Sweet Like Chocolate

Twenty Two

I took a deep breath before I opened the passenger seat of the Lexus. I scooped myself in.
Soon after, I met eyes with the man who had abandoned me and his daughter six years ago. The one who had my heart firmly grasped. Also the one who Edward had to clean up after. I then realized that this was relationship that required rebuilding.  I got a little comfortable in my seat and immediately advanced my attention to the window smear rather than his eyes. Yes, I felt it. His every stare, his every glance. Even to this day I could feel Lonzo's stare hovering down my body like a feather sweeping every inch of my skin.

He reached to the backseat and embraced her in his muscular arms. His bicepts barley fit in that white t-shirt he had on. Looking like a body gaurd that celebrities fucked. He was bigger than Jamal, broad like Spike. Standing at six one.  There was a tattoo on the back of his neck, by his ear, and a smaller one in the mid section of his outer arm. His light skin got tanned up, too. He had to have been two shades darker than I remembered.
"You're just a princess," he said. "Just like I prayed for. Like how I saw you in my dreams." Alonzo did fantasize about having a little girl. He would call her Princess everywhere he went, he said back when we were getting to know eachother in high school.  Layla sat back and put her seatbelt on. "Thank you," she said with a soft voice. Lonzo then turned to me. "What's up, shawty?"
I rolled my eyes and I looked ahead at a pair of dice dangling under the rearview, freely rocking to the jerks of the small car. Why is his car so small for a big man, I thought to myself, until I felt the starring pressure on my neck, He's looking at me. Hard. I felt it. Again.  I didn't want to look his way. But something about him lacking the ability to keep his eyes off me made me feel so desired, so longed for. But in fact, I couldn't read the man's mouth. Even then I became more anxious than ever. When I said nothing, neither did he.  He pulled off the curb from in front of our apartment building.

Two minutes of silence. It was two minutes of silence in this damn car and he had nothing to say? It boiled me up inside.
He glanced at Lay in the rearview mirror occasionally.  He had an overwhelmingly huge smile on his face, like he was holding back an overwhelming amount of emotions. I could see with the pure excitement on his hard face that he had much to discuss, I just hoped he would cut to the chase with it.

"I'm here. Dad's here. Whatever you need, some clothes, shoes, baby dolls, books or a better school, let me know because that's my job now,"
That's always been your job, niggah. I was being courtesy enough not to verbalize my thoughts. But it was a matter of time until Miss Cherry spoke her mind.
"Thanks. I need my real daddy.  I knew my real daddy would take care of me better than all those fake daddies," I swallowed and sighed a little. She was referring to all my exes over the years. I didn't know she felt that way about tem. " I do want a new baby doll. Can I get a baby doll?" I could tell on her little cheesing face that she liked her father already. She longed for her biological father for so long that even the image of a stuck up old drunk would have her cheesing the way she did. He better not mess it up for my baby, I was thinking to myself after watching her glow up in the backseat.
"What kind is it you want, Lala? Bratz, Barbies?" Lala. He was calling her LaLa. It made me grin because I never thought of that nickname for her and it was the last syllable of her name. The one I made for her is the first.
"No, I have a bunch of those already." She informed him. Shit, she sure do. "Can I get a baby doll with so much hair that I can do?"
"Oh, so you like to do hair," he said, peering right on a intersection that lead to the highway leading outside ATL. "I'm not surprised with a beauty queen of a mother you got sitting beside me." Lonzo stopped at a red light. The traffic was on its horrible day, too. It took him a minute to switch lanes.  "How you been? You look...hah... amazing." He rested his left arm on the steering wheel and studied my low key Fendi 2014 Spring collection fit.
"Thank you. Six years of being a single mother would do that to you."  Instinctively, I crossed my legs. Subconsciously, I did it to block off the advancement of thirsty men. Seeming uninterested, I glanced at inanimate things on the street. Fire hydrants, stop signs, bushes,  you name it. I made it clear that my attention towards him was not needed, when really, I was indicative about why I was acting this way.
I pointed at the green light that he missed because I was the center of his temporary attention. Thats all I ever been to him anyways. "Green light." He looked ahead and put both hands on the steering wheel and drove a few more yards, but then stopped behind a red honda. "So, where are some five star restaurants around here? You know the area more than I. I'm New Yawk raised. I ain't no Georgia boy."
I smirked and met eyes with him when I knew they were already on mine. I finally looked into his eyes. It shocked me.  "We know, Lo from Harlem." I said slowly. Time flew by quick, looking at his masculine features confirmed it.
"Beast Coast, we in there." His New Yorker accent was thick now. I laughed along with him.
"I thank you, Queen, for bringing up a special princess. She knows her basic math skills right?" Alonzo was always about having smart children.
"Proficient in math, she can sound out basic words and read sentences." His eyes popped open  with pride. "It's a damn shame you couldn't witness it in the making." I pittied.. a part of me wanted him to feel bad.
"Look, you don't know how thankful I am to be here now."
"Yeah. Now." I murmured.
"I know charry dawll," it became spelled like that because he sounded just like that. Cherry doll was the name. Was.  "Just give me a table and some food for ya bellys to explain."