Sweet Like Chocolate

Four

Morton

"I'm outside."

"You are? Hold on, here I come."

Outside of Aubrey's complex, my ankles were freezing in these sandals. The temperature had dropped a few degrees since this morning, and a sistah was wearing jean shorts.

Lord, bless these thighs . . .

I had a good few minutes to pre-check this place out, so guess what I did?

The complex itself stood independently on the end of the block. It was pretty damned high up, maybe five stories. The neighborhood that it was sitting around looked decent besides the few pot heads hangin' around the side gates.

I stood at the door for another minute before it began to shift open. Aubrey came from behind it holding a mug in his hand. His nodded and gestured for me to come on in. The first thing that I noticed on him were a pair of Versace sweatpants. They actually made those? This man must either be a big ass fan of Versace, or had money to blow like that. Shit, I would assume both.

I followed him in, but a little confused as to why I found us walking passed the steps and down an extra hallway. My curiosity was quickly set to rest when I spotted two elevator door chambers.

"Did you have trouble getting here?" He tapped the arrow pointing up. He then looked at me when he took a sip from his mug.

"Not really, just two buses,"

"Wait, you don't drive a car?"

The way he said car made me a feel some type of way... It had been a while since I'd been driving... I couldn't remember the last time I was behind the wheel of a car. I shook my head a litte bolder than what I had expected. "Nope." I simply said.

He started studying me with a smile. He stood there like he was waiting for me to carry on as to why my ass was on public transportation instead of riding in a Rose. When I felt his growing curiosity with them damned lingering eyes on mine, I walked into the elevator with the story about as to why.

He listened intently to my story, too, y'all. He'd take a few sips from his lil' white mug occasionally and keep such eye contact.

The story I told was about how I was in a car accident the year that I got my license. The driver hit me head on, and the motherfucka almost killed me. Of course I went into more details.

"Wow, so you haven't drove anything since then?"

I shook my head. "Nah, and I've been livin' just fine."

"Ain't nothing wrong with that." He chuckled.

When we stepped off on what seemed to be the last floor, he lead me down a narrow hallway of suits.

"Sorry about this mini voyage and shit," he chuckled when we finally reached his suit. It read Suit 18B.

I laughed, because it was long ass time coming up to this condo. "It's alright."

He smiled along with me, jiggled his keys in the hole, and lead me on in.

It was a spacious condo. Ahead was a balcony, to my left was a HD flat screen, and to my left was a beautiful dining room set for four. There were hallways leading different directions, like damn. Did this man live here all by himself?

He tossed his keys on the couch. "Make yourself comfortable, Cherry. You want something to drink? Champagne?" He said that shit like he was offering a glass of water. He began strolling to

kitchen.

"Yes, please," I took a seat on the couch, and got a little comfortable by crossing my legs. As I took a look around, I observed pictures around the wall of Aubrey and some well known people. In one framed photo above the TV, he stood next too Jhalil White. In another, he had his arm wrapped around Keyshia Cole in what seemed to be a night club. On shelves across the room were several framed pictures of him and some women I didn't recognize. They wore skimpy clothing, but they were beautiful in the face. In one small framed picture he posed with an Asian woman who had a poppin' ass. In another, a caramel skinned sistah was sitting on his lap in some strip club. They'd be kissing him on the cheek in some pictures, or he'd be grabbing their ass in the next. It ain't take me long to realize that he was with those women at one point.