[Excerpt]:
"Does it bother you?" He asked, after an incisive moment of silence.
"Does...what bother me?" I immediately returned, unable to decipher the objective behind the closed-ended question.
"The way I stare. At you." He pondered, as his dark...
"You look beautiful, Sasha." He said, peaking his head up after scanning through the menu.
"Thanks." I mused, taken by surprise at the simple but cute compliment.
"So, do you know what you're getting? Everything's on me, of course." He replied, politely calling over the waiter.
I bit my lip, and decided to settle for a pumpkin-flavored latte with a slice of carrot cake. Pastries were my weakness.
~~~
The date had gone well. Although, I wasn't too sure whether to call it just that.
Caleb was a gentleman and an extremely kind person, but I couldn't tell whether he was romantically interested in me or simply wanted to be friends. He didn't make any outright moves the entire afternoon, so our conversations felt very much like the kind of ones shared between two close friends. I had a hard time believing that a man that looked as good as him was truly that nice or naive.
I was now subconsciously beginning to wonder why he was even single.
A knock at my front door surprised me, since I hadn't been expecting any visitors. Squinting one of my eyes through the peephole, I realized that it was none other than Coco at my door. As I undid the latch to the lock, I playfully rolled my eyes at her and mentally prepared myself for the craziness that always accompanied her presence.
"Hey girl! Its so good to see you. I hope you don't mind me stopping by unannounced. I just have so much to tell you!" Coco beamed, as she welcomed herself into my penthouse and got cozy on one of the table chairs.
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It was no secret that Coco was my best friend, and she often used that title as a means to come over whenever she pleased. Not that I minded, since I regarded her as a sister.
"You know I don't mind. You're always welcome here, Coco. Did you want something to eat or drink?" I asked from the kitchen, already throwing some popcorn into the microwave and pouring Chardonnay into two wine glasses.
"I'll take whatever you're having." She responded, then powered on the television and began to flip through the channels.
Soon after, I made my way to the living room with our drinks and snacks in tow, flopping onto the padded chair adjacent to hers. She immediately grabbed a fistful of popcorn and sunk comfortably into her seat as she settled on some scary movie. It was mid-October, which meant that practically every channel was running scary movie marathons.
"So, are you going to spill the tea?" I urged, once realizing she still hadn't spoken. Coco clenched her teeth then folded her arms, releasing a nervous snort.
"Okay, where do I even start? So, Ahmad and I hung out last night. We didn't have sex or anything like that, because he told me he wanted to take things slow. Of course that's completely fine with me, but what guy turns down sex?"
Coco was a woman who'd been conditioned to believe that she had to auction her physical assets in order to get what she wanted. So much so, that she didn't know how to be loved without exploiting her body to men.
"I'll tell you what kind of guy does that. A man. He obviously values you and sees you for much more than your body. I know that you're not used to going through relationships at such a slow pace, but I respect that about Ahmad. He's a good guy." I meant that and I was actually envious of her and Ahmad's potential.
"Thanks Sasha, I needed to hear that. I guess I'm just used to dealing with shitty men. I don't want to sabotage this, even though it's still super early."
"I totally understand. Don't put pressure on having a label and allow whatever you two have to develop organically." I reassured her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
We watched the movie in silence for about another hour, until Coco's eyes lit up.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! Guess who hooked up?" Coco exclaimed, as she shoved her phone at my face. The screen displayed a missed call from Patricia.
"Who?" I questioned, not wanting to partake in the forthcoming guessing games.
"Patricia and Kendall, that night at Sean's place after you left. I didn't actually see it, but Patricia told me a couple of days ago. I honestly didn't think Kendall was all that into her, but I guess I was wrong."
For some reason, the heedless news of the peculiar pair being intimate together made me want to vomit. There was no way that a man as perceptive as Kendall couldn't see that Patricia was clearly using him. Or, maybe he didn't care. If that was the case, I had surely overestimated the extent of his character.
"Um, can you excuse me for a second? I have to use the bathroom." As I stood from my seat to leave the living room, Coco threw me a curious glance but quickly returned her attention back to the movie.
Once I reached the bathroom, I immediately closed the door and splashed water onto my makeup-less face. I was embarrassed to admit that I had somehow managed to develop a small crush on the man.
"Sasha, come here!" Coco screamed through the bathroom door. I quickly wiped away the remaining water on my face with a dry towel, then returned to the living room.
"Sasha Milton seen with hot new hunk and former NFL star, Caleb Lavine, just days after being spotted with New York's most eligible bachelor, Kendall Fine." Coco read the presumptuous headline then handed over her phone, allowing me to get a better look at the recently published article.
It hadn't even been a full twenty four hours since my coffee date with Caleb and, yet, here the media was with their falsely-driven antics. It just wasn't fair that I hadn't been sexually involved with either of the two men, but somehow I was still being slut-shamed.
Who even called the paparazzi?
"Who's Caleb and how come you haven't told me about him yet?" Coco interrogated, while I continued to scroll through the blog post.
"Because I literally just met him and we're just friends. Nothing more."
"Hmm..ok. And what about Kendall? Do you guys have a thing or something?" She narrowed her eyes at me, probing for an answer.
"No-look, I wouldn't step close to that man with a ten-foot pole."
As bad as I felt for lying to her, I knew all too well that Kendall and I would never amount to anything serious. On top of that, he had been hooking up with Patricia for who knows how long. One thing I'd always told myself was that I would never compete with another woman for a man, even if that woman was Patricia.
"Good, because that would be too fucking messy, even for me. Kendall is hot and all that, but he is such a fuck boy." Coco muttered to herself, while I silently agreed.
The rest of the night went smoothly, as we watched scary movies and snuggled together using a heated blanket. For a moment, I allowed myself to forget the mess that was about to become my life.
