THE OUTING

You're emotions and thoughts are valid, babe.

***

CHAPTER XXVIII

*****

“I'M BORED.”

“Say that one more time and I'll pin you against this table and fuck you so hard, you can't speak anymore.”

Yes, please.

I smirked and looked up at him mischievously. “I'm bored.”

“Come here.”

I obediently waddled my way over to Daniel, feeling happy that I had finally got his attention after so many hours in his office. It was Sunday; the day that I was not supposed to work. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn't spend time with Anna as she was busy, and Emma was still pissed at me so I wouldn't dare walk into her room.

Pablo was off somewhere on a business trip and Guillermo, I assumed the same. So that left poor Daniel to tolerate me for the rest of the day. Which he was doing a bad job off.

I stopped in front of him, a grin on my face as he looked up from his laptop and rolled his eyes. He had spent the whole day working as he was 'busy' and I was just happy that I had finally got his attention. I leaned down, placing my hands on his knees ready for a kiss when my mouth was suddenly met with his hand.

I was going to protest, but then I peeked the phone that he was holding in his hand and rolled my eyes. It was just another business call.

“I'll be there. Don't worry about it.” The call lasted about five minutes, but those were the only words that Daniel had spoken into the phone. It made me feel special because he spoke more to me these days.

“You could've just told me to shut up,” I said, peeling his hand off my mouth as he smirked up at me.

“Where's the fun in that?” He let his eyes roam up and down my body before meeting my own again. “Go get dressed. We're going out.”

“Really? Where?” I asked, perking up excitedly as he got up from his seat and made his way towards the door.

“To wherever you want to go. Just make sure you're ready in half an hour.”

“Half an hour? Daniel, it's me we're talking about. I physically can not get dressed in half an hour if I haven't preplanned anything,” I said, following after him as he wlked through the halls.

“Then you might want to get started.”

I huffed, stopping in my tracks as I glared at the back of his head. With a sigh, I turned around and made my way over to my room.

Forty-five minutes later, I was making my way towards the kitchen to tell Anna about my departure from the house.

I was wearing a red, loose-fitting dress-thingy. It hung off my shoulders with loose sleeves that reached mid-arm and when I put my legs together, it looked like a dress when in actuality they were shorts. The plunging neckline, although modest, stopped at the elastic waist.

“I thought you said you weren't going out today,” she said as she picked up different items in the storage room.

“I wasn't. My initial plan was to annoy Daniel the whole day, but I think he got tired of my bullshit and said he'll take me out.” Anna froze and looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her face. “What?”

“You guys are getting comfortable around each other,” she stated before waking out of the storage room and leaving me to gape after her.

I mean, yeah, we were comfortable but what did that mean? Were people starting to notice?

I shook the confusing thoughts out of my head and walked out of the storage room, making my way to Daniel's room to meet him.

As I stepped in, his eyes slowly roamed up and down my appearance, lingering on my legs before meeting my eyes. Smirking, he dropped his gaze down to my chest before meeting my eye again.

“Are you wearing a bra?”

“Instead of you to tell me I look beautiful or something you say that. Wow,” I said sarcastically.

He got up and walked towards me, biting his bottom lip between his teeth as he did so. Once he was directly in front of me, he raised his hands and placed them on my boobs immediately getting his answer as he raised and eyebrow.

“I just assumed you already knew that,” he said, letting his thumb brush over my nipple as I took a step back with a shaky breath. “Come here.” I yelped out as he grabbed my waist and pulled me back into him.

“Stop,” I whined, slapping his hand away from my boobs.

“What? Do you want my hands here instead?” He trailed his hand over my stomach, but before he could reach between my legs, I slapped his hand again. “I thought you were keen about me bending you over my desk.”

“That was until you said you would take me out. Come on, let's go.” I grabbed his hand and began dragging him out the door, but he pulled me back into him.

“Don't think I'm done with you.”

He then brushed past me, leaving me to deal with the throbbing between my legs by myself.

***

“I'm going on a trip tomorrow.”

I snapped my gaze around to look at Daniel as he continued to drive the car through the small town we were passing through.

“How long will you be gone?”

“About two weeks.” he answered nonchalantly as my eyes bugged out if their sockets.

“Two weeks? Daniel! What am I going to be doing waiting for you for two weeks?” He remained quiet, his jaw clenching as he focused his gaze intensely on the road. His happy mood from earlier in the day was gone most likely because of me, but I was on the verge of tears. I had finally felt at peace with him for once and now he was planning to leave just when things were beginning to look up. How did he expect me to just be okay with that? “You know you're leaving me alone with Celeste and Emma, right?”

“You've still got Pablo and your other friend...”

“Anna?”

“Yeah her.”

“That's not the same, Daniel,” I sighed, sinking into the seat as he parked the car in an empty parking space in front of the hair salon I asked him to drive me to. “I'm going to miss you.”

“It's only two weeks, Araceli. You're just being dramatic.”

I looked to him, seeing the exhaustion in his eyes before looking down at my hands and nodding. “You're right. I'm just thinking too much about it.”

Shaking my head slowly, I turned and got out of the car, making sure to shut the door behind me as I made my way over to the salon.

I didn't hear Daniel come after me until I had already pushed the door open, letting the cool air from the AC brush my skin.

“Araceli!” my usual hairdresser, Linda, called out as she walked into the parlour from the back room. “I haven't seen you in six months.”

“That means I'm on time.”

We both laughed at that, letting me temporarily forget the reason behind my sour mood.

“So, I'm assuming it's the usual then?” she asked, logging it into the computer as I nodded.

“Yup. Just a blowout, cut and I'm out.”

She hummed in acknowledgement, typing the details in as I waited patiently for her to finish. Before she did, I felt a pair of hands on my waist and Daniel's body heat along my back as he leaned down to whisper in my ear.

“I was wrong; you weren't being dramatic.”

Why was he saying that? He wasn't wrong. He was right and I was just being dramatic. After all, he owed me absolutely nothing. Why should I feel like I had a right to be upset over his outings? Who was I to him if not just a good fuck?

“Wow! Who's the hotty, Ara?” Linda asked as I looked up from Daniel's hand on my stomach and met her eye. Except she wasn't looking at me. She was solely focused on him.

“Oh. This is Daniel. He's my bo—”

“Boyfriend,” he said, cutting me off as a look of confusion fell onto my face. He squeezed my waist, telling me not to protest as I rolled my eyes and looked back to Linda.

It would've probably been harder to explain to her why my boss had his arm around me anyway.

“Y'all babies gon' be cute,” she said, pointing her pen at me as I blushed and looked down. I was even more subconscious because black people always knew when other black people were blushing. “Anyway, if you just follow me along this way.”

I followed Linda as she led me towards the saloon chairs. She beckoned me to sit down and I followed her, dropping into the spinney chair and looking into the mirror in front of me.

The first thing I was met with was a frown. My brown eyes stared back at me, the sadness that I was feeling being so obvious and see-through when I looked at myself. I glanced around quickly, making sure that nobody else saw what I was seeing.

I looked down at my hands as Linda got the cape - or whatever it was called - and wrapped it around my shoulders so hair wouldn't get all over my clothes.

“So, what's the gossip around here?” I asked her as she pulled my hair out of the heavy bun it was in and began brushing through it gently.

“Girl, you're the gossip around here.” She walked away and wheeled the portable sink to where I was sitting. “Do you know how many of us placed bets on you finding a guy?”

I raised my eyebrow at her through the mirror as she switched on the water and beckoned for me to lean back into the sink.

“And what was your bet?”

“There was a reason why every man in town wanted you, sweetie and that's because of that pussy.” I began to drone her out, letting her magic fingers work through my scalp with her coconut shampoo. “So obviously, you're finna hook 'em on that, you know what I'm saying?”

“Mhmm.” In reality, I had no idea what she was saying, but for the sake of peace, I kept my trap shut.

“I'd keep an eye on Amelia, if I were you though. You know she just recently broke up with her boyfriend and I know that girl is looking for a rebound. And you know how much she likes her Latino men.”

I peaked my eyes open at her words, craning my neck up to look into the mirror. Completely ignoring my reflection, I looked behind me to where Daniel was sitting with his phone in his hand. His legs were spread apart with one of them outstretched and one of his hands was in his hair.

As if feeling my stare on him, he looked up from his phone and met my eye in the mirror with a raised brow. I gave him a small smile, just to see if everything was okay between us, but he completely disregarded it and went back to his phone, leaving me to wallow in my own self-doubt.

I closed my eyes, focusing back into the way Linda worked her hands through my hair instead of the aching feeling in my heart.

“Y'all seem a little cold. Is everything alright?” I was almost too caught up with the warm water rinsing through my hair to realise that she was talking to me, but after a couple seconds I answered.

“We ran into a... an altercation.” I sighed and bit my lip, shaking my head from side to side. “He's going on a business trip and I won't see him for two weeks.”

“Damn, girl! What kinda business he doing?”

“He works with criminals.”

Linda chuckled behind me and began detangling my long locks with the conditioner in. “It's either he a policeman or he one of 'em.” I kept silent, focusing on the way the comb pulled my locks against my scalp pleasantly. “He isn't a criminal, is he?”

After a second of me not replying, she suddenly slapped my shoulder, making me yelp out in surprise and almost sit up.

“Don't tell me you got yourself involved with a gang leader,” she said, having the sense to lean in and bring her voice down as she said it.

I glanced to Daniel quickly to see if he could hear what we were saying and let out a relieved breath once I realised that he was on the phone with someone else.

“Something like that.”

None of us said anything. We just stared at each other in the mirror before she let out a small laugh and shook her head.

“You're wild.” She went back to working her fingers through my locks. “I once dated a gang leader.” She closed her eyes and hummed, as if reminiscing on better times. “Everything was better then.”

“It was better with a criminal...?” I asked her as she smiled gently at me and nodded.

“You could always tell when them guys like you,” she said, nodding her head. “If you're just another bitch to them, they let you know. If you're their bitch, they let you know. They always tell you where you're at. They don't let anybody mess with you. They threaten to shoot niggas. They actually shoot niggas.” I couldn't say I related. Daniel had never killed anybody for me, but then again, I wouldn't want him to. “The way you know when they really love you is when they make sure to keep you out of that life. They don't give a shit about whether they come home alive or not. They just make sure that you're happy and you're content. It's nice being with them, you know? But I've lost too many people and I can't risk that again.”

“Do you think I should risk it?”

“No matter the answer I tell you, you're going to do whatever is right, alright?” I nodded eagerly. “I can't really answer that straight. They fuck up your life... They really do. Because they love and they love recklessly. But they'll give you the world, Ara. They'll do anything for your love and affection because, well, you're the only person who gives it to them.” She smiled softly, her eyes holding a faraway look in them while her brain went on autopilot mode with my hair. “At the end of the day, they're dangerous. The love is good, but it never lasts. So risk it if you don't mind being heartbroken and you can bounce back, but if you're already weak, give it up because the pain you feel when you cut it off isn't worth the loss.”

“He...” I faltered, playing with the necklace again subconsciously. “He says he doesn't die. He says that God will keep him.”

She chuckled sadly, shaking her head from side to side. “Yeah, that's what they all say.”

*****

I'll update again if you tell me to right now.

I'm not playing. I'm being serious, I will.