♤
𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵,
𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯
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chapter 5: butterflies
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𝚂𝙰𝙳𝙴 𝙹𝙰𝙼𝙴𝚂
𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰, 𝙶𝙰
𝟿:𝟷𝟺 𝙰𝙼
Sadé's eyes fluttered open upon hearing her 8:30 alarm going off. She was a very light sleeper so she only needed to set one alarm.
She reached over and turned off her phone's alarm. She always tried her hardest not to check her phone when she first woke up, but most of the time she didn't succeed. It wasn't that she was just obsessed with her phone or social media, it was just that she liked to know if anything happened while she was asleep.
She was scrolling through her notifications and saw a few from her manager and her assistant. She had a deadline coming soon so she knew she needed to be writing a few new songs to drop.
She also noticed she had a good morning text from Duke. And she immediately got excited. After texting him back she decided to go ahead and get up.
She walked to the bathroom that was inside her hotel room and switched the light on. One thing she had a love hate relationship with was hotel bathroom lighting. They were always so bright to her which was good when taking pictures but could be a real pain when you just woke up.
She went ahead and did her skincare routine and brushed her teeth. Even though she was fixing to eat breakfast, brushing her teeth just made her feel more awake.
Thankfully her assistant already ordered her room service breakfast for her and had scheduled it to be sent to her room by 9:00 so she knew it would be arriving anytime.
Once she left the bathroom she heard her phone ringing. Her phone was still on the hotel room side table, so she walked over to take it off the charger.
Grabbing her phone she saw one of her close friends Kaylee was calling her. Kaylee had been one of the first friends she made when she was just entering the social media world. Kaylee was already a social media influencer so she was like a mentor to Sadé when she first started.
Sadé would forever be grateful for Kaylee helping her and just being a good friend to her.
"Ain't no hey, cause why didn't you answer when I called you last night?" Was the first thing Sadé heard when she put the phone up to her ear. Sadé was confused about what she was talking about until she remembered the call that made her like Duke's pictures last night.
She didn't even think to see who had called her because she was so focused on Duke.
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry girl! My mind was wrapped up in something else." She apologized to Kaylee while she started going through her luggage looking for one of her notebooks.
She currently had the phone pressed between her ear and shoulder so she could use both of her hands to dig through her suitcases. She couldn't remember exactly which bag she put her music notebooks inside of.
"Okay I forgive you as long as you take me out to lunch today." Kaylee said back to her
Sadé knew she could tell Kaylee about the date with Duke she had later on but she didn't know if she wanted to.
It wasn't because she didn't trust her or that she thought she would tell anybody but she just wanted to be selfish. She wanted Duke all to herself for now, so she decided just to tell a little white lie.
"Oh girl, I gotta go to this Atlanta studio today with my manager. But I'm still here tomorrow, if you wanna spend the day with me?" She finally replied back to her praying she couldn't hear the lie she was telling.
"Ugh okay I guess boo, but anyways let me finally tell you why I was calling last night..." Kaylee began her rant about what her boyfriend had said to her last night that made her "38 hot" in the words of Kaylee.
While listening to her friend's rant, a knock rang through Sadés' hotel room. She knew it was the room service so she went to grab some cash from her wallet before answering the door.
By the time Sadé tipped the hotel employee and got her food layed out on the table, Kaylee had finally finished her story.
Sade didn't particularly pay too much attention to what Kaylee was ranting about because she was 7 months pregnant so she knew even the simplest stuff had a tendency to piss Kaylee off. And it seemed ever since she had gotten pregnant everything her boyfriend did made her angry.
"Wait, so you're mad at him because the store was closed so he couldn't get the Candy you wanted?" Sadé asked her while starting to eat her pancakes that were topped with strawberries.
"Omg you don't listen either!" Sadé knew Kaylee was rolling her eyes at her, "Bye!" She then heard the dial tone coming from her phone.
Sadé couldn't help but laugh and shake her head at her friend. She knew not to take anything personal right now. And she also knew Kaylee would be calling her and apologizing soon.
By this time she had finished her breakfast and finished cleaning up her dishes.
After, she had gotten a message from her manager. This immediately reminded her she needed to find her notebook she had forgotten about when she got distracted by Kaylee and breakfast.
After finally finding one of her writing notebooks, she began to try and start a new song. Sadé liked to write all her own music, she took heavy inspiration from her life and her personal relationships. Sometimes she would make up a plot and then write from a character's perspective.
But lately she had been just writing purely from her life's perspective. She knew her next album was going to be one of her best.
She had her notebook open to a clean page and her pencil ready, but it seemed inspiration wasn't hitting her. She hated having writer's block, it always made her so angry.
After a while and just sitting with her notebook she heard her phone go off. Usually she puts her phone on do not disturb while she's writing but she must have forgotten this time.
dukedennis
You got a specific time
you free today?
thesadejames
no
anytime is good for me
dukedennis
Bet
I'll come pick you
up around 1?
thesadejames
okkkkk
I'll be ready
dukedennis
You might as well
send me your number
So you can just share
your location with me
thesadejames
Oh okay, yeah
818-***-****
dukedennis loved a message
New iMessage From Unknown 404-***-****
404-***-****
You better be ready
when I get there
omg I will be
818-***-**** started sharing locations with 404-***-****
After saving Duke's number, Sadé checked the time. It was currently 11:30 and she knew if she didn't start getting ready now she would not make Duke's 1 o'clock time limit.
♤
After taking a shower and doing her makeup, Sadé was currently working on her hair. There weren't many styles she could do considering she had knotless braids in. After searching on tik tok she finally decided on a high bun, she thought this would go well with her outfit.
For her outfit she had decided on a green textured two piece from her own collection. The top was sleeveless and had diagonal cuts from the shoulder all the way down, while the pants were high waisted and flared out a little at the end.
Duke🤍
What's your room number?
I'll come walk you down
608!
Knowing Duke was on his way up to her room, Sadé had to scramble around grabbing her purse and jewelry. Luckily she already had her jewelry laid out on the hotel desk, so all she had to do was hurry and slip it on.
While she was clasping her watch on her left wrist, a knock sounded through her room.
Knowing there was no backing out of this date now Sadés' nerves began to kick in. She grabbed her green bag from out of the chair on the way to open the door.
When she reached the door, she had to take a deep breath to try and calm her racing heart.
Another knock sounded through the hotel room prompting Sadé to finally open the door. On the other side was a smiling Duke that held a bouquet of light pink peonies.
"Oh my gosh, those are so beautiful!" Gushed Sadé once she saw the flowers.
If it was possible this caused Duke to smile even harder than he already was. "I'm glad you think that ma'am. It took me a little minute to pick some out."
Sadé couldn't stop herself from becoming mesmerized by his bright smile. It was so attractive to her, especially with his diamonds in.
Duke finally extended the bouquet out for Sadé to take, which she did happily. Neither one of them had stopped smiling since seeing the other. Sadés cheeks were already starting to hurt.
"You ready to go?"
"Oh yea, let me just lock the door real quick." Sadé didn't bother to leave the flowers in the hotel room. She wanted to take them with her. After she made sure her room was locked up, she and Duke began their walk to the elevator.
Duke's right hand had absentmindedly reached out and grabbed Sade's left. Thankfully the flowers he had got her were held with her right hand.
The physical contact made Sade's heart start racing once again. This time she didn't bother trying to calm it down.
They had already made it to Duke's Jeep once Sadé looked up from their interlocked hands.
He stepped in front of her so he could open the passenger door for her. "Thank you." She said with a slight blush on her face.
When she was seated and buckled into the passenger seat, she reached behind her to sit the flowers into the backseat so they wouldn't get smushed.
Duke had already got into the car and pulled off by the time she was done. She placed her hands into her lap not really knowing what to do or say.
Duke reached over the center console and grabbed her left hand once again. This caused her to snap her head towards him.
He never turned to face her but from the side she could see his sly smirk that he had on his face as he began to soothingly run his thumb around her hand.
A smile started to creep onto her face, something she found happened a lot lately.
She just looked out the window, she didn't know exactly where they were. She didn't live in Atlanta and honestly didn't spend much time in Atlanta.
Before she knew it, Duke was pulling into a random parking spot. She started to look around and noticed they were at a park she had never been to before.
She took notice of a huge sign that read, "Lakewood Park" along with the park hours and year of establishment.
The park was absolutely huge. There were people everywhere.
On one side of the park there were huge play areas that had monkey bars, gigantic slides, swings, and plenty more for kids to play with and on. On the other side of the park was like a picnic area; it had benches and tables that were under awnings for shading.
Sadé ended up opening the door and getting out of the car as she took in her surroundings. She turned at the sound of Duke smacking his lips.
She looked over to see him coming around the front of the car but rolling his eyes when he saw her.
"Why would you get out? As a gentleman I'm supposed to open the door for you."
Sadé couldn't help but shake her head and laugh at him. "Get back in the car and let me open the door for you." He said with a straight face.
Sadé still hadn't stopped laughing till she saw the serious look he had on his face, "I know you ain't serious?"
Duke didn't give her a reply, he just kept his neutral face with raised eyebrows.
Sadé started laughing once again, she couldn't believe him. She opened the car door and got right back in.
As soon as she shut the door Duke immediately opened it back up.
Sadé couldn't help but smile at him as he grabbed her hand to help her out. He was such a gentleman to her and she adored it.
"See, wasn't that much better?" He asked her.
She just shook her head, "It was the same to me. But if it was that important to you I guess I could play along."
They had begun to walk along the pathway the park had. Even though people were riding bikes and children were running all around the sidewalk, it was still nice to them.
"You know opening doors actually originated from the Victorian era?" She recited a fact she had recently read in an article, she often did this to fill in silence when she was with someone. "But I guess you already know that though, since you were alive during that time."
Duke let out a deep and loud laugh. "Aw you got jokes huh?" He asked, looking down at her while she looked up at him. She started laughing with him.
"I think I just been reading too many instagram comments."
Both their laughs faded out as they just walked and enjoyed each other's presence.
Sadé looked around and noticed an ice cream cart. She immediately grabbed Duke's hand and began to lead them faster down the path, so they could hurry and make it to the cart. "Duke, we have to get ice cream."
Nobody was in line at the moment so they were able to go ahead and order their ice cream.
"Can I get two scoops of strawberry in a cone?" She asked the man and turned to Duke to ask what he wanted.
Duke just stepped up closer to Sadé so he could speak to the man himself. "Let me get two scoops of the cookies and cream in a cup." He said while reaching into his pocket to pull out a couple of dollars.
Sadé noticed this and pushed his hand out the way, already handing her money to the man. " I got it Duke, it was my idea to get the ice cream anyways."
"But it was my idea to take you out." He immediately retorted to her. "Well too bad, so sad he already took my money." She said to him childishly.
He just shook his head at her as they both grabbed their ice creams and walked off.
Sadé was a little sad that he got his ice cream in a cup so he couldn't hold her hand as they walked. He had been holding her hand every chance he got and she was loving it.
"Thank you for offering to pay though. It was very chivalrous of you." She mocked a compliment to him.
"Now if I start being mean to you, you gone be mad."
"Ok for real for real. I do really appreciate you for being nice." She told him actually being sincere to him.
"It ain't nothing, it's just how I was raised I guess. It should be the normal."
"Well it's not, trust me." She told him thinking about the other man she dated that turned out to be horrible. "So, were you raised in Atlanta?"
"Naw, I'm from South Carolina. I moved down here to the AMP house for a little bit. But I got a place in South Carolina where I stay at most of the time."
"Dang, you make that drive a lot?"
"It's only about a two to three hour drive. But that's why I don't typically be down here, really just for AMP shoots." He explained to her.
Sadé was just to reply to him when his phone started ringing. Duke smacked his lips while digging in his pants pocket to get his phone out.
"I put this shit on dnd." She heard him mumble mostly to himself.
"Yooooo" She heard come from his phone when he pressed the answer button. "What yo ass want mane?"
"I need you to bring me some water balloons and bananas! Hurry up too, it's for my stream!" Kai screamed through the phone before hanging up.
"Mmcht, I must look like his errand boy." Duke put his phone back up and looked at Sadé with a sad expression on his face.
Sadé kept up her cheery smile even though she was a little sad that their date was cut short herself. "He always demanding something." She said while shaking her head.
"I don't know what he think this is, ion even know how he knew I was still in Atlanta."
Sadé laughed as they continued to walk along the path since they were already rounding back around towards the jeep. They had walked the path a couple times already.
Sadé made sure to allow Duke to open her door for her, she didn't want a repeat of last time. As Duke shut the door, Sadé remembered a scene from the movie A Bronx Tale.
It was about the door test, the guy was supposed to open the door for the girl and in turn the girl was supposed to unlock the door for the guy. But since Duke already unlocked the doors remotely, Sadé decided another alternative would be for her to just open the door for him.
Once Duke reached the driver's door, Sadé reached over and opened the door for him from the inside. Duke looked at her with a confused smile on his face.
"It should be the normal." She said with a shrug and small smile.
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- 𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐳