Page 26 of Dima
“Good.”
“Come on, baby girl, let’s get you out the house.”
“Yes, please do.”
Dima led me to his black-on-black Escalade. He guided me around to the passenger door and opened it for me. I slid in before he closed it behind me. The interior smelled just as good as he did.
“Thank you for agreeing to go out with me tonight.”
Dima flashed me that sexy ass smile once he got settled in the truck. He reached across and snapped my seat belt before he snapped his own.
“Thanks for asking. I was going to put my seat belt on.”
“It’s cool. I wanted to do it for you. I don’t want you doing no extra work tonight.”
I smiled instead of replying because the thoughts going through my head were not clean. I was truly happy to get out of the house. If it wasn’t for Liyah, school, or my grandparents, I would never leave home, because it seemed like my daddy had every part of the city on lock. I just didn’t want to be under constant surveillance every time I walked outside.
Dima pulled out of our gate and into traffic. His side profile looked so damn good. I could watch him the entire ride.
“I take it you don’t get out much. You look happy as hell to leave the house.”
“Not unless it’s to school or my grandparents. I’m under constant surveillance if I leave the house.”
“And you don’t like that?”
“Why would I? I honestly cannot wait to leave this city behind. I want to move away, open up a nail shop, and be far away from everything my father has going on. Jackson don’t have anything left for me.”
I confided in Dima as he drove further into the streets. I could tell he listened to every word I said because he had follow-up questions about everything. I loved how easy it was to talk to him. I didn’t have to bite my tongue or worry about him letting the conversation fall where it was. Everything with us was easy, and I loved that.
“What about you? You ever want to leave Jackson?”
“Yeah, all the time.”
“Then maybe we can leave together.”
Dima’s phone rang before he could reply. He got a call that forced his attention down to his phone. He looked at it but slid it back into his pants pocket as we pulled up in front of the restaurant. Just like he’d opened the door to let me in, he did the same thing to let me out. We walked inside the restaurant with our fingers intertwined. Once the hostess seated us, his phone rang again.
“Hey, I got to take this, alright?”
Dima answered the phone and walked away from the table instead of answering it in front of me. I had a familiar feeling wash over me. I was never able to trust anyone, and Dima was no exception. I thought I had buried the feeling of not knowing who he was and what he was up to, but seeing him walk away from the table, that feeling resurfaced. He wasn’t gone long, maybe about three minutes before he walked back to the table.
“Hey, ready to eat?”
“Yeah. Just trying to see what I have a taste for.”
We looked over the menu and ordered our food. Dima ordered a steak, medium, and I ordered a chicken Caesar salad. I didn’t want to eat anything heavy since it was getting later in the night, but he tore his steak up.
“That salad can’t be filling you up.”
“Actually, it is. I’m just not that hungry. I try not to eat too late at night.”
“Oh, I thought you were trying to be cute by not eating in front of me or some shit.”
“Please, I’m still cute with fried chicken in my mouth.”
We both laughed, but I was serious. I had no shame in my game, and I wouldn’t change my personality for him.
“That’s why I like you. You’re a funny girl, Maeve. Most women pretend to be funny or interesting, but it’s all so natural to you.”
