𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐀

𝟎𝟓.

𝐍𝐄𝐙𝐑𝐀 𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐘𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐓

⚭

After successfully introducing Kelada to everybody, he was now taking her back home. His mind however, was on something else other than the road.

"Why you tense up when I touched you earlier, Key?" He voiced and gave her a glance from the corner of his eye.

"Well for one I didn't expect it. And two, I don't know you that well," She genuinely answered, he couldn't even feel offended with her reasoning.

He felt like there was something else that bothered her, but he didn't want to pry. It was rude, and she had never been rude to him.

"That's my fault."

"It's fine, just unexpected." Kelada shrugged.

He hated this, he felt like he had to clung onto every word that she spoke. Nezra felt as if every word had double meaning, and then none at all. She was beautiful and she was a mystery to him.

"You hungry?" He asked. From what he could tell, that was the only thing she truly had expressed interest in.

As expected the air around her immediately shifted to something lighter, "Absolutely! Can we go to a hibachi or a burrito place?"

He looked at her, "Those are two very different things, what you want?"

Kelada looked at him for a second, "I think there's this fusion place that I seen on TikTok."

She set the GPS on the course and now they had a lot of time in the car.

Nez licked over lips, "Tell me 'bout you. How was your life before your mom got hurt?"

"Here you go with the deep shit again," She let out a light scoff. For a second he thought she wasn't going to answer him, like he had overstepped a line.

"I was going bouncing job to job, because I felt like none treated me how I deserved. But it was good other than that, my siblings lived with my mom and I seen them almost everyday that I wasn't busy."

She smiled softly at the memory of when she would go home from college and Jherri and Jayde would immediately tell her all about their weeks.

How her mother would always cook her favorite meals, and how Bowen would come to her for advice about Amour.

"And I don't want to talk about this anymore because trauma dumping is a red flag." She chuckled sadly and only then did he realize that a few of her tears had fallen.

"Okay then, what do you like to do?"

"Are you askin' about my hobbies?" Her tone was amused now.

"Uh, I guess." He nodded.

Kelada contemplated for a bit, "All my life consisted of for so long was work and sleep, so I guess I'm not sure anymore. I used to paint, but I don't know if I'm any good still."

"So what are you good at?"

"Do you like my hair?" She countered randomly. He looked at her, scrutinizing the space buns before nodding. "It's a wig, you couldn't even tell."

"I like mixology and I'm sure you can tell I love food."

The food part he inferred but the mixology part was a complete surprise.

"Okay now your turn, what made you get into the offing business?"

He laughed a little at her censor, "I don't like people who scorn me — it's connivin' as a bitch."

"You don't think karma will get you?" He could see that she had tilted her head a little bit.

"I don't give a fuck. When it's my time, it's my time."

Nezra was not afraid of death; he had been surrounded by it his entire life. The first funeral he went to was for his older brother, who was three years about him. Death was natural, whether it was by a vehicle or by the hands of another. It lurked around every corner, coincidentally avoided by minuscule decisions everyday.

He was not scared to die and he had never felt guilty about being the deliverer of death, either.

⚭

"Questionable, but not bad." Kelada commented after mulling over the bite of her hibachi burrito.

"That shit look nasty, this is good," Nezra pointed his fork down at his shrimp hibachi plate with a full mouth.

"Predictable, you gotta change it up a little." She waved him off and took another bite.

He placed his eyes onto her to watch her eat. Every few chews she would pull back, admire the food she was chomping on, and then take another bite.

She suddenly looked up to catch him staring, finishing the bite of her food she was mulling over.

"You want a bite?" She questions.

"Uhh~"

"Here," She cut him off and offered up the other unbitten half. "It's delicious! And don't take a bitch bite either."

Hesitantly, Nezra leaned forward a bit and took a moderately sized bit. The texture was overpowered by sauce, but the taste was pretty good.

"It's okay, not what I would usually get," He spoke after swallowing his food.

"See, never hurts to try something new!" Kelada nodded surely and placed the burrito back into the styrofoam container.

Okay, another new thing he'd learned about her: she was adventurous and she liked to try new things.

Kelada was too mysterious — too beautiful of a woman — to simply be someone who worked for him and his comrades.

If he had to, he would learn the woman before him piece by piece as if she were a puzzle.