Sunday, March 11, 1978 Los Angeles, CA
It's been a while (two weeks and four days to be exact but who's counting?) since I have spoken to Prince. And I'm gonna be honest, I miss him a whole lot but I think that I'll be fine because something crazy happened to me when I was at the studio late last night with my co producer and drummer, Charles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tue. Mar. 10, 1978 LA, CA, Studio
"So I think that's everything for today, Charles." I say as I get up from the piano.
"No. I think that there is something else." Charles says in a low voice as he walks towards me.
"Oh? And what's that?" I ask as I look down at the piano. I'm kind of nervous because I think I know where this is headed. The funny thing is that I'm not trying to stop him. I actually like what's going on.
"Well, you know that I've been digging you for a while now and I was wondering if you may feel the same I do for you." He says while inching closer to the point where their is less than an inch of space in between us.
"Don't you think that if I didn't feel the same I would have stopped this a while ago?" I remark, playing along with his little game. Charles just chuckles seductively before using his index finger to turn my face towards his. He plants a kiss on my lips that I expect to last a second. Instead, it goes farther than that. I allow his tongue entrance. He uses his tongue to circle mine and I moan in his mouth. He pulls out of the kiss but I bite his bottom lip. Finally letting it go, he smirks.
"How about a date?" He questions. I simply just nod with a smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, right now, I'm getting ready for my date with Charles. He said that would be here by eight and it is only 7:52 so I'm waiting for him in living room. I'm standing in the doorway and looking over my outfit in the hallway mirror. I am rocking a jumper that my girl, Kenya made for me. It's a light gray short sleeve jumper with a black and gold belt around the waist and I paired it with some black ankle booties and big gold hoop earrings. No sweater. I just might end up wearing his if the wind decides to blow my way.
Within seconds, I hear the chime of the doorbell ring which makes me jump a little bit. I look at the clock to see that he is six minutes early. I would prefer for him to be a few minutes early rather than a few minutes late. I grab my purse off of the ivory colored wood seats by the door and exit the house. I take a moment to examine Charles' outfit. He has on a a smooth black blazer with black suede pants and a white dress shirt and sparkling black cufflinks and shiny black loafers. All in all, he is dressed very up to par. I'm not used to this version of him. I really dig it though. He bends down to give me a hug in which I return. Being that he is 5'5 and I am 4'10 (5'1 with heels) he has to bend to give me a hug and I have to tippy toe to give him a kiss. It's not as embarrassing as it sounds. It's actually kind of cute to me. "After you." Charles says, gesturing to let me down the stairs before him.
I smile at him before walking down the stairs toward his shiny white car. He steps in front of me and politely opens my door for me. "Thank you." I say shyly before entering the car. He closes the door after me and enters on the other side. We both strap in and Charles drives off.
"You know, you look so beautiful tonight. You always look beautiful but tonight, it's just that tonight is different." He says. All I do is blush and giggle. I never act nervous around Charles. I mean, I've known him since I was 19. "I'm serious, Patrice. It's just the you drive me wild. Ever since I first saw you wearing that huge Afro and still till this day. I don't know weather it's the way you take charge of everything or how you are so vulnerable. It's all adorable, it's all amazing, it's all so sexy. And I'm glad that you that you agreed to go on this date with me." Charles expresses before pulling into a small parking space at a cute little restaurant called 'The LA Diner'. I am shook and I don't know what the hell I should say back. I mean thank you would be nice but I don't think that would suffice. Before I could reply, Charles is on my side of the car and opening my door. I thank him before stepping out of the car. "Shall we?" Charles asks as he extends his arm out to me.
"We shall." I respond while linking our arms together. We walk into the little restaurant and stop at the counter.
"Good evening. Party of two?" The waiter asks.
"Yes sir. Thank you." Charles says to the waiter. The waiter starts make a pretend sad face.
"I'm sorry but the last table that we have is a booth. Will the two of you be ok with that?" The waiter pleads.
"It's fine with me." I whisper to Charles.
"Yes, that is perfectly fine. Thank you." Charles says to the waiter.
"Wonderful. Please follow me right this way." The waiter says before leading us to a booth in the far back of the restaurant. "Here we are. Please enjoy." The waiter exclaims before scurrying off into the crowd of the restaurant.
"This is really nice restaurant. I heard the food here is amazing." I say before picking up the menu. I heard it from Prince but he doesn't need to know that. I scan the menu slowly but I'm distracted when I feel a pair of eyes studying the side of my face. I look to the side of me just to find Charles leaning on his hand, gazing at me. I laugh at his cuteness. "What?" I ask feeling a bit self conscious.
"Oh! Nothing. I just think that you are very very beautiful. I didn't mean to make you feel any type of way or anything." Charles says very apologetically.
"It's cool." I say with a slight chuckle.
"Do you mind?" Charles timidly asks out of the blue.
"Do I mind about what?" I ask in a confused state of mind.
"If I kiss you?" Charles asks looking me square in the eye. I know he is a bold guy but damn.
On a normal day, I would scold him to buzz off and get to work but we ain't at work. "I'm not gonna be the one to stop you." I say with a smirk.
Within seconds, our faces are less than a centimeter apart. I am met with a familiar pair of lips pressed against my own. Exploring each other's mouths in the open area of a restaurant without a care for who may catch us in the act. Things are already heated and the date just started.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Thank you for the dinner. It was really good. I had fun tonight." I say looking up at Charles.
"It was all my pleasure. I would love to hang out with you again sometime." Charles says, gazing back down at me.
"I will most definitely do that." I remark. I tippy toe to Charles height and give him a quick and soft peck on the cheek. "Thank you for tonight. Goodnight, Charles." I say before going back to my original height and entering my house.
As I close the door, I hear a loud thud. I turn around to see Angela on the floor holding her head. "I'm guessing that someone was snooping tonight, huh?" I sarcastically question. She just groans whilst rubbing her head. "Oh come on." I say as I help Angela up off the floor and lead her to the kitchen.
When we reach the kitchen, Angela hops on top of the counter and starts asking me questions about my date. "I saw you kiss Charles on the cheek before he left. How come no tongue action?" Angela asks from the counter while still rubbing her head. I really need to change the locks.
"There was but I knew that you were probably watching so I held it all in." I say while putting some ice in a ziplock bag and wrap it up in a towel that is sitting by the sink. I walk over to Angela on the counter and give her ice. She mouths the word thank you.
"You want to tell me how the date went?" Angela questions as she puts the ice on her head.
"No. Not really." I say.
"That bad, huh?" Angela asks with a pretend sad look on her face.
"No. It was that great." I say starting to smile again.
"Ok. Now you have to tell me everything." Angela exclaims. Where do I start?
"So, we went out to dinner at The LA Diner. We kissed and talked and all that jazz. He is no stranger so I already know so much about him but the date was far from boring. After dinner, we went to the stores at universal studios. Literally, I said that the view there is pretty and he said you wanna go and I was like are you sure and he was like yeah and I was like ok then sure so we went. We just walked around for a while. He got me a pair of glasses and a set of beads that I really wanted. When we went to the restroom, I had the intention to pee but that never actually happened due to the fact that... well, you know. Then he dropped me home. So technically, we kissed enough for the night." I say as I mentally relive the whole night.
"Gurrrrrrllllllllll!!!!!! I think you finally got yourself a man!!!!!!" Angela shouts as she brings her hand up in hopes of getting a high five in return. I just give her a 'really' look with my face. She catches on and puts her hand down. "I'm sorry. It's just that you haven't had a boyfriend since like your first and last year of college. This is going to be an exciting thing for the both of us. When can I meet him?" Angela asks as she lets go of her head and places the ziplock bag that is now filled with water on the counter next to her.
"Well, I don't know if I'm ready to bring him home just yet." I say thinking about how that experience may go.
"How about a double date? You and Charles with me and Jackson. Oh, it would be so great! We could go to an amusement park or something." Angela screams in excitement.
"Ok Pumpkin. You can go ahead and plan that but I'm gonna go get ready for bed. Love you and goodnight." I say through my long yawn. I give Angela a quick hug and head upstairs. I go to my room. I grab some freshly washed pajamas and head to my bathroom. I strip of my clothes and start the shower. As I put my hair up in a ponytail, my telephone starts to ring. I walk over to the bathroom door and crack it enough to scream out to Angela. "Hey, can you answer that for me Ang?" I shout as I peek my head out of the door.
"What?" Angela shouts back.
"Answer the phone please!" I reply.
"Oh ok." Angela says before getting up and walking to the phone in my room. I can faintly hear her footsteps in the background. Hoping that Angela isn't embarrassing me on the phone, I go into the shower. I start washing my body and singing 'My Funny Valentine'. About two minutes later, Angela is knocking at my bathroom door.
"Come in!" I shout. Angela enters the bathroom.
"Somebody wants to speak to you."
"Who?"
"Said his name was Prince."
Oh crap.
To Be Continued...