"Nia." Her name softly fell from his lips and she soaked in his sweet breath like a pancake to syrup. Her eyes were low and she was watching his chest rise and fall. She couldn't look at him just yet. She was frozen in place.
With just this brazen...
The rain clattered against the windows of Nia's apartment in an annoying way. It was loud; the gusting winds outside made it sound like sheets of glass crashing together and shattering.
She already couldn't sleep, but all this noise wasn't helping.
She had prepped for her Saturday evening nighttime routine; dressing in a matching lavender bralette and booty shorts before putting her hair up in a messy bun. She tied a matching satin scarf around her edges leaving curls spilling from her crown while her set clung to her curves as she laid awake in her bed. Even with insomnia depressing her, at least looking like a modern day Lisa Raye cheered her up a bit.
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It had been a week since she last saw Malcolm and broke up with Colin, and she was still getting used to the quiet. The silence of solitude was usually the roughest part of her evenings, but something about tonight brought the loneliness.
The worst part of it was that she knew she could only cure it by quarantining herself away. If she decided to rely on someone again, like her girls or even a hookup for comfort, she'd only find herself addicted to it. Looking for a fix, she'd want things to be back to how they were. It was a very slippery slope from calling her rotation to calling Malcolm, though he wouldn't pick up. Nia already knew that the natural progression from the burn of that rejection would be wanting to reach out to Colin to soothe it, though she shouldn't call him either; especially when he had been so calm and patient with her through all of this.
Nia propped her head up with her hand and wondered if Colin was born to be so understanding. She also wondered if she should've given up on someone like him so easily. Should she have stepped into the door he'd left open for just a break instead of a clean break up?
She hadn't totally turned him away or given him any details that could ruin their connection (she had been sure to leave Malcolm out of her explanation to avoid creating a mess for that reason) because who's to say in her isolation she wouldn't realize that she and Colin were meant to be?
She lay awake in her bed, struggling to find comfort and contemplating being in a committed couple with Colin, when there was a knock at her door. Nia tapped her iPad and the glowing screen flashed 11:37 pm before leaving her in the darkness of her room again. Nia figured this had to be a mistake, or maybe she was dreaming. She froze under her duvet, listening and waiting until the knock returned again.
Nia stepped out into her hallway to answer the door, only to see Malcolm already standing in her foyer. His skin glistening wet while raindrops drizzled off of his coat, hitting the floor in soft taps and filling the stillness in between the sheets of pouring rain falling from the sky.
"Hey." He said calmly, before smoothing a palm down his slick face.
"Hey?" Nia said confused.
"I'm sorry for coming over here like this."
"Is that all you're sorry for?" Nia asked with an eyebrow arched.
