head. I tossed and turned until I got comfortable, and when I did, my mind was still consumed with Marco. See, that’s what I get for minding business that don’t even pay me.
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