Page 26 of Sweet Surrender
10
JUDAH
Irang the doorbell and waited for a couple of minutes before it was answered. My best friend, Gabriel Powell, was also in the construction industry. That was how we met at the age of eighteen, on a work site, and we had been close ever since. I had been in college for construction management, but he decided he didn’t want to go that route. He moved up on sheer hard work alone.
I was still working on trying to lure him away from the company that he worked for, but so far, I hadn’t had any luck with that. His eyes sparkled with excitement, and his grin stretched wide when he saw me.
“It’s been a minute, boy. I thought once you moved back to the state, I would see more of you. It seems like I see less of you now than when you were in Miami. What cute little honey keeps you occupied?”
I laughed. “Boy, you wild,” I replied, dapping him up.
“Don’t tell me the construction business is doing all that.”
I followed him into his house and took a seat on the couch. Looking at him with wide eyes and twisted lips, I remarked, “It’s doing alllll that,” I emphasized with a head nod and a smile.
“Man, come on. You’ve got teams of people here and in Miami. You’re telling me that you can’t get someone to oversee the projects?”
“That’s not the problem, Gabe. I spend most of my time getting this location off the ground.”
“Most of your time. What about your extra time?”
“Now that is spent with a cute little lady.”
He laughed. “I figured as much. I’ve got the beer, the wings, and the pizza.”
“Meat lovers?”
“You know it.”
He grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.
“How long is Sadie going to be out of town?” I asked as the screen flared to life with the preliminary show.
He was in a relationship with a woman twenty years older than him. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that he was a sugar baby, but I knew that he took good care of her. While his mother wasn’t initially happy about him being involved with a woman that much older, she had come around. The boy didn’t have any unresolved mommy issues either. I guessed everyone had someone out there, and you couldn’t help who your heart loved. Hell, who was I to judge? I had fallen in love with a girl twelve years my junior.
“What made you have time to roll through tonight? She’s got plans with her girls?”
“No. I needed a break.”
“A break?”
“Alex is beautiful, intelligent, independent, and she’s a business owner like me, so she gets the long hours and weekends. She’s family oriented, she’s great in bed, all the things. Man, I swear this woman is everything that I could want in a woman, but I’m worried.”
“About what? She sounds like she’s got it all together.”
“She does, but there’s the family issue and the sex thing. She’s so devoted to her family and worried about what her mom and brother will think about us that she’s afraid of letting them know she’s dating me. Alex is Issachar’s ex, and her brother is Issachar’s best friend, so her brother feels a way about that. Her mom’s slick ass mouth made a comment about me being old enough to be her father.”
“Word?”
“Hell yeah. If it weren’t for the respect that I have for Alex, I would’ve checked that shit at the door, but I’ll never make her feel uncomfortable if I can help it.”
“Damn, man. There’s a lot going on here. Sounds like some soap opera ass shit, but can we rewind a bit? What sex thing?”
“She can’t seem to get enough. We had it the night of Issachar’s wedding, and it’s been on and popping ever since. She even had me take her at the resort behind a tree out in the open. Whenever we’re together, you can best believe we’re fucking.”
“And what’s the problem again?” he asked, pulling his fingers through his beard.
“I don’t want to find myself in the same situation as Jessica.”
