Page 10 of Chasing Church
The white dude behind the counter was being overly flirtatious as far as I was concerned, even though Church kept mentioning doing business with his wife. A few times, I thought I would have to speak up, but Church handled it. He even had the nerve to ask her about holding some product on consignment. She gave a short laugh and explained to him that she couldn’t make that happen. If I was her man, she would’ve gotten her pussy eaten like the lady boss she was at home, . . . and I wasn’t one to really eat pussy. But she was sexy as hell, standing there, handling dude and her business without breaking a sweat or letting her professionalism slip.
When dude was finally done trying to barter, Church told him to have his wife reach out if they wanted more product. When she turned around to join me at the door, I gave her a smile. She gave me a smirk and rolled her eyes. I mean mugged the shit out of dude, then we left.
“Dude tried it,” I told her as I started up the truck.
“Yeah, I usually deal with his wife.”
“What product do you sell that white men are interested in?” I was genuinely curious.
She giggled. “Beard oil. Hey, I’m hungry. I didn’t have breakfast. You think we can stop and eat?”
“Butterscotch Café?” It was the local diner in Jackson Falls, not far from her house. My eyes were on the road, but I could definitely feel the heat from her gaze as she stared at my profile. “What? You don’t fuck with the Butterscotch Café?”
“Nah, I do. I just don’t mess with drama. And going therewith youwould cause drama.”
“Why’re you sayin’ ‘with you’like that?”
“You know why, Jonah.”
“You tryna say I got a reputation or something?”
She eyed me. “Or something, bro. And I’m tryin’ to keep my name off the lips of Jackson Falls’ residents.”
“Is my rep that damn bad?”
She turned in the passenger seat to face me, and I had to chuckle. “Sir, Jackson Falls is a small town. You’re out here, . . . indulging in oral sex in public. How can you expect your reputation not to be bad?”
“Dayum,” I said slowly. “How the hell they know about that?” I shook my head. “One of them must’ve ran their big mouths.”
“One of them?” she basically screeched.
Shit! I meant to think that, not say it out loud. “Come on.”
“You were there with two women?”
“I was there with one woman, and another one showed up.” As soon as it left my mouth, I knew it didn’t help my case.
“Wow.” She dragged the word out. “Maybe we should take our food to go, or just DoorDash it or something.”
“Now you don’t wanna be seen with me?”
“I’m not gonna hold you. You’ve only been in Jackson Falls for a short while, and already, everybody knows your name, and not in a good way. People have opinions about you. Bad opinions about you. I’m a private person. I grew up in a city where the literal city motto isreal gangstas move in silence. My business is my business. You’re out here loud as hell with your bullshit. These fathers are ready to hide their daughters from you. And the women who would’ve taken you seriously when you first got here, now think of you as community dick. And really, there’s only two types of women who want community dick: women inthe middle of their ho phases or women who haven’t realized their worth yet.
“I’m saying, you’re not even out here turning good girls bad. You’re just choosing to slut out the same ‘pick me’ chicks that every other guy in town already slutted out. You think I want my name intertwined with something like that?”
“You said that shit with your chest.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “People say that what you don’t know can’t hurt you. The truth is that what you don’t know can fuck you up.”
I didn’t even wanna talk after she said what she said. I wasn’t a sensitive dude, but for some reason, her words stung a little, probably because she was right. I had only been in Jackson Falls for a few months. There was no reason in hell why everybody in the town should’ve had an opinion about me. There was no reason they should’ve known about me getting my dick sucked behind that barn. Either Jenna or Kylena must’ve run their mouths. I’d been looking for a reason to start moving differently. Their asses might’ve just given me one.
After I dropped Church off,I reached out to Bright to see if he had time to link up. I met up with him at the bed and breakfast his wife owned.
“What’s up?” he asked as I took a seat across from the desk where he sat. It was his wife’s office, but she was six months pregnant with twins. He encouraged her to limit her time at the business and rest.
“Ayo, I’m hearing things about myself out in these Jackson Falls streets.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, dawg. It didn’t take you long to make a rep for yourself around here. Revving your motorcycle all loud down Second Street after 10:00 p.m. Sleeping with their nieces and granddaughters. Public fucking. What you thought? This ain’t D.C., dude. You got these senior citizens looking at you like some kind of oversexed boogeyman.” He paused. “Keep it up, and they’re gonna run your ass outta town.”
