Freedom To Love

Chapter 19

For the next two weeks Lance and I spent almost all of our free time together. It was now August so I wanted to hang out with him as much as possible since the semester would be starting soon and I had to be back at college. We did any and everything. Whether it was hanging out at his chill spot, at his house or at Ayisha's apartment. Avery and I even convinced him to have a spa date with us, and made him get his toes polished. He refused to where slides for a week! He took me out on a few more individual dates too but it really didn't matter, I was just content with basking in his company. We got to know each other a lot better and I even opened up a little bit about my rocky relationship with my mother, which was something I hardly did but for some reason I always felt secure with Lance.

Today was Friday coupled with the fact that Ayisha was self employed , she decided to close her studio and have a mother-daughter day with Avery. I was welcomed to join them but I really didn't want to intrude on their time together. However, I also didn't want to be stuck at home all day by myself so I decided to hit up Lance to see what he had planned. As usual he answered my call on the fourth ring. I often wonder if it was just me or did he have a thing letting the phone ring four times before answering. His voice soon interrupted my thoughts.

"Hey beautiful." He said.

"Hey babe. What you been up to?"

"Not much. Today's a slow day so I worked on a new piece, bout to go chill and hook up the xbox."

"What game you got?" I asked genuinely interested.

"I got alot. I'm bout to play 2k though." He said.

"You tryna lose?"

He chuckled. "Who's gon beat me?"

"Me, obviously!"

He erupted in laughter this time.

"You wildin for real." He said, still trying to contain his laughter.

"You sound scared." I teased.

"You talkin straight trash man. Come through then, lemme see what you got."

"It's on!" I said, already getting into my competitive mood.

"You need me to come get you?"

"Nah, Ayisha bout to leave the house in a minute so I'ma get a ride with her."

"Aight then. I'ma be waiting for you." He said before we exchanged our goodbyes and hung up.

Since I really didn't have plans for the day I got up, showered and was lounging around the house in a pair of shorts and a tank top. Although I was totally comfortable around Lance I was not about to show up at his house looking like that, especially since I had plans to make him lose. I knew Ayisha was about to leave soon so I sprinted to her room letting her know that I'd be needing a ride. I then hustled to my room to get cute. I threw on a simple, form fitting, midi t-shirt dress and some sandals. I put my natural curls up into a high puff, adorned my double ear piercing with some silver studs and moisturized my lips with my strawberry chapstick. I was set and ready to go just as Ayisha was about to yell my name, signifying that it was time to roll out.

We pulled up to the curb of Lance's house about twenty minutes later. As I made my way up his walkway the butterflies in my stomach went to work. I have no idea why but that always happened whenever I came to see him. Not that I was intimidated by him or anything but even after we became official I was still crushing on him hard. I didn't think the feeling would ever go away.

Once I got to the door I knocked twice before it swung open in anticipation. It was Lance and for a minute we both stood almost frozen in place as his eyes roamed my entire being. Being scrutinized like this by the opposite sex usually made me uneasy but this time I didn't even flinch as my eyes conducted an inspection of their own. This was the first time seeing him shirtless and I was not disappointed at all.