₊˚.༄
We finally got to the restaurant after minutes of silence and my body reaching its maximum temperature because of Tish's comment and the tone her voice had when she said it. There's no way she didn't know what she was doing.
Being pulled out of my mind, my side of the door had been opened and my hand was grabbed gently, making me look into her eyes and my world stopped. Not even noticing the subtle flashes coming from behind Letitia's head. I eventually snap out of it and step out of the Escalade with Letitia's hand as support.
"I should be doing this for you, you're the movie star." I say as Jeff closed my door and went back inside the car to drive away from the entrance of the restaurant.
It definitely was a fancy restaurant and we were dressed like we were going to the airport or something.
"I seen the look on your face. Don't worry, you look good. Let's just go inside and sit." She said, leading me into the restaurant and speaking to the concierge for the reservation they had.
The restaurant, The Melodic Blue, was absolutely stunning with black and gold marble floors leading up to the hallway of mirrors which then takes you to the main dining area. The dining area was called The London, which was the owner's gift to his wife on their anniversary. I don't know why the concierge decided to say all of this but I appreciate the effort.
The area was a completely different colour scheme as the main hall. It had different tones of blue everywhere, walls with vines and it had the perfect lighting for a restaurant. The area had so much life to it. There was a large space before the tables where some people were dancing to music being played from the speakers.
I spotted Danai and Ryan laughing with two others in front of them, holding drinks in their hands. A hand crept up my waist and led me forward towards the tables where I was greeted with smiles from Lupita and Winston Duke himself. Holy shit.
Before I could get out a word, everyone stood up and greeted us as if we just came back from a long trip. We exchanged greetings and I introduced myself to Winston and he greeted me with a bear hug that basically made me feel safe from everything in the world.
I walked over the two empty seats next to Danai and opened the chair for myself at the end of the table when Letitia pushed it back in and opened the next chair for me to sit. She then sat down and moved closer to me as I put my purse on my lap. I noticed there was only one menu in front of Tish and I.
"Tish, do you want to order first?" I leaned closer to her because the restaurant got a little louder. She looked at me with eyes I couldn't read but I knew they meant something else other than food, they changed during the car ride.
"You should order first. I'll be fine." She said, blinking slowly then turning back to Lupita, continuing the conversation she was having before answering my question. I picked up the menu and immediately went for the pasta and lemonade to drink.
I hadn't noticed Danai looking at me as I was reading the menu. "How are you liking the crew? I know we're happy to have you here." She said, smiling as she put her menu down and turned to me. "Although it's my second day on set, I'm loving it. I'm excited to be here and learn more from you guys." I answered, not looking at her in the eyes.
"That's great! Glad you joined the family," Danai set her purse down and continued. "How'd you get the gig? I've been dying to know." She said, her sentence gathering the attention of the rest of the table.
"Well, I hadn't been filming anything as much when my agent called me to tell me about this. I had just come back from work and It was wash day so mid-wash, my hands deep in the conditioner, I get the email from my agent that I should audition so I should do it over zoom right then and there. I had never rushed wash day like that before." It earned laughter around the table as they wanted me to continue.
"Luckily, my small ass bathroom had good lighting and sound quality. The call happened and Ryan explained everything so of course I wanted to audition and I did. I think telling him that I'm skilled at accents was a mistake because he asked me to do several accents for at least 30 minutes. The next day, I got to my job and I was like 'guess who's gonna be in a marvel movie?' and here I am now." I said, smiling.
"Well then, welcome to the Wakanda group!" Lupita said excitedly. "That damn hedge fund name." Winston sighed and we all laughed. "Nah for real, thank you for joining us on this. We gon have a good ass time filming." Ryan said, making everyone agree with him.
"So Maddy- Is it okay if I call you Maddy?" Lupita started, cutting herself off. I nodded and she continued her question. "What else do you do besides acting?" She said. The garlic bread sticks had arrived at the table and everybody was digging in, including me. I finished chewing and I was about to speak when I felt someone brushing away the crumbs from the corner of my lips.
I looked at Letitia and she gave me a smug smile. I mouthed 'thank you' to her and turned to Lupita again. "Uh w-well," I cleared my throat. "I dance a lot and meditate. Cooking and reading are also my hobbies." I said, picking up the complimentary glass of water from the table and drinking from it.
"Mhmm! I knew you were a dancer! I was trying to guess." She said, smiling as if she just won a gold medal. "Lu, you said she could be a tennis player, not a dancer." Winston gave her a side eye. "That's what I said. I said she's a dancer." Lupita sat back in her seat and Winston playfully rolled his eyes. "What type of dance?" Danai asked.
"Anything from ballet to hip hop to African dances." I said. "Dance has been my whole thing since I was 4. It's like my therapy." Lupita looked amazed at what I said. "Could you dance for us right now?" She asked. "Lupita, stop acting like an African aunt and let the girl eat her breadsticks." Winston said in the accent he uses for the movie.
I hadn't noticed that the restaurant had been playing afrobeats the whole time. Come Closer by Wizkid and Drake started playing and it made Lupita get out of her chair and come over to mine with her hand reached out.
"This one you can't miss!" She said, grabbing my hand as soon as I stood up. "Anyone else?" Lupita looked over at the table and everyone else encouraged us to go ahead with Letitia staring into my eyes and leaned back into her chair. We took it as a sign to head to the makeshift dance floor.
omniscient pov
As the two headed to the dance floor, the rest of the table looked at Letitia with suspicious eyes while she was staring at Madeline whine her waist in different directions. The dance moves were putting Tish in a trance, not even hearing the people at the table speaking to her.
"Earth to Tish!" Danai called, snapping her fingers next to Letitia's ear but it didn't work. "Oh she is down horrendous." Winston said, finally digging in to his plate of food that arrived seconds after Lupita and Madeline left.
Madeline waving at Letitia from the dance floor snapped her out of it and returned a smile as she turned to her food only to see her colleagues staring at her with smiles. "The hell?" She murmured to herself as she got her utensils ready.
"So how's the friendship going?" Danai asked. "It's going great. Nothing to complain about." Tish said, which made the others look at each other then back at her. "What?" She asked. "Don't think we can't see." Winston said, making Ryan agree with him.
This left Letitia confused. She was still trying to figure it out herself but now that others can see it too, she doesn't know what to do. Two days isn't enough to get to know someone but she's going to do whatever it takes to get what she wants, even if she's unsure about it.
Madeline, on the other hand, has never felt such an attraction to someone in such a short time. There have been numerous times throughout the evening where she would drop everything and just have Letitia to herself but she couldn't rush it. What if Letitia just has a flirty personality and Mads just blushes easily? Maybe that could be it. She shook her head as a way to get rid of her thoughts and continued to whine her waist into the next song which was If by Davido.
Letitia did not want to look like she was staring but the way Madeline was moving her body was making it hard not to. Tish hadn't been the only person feeling this way in the restaurant as a tall man began to approach Madeline and ask for a dance.
Their interaction set something off in Letitia's head and stood up from the table without thinking and walked up to Madeline, giving the man a stink eye even though he was taller than both of them. Madeline saw this whole thing and tried her best not to laugh. He put up his arms in a 'surrender' gesture and walked away, not even looking back. Letitia gestured they go back to the table as the food was there and lead Madeline by holding her waist and walking behind her. The action caused goosebumps around Madeline's body but Tish didn't seem to notice. Lupita followed closely behind the two, not even focusing on the two.
——
By the time the bill came around, everyone took out the cards to pay for dinner separately but Ryan put his card inside the bill and payed for all of us.
We were walking towards the entrance when the guy from earlier practically ran up to us, pushing Winston's shoulder a bit.
"Um excuse you. Are you going to apologize?" I asked him. He looked confused then barely said sorry to Winston, causing me to roll my eyes.
"Look shawty, I seen you by the dance floor and I knew I had to have you-" He started but then I cut him off. "I'm gonna have to stop you right there. You can't disrespect my friend then think you can get away with it. Plus I'm dating someone." I said. I could feel Letitia step closer to me as I said that.
"Oh yeah, where they at?" He laughed, thinking this was some kind of joke. I felt Letitia's arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to her. "Can you leave us? You're making us uncomfortable." She said, the anger practically radiating off of her.
"Oh shit! Wakanda!" The man looked around at everyone, acting as if he didn't just disrespect everyone. I was getting annoyed by the second.
"Voetsek." I kissed my teeth and held Letitia's hand, dragging her and everyone else away from him. He continued to shout, telling me to come back but eventually left when we got outside.
I said my goodbyes to everyone and got in the car with Tish. I let out a sigh and she let out a little chuckle.
"That definitely returned the favour from earlier." She said. Scooting closer to me, she looked at me in the eyes once again.
"That was hot."
KAI'S KORNER 🥂
hey everyone 🥰
first of all, 3K READS?! I love y'all so much 🥹
your comments keep me going so pls do comment!
sorry this was long overdue + this is my longest chapter ever
*Voetsek - go away, fuck off (an insult/swear word in Afrikaans)
be ready for more 🤭
hope you enjoyed! 🤍