Every Kind of Way

17.

"Please don't cut me off. What I'm saying is we're both single and want to pursue something here, but at the end of the day we're still single and said nothing about not dating other people. Which is why I asked because either one of us could be involved with someone else and the other thinks it's an exclusive thing. No one is coming for your character. I asked a simple question and you got offended."

"Again...no. I'm not fucking anybody and I don't plan to. You don't think I've thought about the ways I could fuck this up because I'm used to dipping when feelings involved? Like I told you the same night I said I didn't want to hurt you, I sat on my feelings for months to be sure I was going to do this and not fuck you or myself over. We only right here cause we both want to be. Am I wrong or am I right? Cause you didn't want me talking to you unless I wanted to be with you."

"Only because you liked to touch on me and flirt like I didn't like you." she muttered.

"Either way we're here because we both want to be. If everything I said to you a couple weeks ago wasn't clear enough...I'm focused on you and what we could be. That's it. That's all. Clear?"

"Okay." she turned back to her laptop.

"Is that clear?" he repeated, leaning forward to lock eyes with her.

"Yes, it's clear." her voice had definitely lost the firmness it had when she was catching an attitude from his slick tone.

"Aight." he took his laptop out of his backpack next then tossed it to the side. As he connected his laptop to his phone's hotspot, Asha sized him up in lust then rolled her eyes. "What you rolling your eyes for?"

"I didn't even roll my eyes." she lied.

"Oh, I was about to say...." he sat his phone down and got started on what he needed to do. "Keep trying me and they'll be stuck like that."

"Yeah okay." she replied, sarcastically.

They both zeroed in on their work and said nothing to each other but they stole continuous glances and shared a smirk when they got caught. Words weren't spoken until Asha put her hand on her stomach due to her stomach starting to hurt. She was pretty sure it was from the extra cocktail sauce she poured on her sandwich.

"Why you looking like that?" Sanchez grabbed the back of her neck and gently moved her side to side. He noticed her frowning every couple minutes.

"Like what?" she looked at him.

"All pouty. You alright?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I think I ate a lil too much cocktail sauce. It got my stomach hurting."

"I got some Tylenol." he offered but she declined. She didn't like to take medicine because it made her drowsy. "So you're just gonna sit here with a stomach ache?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." he didn't say anything. He moved his arm around her shoulders, slid her under him, and kissed her head. She was going to smile at the gesture until he rubbed over her hair like she was a child. "You're gonna mess up my hair."

"No I'm not." he pushed her hand away from his and rubbed over her hair again. She swatted at his hand. "Don't hit me, girl."

"Stop messing up my hair then." she pulled at her curls to keep her afro from looking flat. "I'm not white. You rub my hair in one direction it's gonna stay there."