A Destined Fling

chapter thirty-one

"Lobster Risotto idiots,"

The group all let out "Ohhh's" excluding Gianna, who had been to enough french restaurants in her lifetime to basically know most items on the menus. Lourdes continued looking through the menu and settled on "Salade Verte" which was just some sort of special salad and some garlic bread on the side. She closed the menu and turned to Rashir who was quieter than usual.

Ever since he had come back from the bar with split knuckles, he seemed to be deep in thought every time she looked at him. She hadn't had the chance to ask him about it though, they never had the opportunity to talk in private. She nudged him and he stopped staring into space, glancing at her with furrowed brows.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," He replied, taking a sip of the cocktail he had ordered. She could tell he wasn't but she chose to drop it, nodding hesitantly instead. "You excited? It's yo' big day tomorrow,"

"Eh, it's not gonna be any different than any other birthday. Besides the fact that we're in the Bahamas," She shrugged, playing with her straw, "But I'm excited to have my first legal drink,"

"Drinking ain't even allat," He waved her off, "You decided what you wanna do though?"

"I don't know, I kinda wanna go kayaking or something? We don't even have to drive anywhere, we can just do it in the water behind the house," Lourdes had always wanted to go kayaking or paddleboarding in the ocean. She rarely had ever been to the beach, but when she was looking at things to do in the Bahamas, kayaking had come up and piqued her interest. She did more research and found out about paddleboarding too, so she decided she wanted to do at least one while they were there.

"Kayaking? Ain't that the shit with paddles?"

"Yes dummy, but it looks fun! Two people can be in the kayak at once so you can go with someone if you're so scared," She teased him.

"I'm not scared bruh, it just sounds like a lot of fucking work," He complained and she rolled her eyes. He was a star college basketball player and trained almost every day of the week but paddling in a kayak for 30 minutes is where he drew the line.

"Stop whining you big baby, it's not even that much work if two people are doing it,"

"Knowing you, you gon' get tired within 5 minutes and Ima be doin' all the work,"

She hit his arm and he laughed, "No I wouldn't, shut up," He continued teasing her until their waiter finally appeared to take their orders. Everyone was hungry since they had barely eaten beside the little snacks they ordered at the beach.

Lourdes was eyeing the rose cocktail Rashir had ordered, wanting to taste it at least once. He caught her staring at it and he asked if she wanted some, making her nod enthusiastically while he chuckled. As she sipped from his glass, she ignored the looks she was getting from the girls, pretending not to see them as she continued talking to him.

The girls had been pushing for her to tell him about her feelings the entire day and she kept dodging their demands, assuring them that she would tell him eventually. The problem is, she really didn't know when 'eventually' was. She had everyone around her telling her that he liked her back, but she couldn't help but doubt them. Rashir was a popular, attractive guy and she really couldn't see how he could like someone as mediocre as her.

"Okay okay, I wanna make a toast," Nico stood up abruptly, interrupting everyone at the table's conversations. His cheeks were slightly flushed and he had a stupid smile stuck on his face and Lourdes could tell he was tipsy. Nala hissed at him to sit back down but he ignored her, continuing what he was saying.