Comfortable
Alex
“Roe ya BOAT!” I yelled. “I’m about to head out while we have some time, baby.”
“Alexander, stop calling me that!” she yelled from somewhere in the house.
I laughed to myself and grabbed my hoodie from the bed.
I’d discovered the Roe ya Boat thing by accident a couple weeks ago.
Been abusing the information ever since.
I slid the hoodie over my head. Before I could finish pulling it down, I felt a sharp pinch at my side.
“Ouch, girl.” I laughed, twisting away from her.
“Seriously, that triggers me,” Roe said, damn near whining.
I looked down at her.
“Aww. They teased you with a song?”
“Yes.” She rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“You’re laughing.”
“I can think something fucked up is funny.”
She pinched me again.
“Damn!”
I caught her hand before she could get me a third time.
Roe looked comfortable this morning.
Too comfortable.
Hair pulled up and out the way. Bare face. One of my T-shirts hanging off her little frame like she paid bills here.
She didn’t.
Hadn’t stopped her from leaving shit everywhere, though.
There was a laptop plugged into the wall on her side of my bed.
Some expensive-ass skin care products stored away in my mini fridge... sexy-ass panties and shit.
And somehow the actual refrigerator had acquired oat milk.
I don’t drink oat milk.
I looked down at her.
“You moving in?”
Her face twisted.
“What?”
I gestured toward her stuff.
“Alexander, I have a laptop, skin care products, and undergarments here.”
“And that nasty-ass milk.”
“It is not nasty.”
“It’s milk pretending to be something it ain’t.”
She stared at me.
“Leave,” she said.
I grinned.
“That’s what I was trying to do before somebody assaulted me.”
She walked away mumbling something I chose not to hear.
I grabbed my wallet, phone, and keys from the dresser.
“You want anything while I’m out?”
“No.”
I stopped.
That answer came entirely too fast.
I walked toward the doorway.
“Roe.”
“Hmm?”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
I knew better.
I had learned something about her over the last couple months.
Roe almost never asked for shit.
Didn’t mean she didn’t like shit.
And lately, shopping for myself without at least looking for something for her didn’t sit right with me.
Wasn’t even intentional.
I’d see something and think... my baby would like this.
Then I’d buy it.
Simple.
“I’m going to Sneaker Heads.”
“I know.”
“Last chance.”
“Alex, I don’t need anything,” she giggled.
Don’t need.
Not don’t want.
I smiled.
“Aight.”
“Why did you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re not listening.”
“I heard you.”
“Alexander.”
“Give me those lips, girl.”
She turned slowly and walked back to me, looking up into my face before poking her lips out like a fish.
“Hm.”
“Girl, don’t rush me.”
I gently caught her chin between my thumb and index finger, pecking her lips over and over until she giggled.
I smacked her plump ass once.
“Now act right.”
I headed downstairs.
“Roe ya BOAT!”
“GET OUT!”
I was still laughing when the door closed behind me.
