Chocolate City

Chapter 4: The Morning

It puzzled me, being that Irene still wallowed around in her parent's money. She lived in a nice condo about forty minutes away along with Reggie, that good-for-nothing leeching ass man of hers. Yet she was over here ninety percent of the time.

"He left his phone on the couch. I could go through it if you want me to, uncover some o' that mystery?" She blinked innocently.

"No Irene, and I mean it. I don't want to have anything to do with some random ass hook up." I shot her a warning glare.

She sipped her coffee, "I already went through it, fight me."

"You so damn annoying, I-"

I stopped talking once I realized she wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were fixated behind me in a trance-like state, mouth in an 'o' shape. I swiveled my chair around to find the mysterious man gazing at us with a blank expression. He was stunning up close, his eyes a surprisingly light shade of blue. His dark hair mimicked cotton candy and really accentuated that beautiful brown skin of his-I shuddered to think what those hands might've done to me last night. He was wearing the jeans from earlier, a black t-shirt, and black combat boots.

All three of us had a staring contest until Irene cleared her throat. "Your phone is on the coffee table. Adrienne wanted to go through it, I stopped her."

I shot her the finger as he simply strolled past us to retrieve his phone. She rested her chin on her fist and looked after him longingly. "He is fine as shit." She had said it loud enough for him to hear.

I thought I saw him smirking, but couldn't be sure.

"Please keep your hoe thoughts to yourself." I stood up to greet him "I'm sorry about-"

But he had found the door and twisted the knob, slamming it shut behind him. I stared after him in shock. He had left without saying anything, just like that.

Irene sighed, "Fine as hell. Rude as fuck

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"A customer needs assistance with finding something in the toys department." My walkie-talkie blared. I set the merchandise I was working with down, answering immediately.

"I got it Stacey."

I worked at a department store in downtown Atlanta called Buy the Way. It barely covered my rent money, but the employee discount really came in handy. Plus a lot of the people I worked with were much older, meaning less drama and stress for me.

I made my way over to the toy section, smiling at any customers I came in contact with. It was pouring rain outside, so business was slow for the most part. Once I got there, all I saw was a man gazing down at our collection of barbies. He had to be in his early to mid twenties, brown skin, with a mess of curly brown hair that sat on top of his head. He had a silver hoop in each ear, and was dressed in a navy blue and white Nike windbreaker along with black jeans and a pair of black Timberlands.

I gazed at his neck tattoo,which I assumed traveled down his body, and a wave of confusion washed over me.

I knew him.

I had seen him somewhere, I just couldn't place where. "You gone stand there and stare at my fine ass all day, or get over here and quit being goofy?"

I had been too busy wrapped up in my thoughts to realize that he was now looking at me. I could feel my cheeks heating up as I dragged my feet over to where he was. "Yeah, what do you need sir?"