Page 21 of Fire & Roses: Harli

“Ok.”

As I rung up her shoes, I did my best to steal glances of her on the sly. She still looked good as fuck, and I couldn’t believe I’d fumbled her. Our eyes connected when I handed her the bag with the shoes in it, and I had to stop myself from professing my feelings to her. After she accepted the bag, she stood there like there was more she wanted to say.

“Thank you, Travis,” she smirked.

“Don’t call me that,” I shook my head. “You’re welcome though. Thanks for shoppin’.”

“Damn, it’s like that? Here I was thinkin’ this was some flirtin’ type of shit, but you dead serious.”

“Yeah, it’s like that because what else is it supposed to be? You made it crystal clear it was fuck me.”

“I was hurt.”

“Ok.”

“Ok? You really doin’ me like this?”

“I mean you really did me like that, so help me understand the difference?”

“Uh…”

“It’s not one. Like I said, thanks for shoppin’,” I looked her over before walking towards the back.

“Wait!” She blurted out, stopping me in my tracks with my back still towards her. “I wanna do what you did. Let’s race for it. If I win, then we go on a date.”

“And if I win?”

“Then you’ll get what you want.”

“Bet. The same spot as last time at twelve.”

Chapter 13

Harli

I sat off to the side of the road on my bike as I waited for Trench. He’d told me twelve, but somehow he was almost thirty minutes late. A part of me was thinking that he’d lied just to get me out of his face. I had to admit he’d gotten his lick back for me walking out on him at dinner. Just as I was about to crank my bike, I saw a headlight coming over the hill. When I realized it was him, I couldn’t do nothing but smile.

“Look, we doin’ one race, and that’s it,” he commanded, causing the smile that once graced my face to disappear. Clearly he was here to handle business, and that actually hurt me.

“Yeah, ok,” I agreed as I moved my bike over to him. “You doing the countdown?”

“Bet.”

When I looked over at Trench, I noticed how focused he was. I didn’t expect it to get all the way to the race because I just knew he’d missed me as much as I missed him. Clearly that wasn’t the case, and this nigga was overly done with my ass. Since it was my fault that we’d ended on the terms that we did, it was only right I did everything I could to try and fix it. As he counted down, I rubbed my lucky pendant before gripping my handlebars.

He yelled out, “Go!” and we both took off like bats out of hell. I wanted him to let me win so we could rekindle a flame that was put out too early. However, Trench had other plans and meant business as he began to pull away from me. When I saw his taillights, sadness washed over my body as realization sank in that he wanted nothing else to do with me. He crossed the designated finish line before I did, and I couldn’t wrap my brain around it. Soon as I crossed over, I snatched my helmet off to catch my breath. Out the corner of my eye I noticed him leaning on his bike, watching me.

“Another race,” I demanded as I stormed over towards him.

“I told you one race only,” he reiterated as I stood in front of him.

“Nawl. Double or nothing.”

“Double or nothing?”

“Yeah!”

“And what exactly are we racin’ for now?”