REMINISCE || MR. DALVIN. [ON HOLD]

chapter 33.

The sound of Al Green's Let's Get Married played in the background of my kitchen, slightly upstaged by the crackling and sizzling of the bacon I bought from the store the previous day. The eggs cooked next to them and the biscuits were fresh out of the oven, ready to have butter smothered on the inside. Dalvin had yet to wake up, but in his defense, it was only 10 in the morning. After arriving here yesterday, we didn't do much but go to the store and spend money on groceries with the occasional product we didn't actually need. After that, we spend the rest of the night bullshitting and catching up with each other, then we just knocked out in my bed. No sex.

Having sex with Dalvin wasn't necessarily a huge priority for me at the moment. Normally, I'd be all over him, but it just didn't sound all that appealing to me at the moment. Not that he wasn't attractive to me because nobody would just straight up have sex in someone's house without being real attracted...but it was just that, well, I wasn't sure if I should. I mean, we hadn't been on great terms until recently and to be honest I still very wary of the situation. I'd be damned if I just gave it up to him easily like last time, and then feel like a complete and total idiot in the end. Again. That, and none of my more intimate thoughts centered around him. And I know that sounds bad, but I couldn't help but think about Elijah every single time.

Eli and I still spoke, despite him knowing about Dalvin and I's reignited relationship, and it was really like nothing had changed. However, I could tell that Eli felt some sort of way about it. He didn't even have to tell me, I could just hear it in his voice whenever I spoke about him. They still had yet to meet, but I wasn't sure that I actually wanted them to. They were nothing alike yet I could still imagine the both of them trying that "let's see which one of us is the alpha male" type-shit that every man I dated did. Not quite on the levels of DeShawn and Dalvin's first meeting, but a little tense none the less. That, and Eli was about a head and a half taller than Dalvin and seeing that in person might make me laugh, maybe just a little too hard.

I turned off the stove and carefully removed the bacon out of the pan as the song changed into a Willie Hutch classic, I Choose You. I quietly mumbled the lyrics as I finished up the eggs, not noticing Dalvin's presence in the room until I felt his arms wrap around my waist. His bare chest pressed against my back as he kissed me a few times, twice on the cheek and then one in my hair as he said, "Good morning."

"Good morning, sunshine," I said playfully as I turned my head, placing a peck on his lips, "Ready for your next big Houston adventure?"

"I"m ready for whatever you got planned for me, B. Whether that's dog-fights, riding horses or runnin' from the police with Reese," he said, and I snorted.

"That last one ain't happenin' for a while, you know that fool just got arrested two days ago," I informed him as I took some plates out of the cabinet.

"For what?"

"Sellin' stolen pagers. Allegedly, anyway. They said someone tipped them off but they couldn't find nothin', so he might be out soon."

"Damn. He always in some bullshit?"

"Always. It's been like that ever since we were kids, I swear. I stay tryin' to tell him to stay outta trouble but of course, he doesn't listen. Like, ever."

"That's how it is. You can't help what other people do you just gotta do you and let them do what they want," he said, stretching his arms, "Can't waste your energy on people who won't listen. Aye, this smell good as hell."

He walked over to the plates of food, nodding his head at the breakfast I slaved over. He picked up a container off the counter, "Cinnamon spread? Oh, so now you big ballin'?"