Sample Sunday - You
Unedited.Heavily Redacted.Subject to Change.Coming soonish.Enjoy the sample!
I, admittedly, had a little bit of a sweet tooth, so I was a little excited at the prospect of finding gourmet-quality ice cream I could enjoy without my stomach bouncing right to left to do the shoulder lean.It was a pretty ass day outside too – sun shining, birds chirping, all that. I’d gotten in some good cardio on the court, had made those dudes feel bad about themselves – it was a great day.And then I walked into Dreamery.There she was behind the counter, her locs tucked away underneath a vibrantly printed headwrap that popped against her deep brown skin. Big flat wooden disc earrings hung from her ears, swinging as she turned to greet her customers – us. Her fuschia-painted lips curved into a big, pretty ass smile – maybe my first time seeing that, and damn.She looked like the afrocentric answer to everything that ailed me, especially as my eyes traveled lower, taking in the way she filled out the simple dress she was wearing.“Jay,” she greeted, still wearing the big smile that I now understood was for him. “I already have Reese’s pint of honey lavender swirl packed up and ready.” Her gaze skirted past him, landing on me, and that smile fizzled as her nose curled, just a little. “You.”Jay’s eyebrows shot up as he glanced back, looking between me and her. “Y’all know each other?”“Oh that’s right,” I said, stepping forward. “You’ve been away from the gym the last few weeks – this woman broke into my apartment in the middle of the night and hit me in the eye.”“It wasn’t on purpose,” she whined to Jay, taking on a tone – and pouting expression – I’d never seen from her, and never would’ve even expected.He chuckled. “Yeah, I would guess not, but you didn’t mention any of the part at all.”I took another step into the shop, which was empty except for us at this time of day. “Why do I feel like I’m missing an important, but necessary bit of context here?”“Why do I feel like that applies to most parts of your life?” Jaclyn replied, smirking as she crossed her arms.I shook my head. “Yo, you’ve got a lot of animosity to be the one that gave me a black eye because of your own mistake.”"Why are you even here?” she asked.“I brought him here,” Jay cut in, “thinking I was getting you a new customer, but I see I came to get a show instead. This is entertaining as hell.”Jaclyn sucked her teeth. “I’on know why. Take this nigga on somewhere. Let me grab Reese's order so you can go on about your day.”Jay shook his head, chuckling. “Man… you know me and Reese used to go at it like that.”Jaclyn stopped moving, her brows pulling together into a deep crease as she frowned. “Go at it like what?”“Like yall,” Jay countered, very matter-of-fact. “A whole lotta back and forth, fussing and shit, when really…”“Nah,” I spoke up. “Nah. No. Nope. None of that.”“Whatever you say man, just calling it like I see it.”Jaclyn cleared her throat. “Yeah, now see your way outta here.”“Damn, hold up,” Jay said. “We can’t order too?”“Tell me what you want and then get the hell outta here you are stressing me out,” Jaclyn answered him, eyes narrowed, the words spilling out so fast there was barely any space between them. “Well, I already know you want butter pecan like your mama,” she told Jay, a little of the smile returning to her face. “What about you?”My gaze moved to the lines of ice cream under the glass, in frosted containers, as she moved to fix Jay’s order. “Jay said you have some dairy free options – which ones are those?”“They’re the ones that say “dairy free” on that little tag that names the flavor,” she answered, in an overly sweet tone that clearly told me I was being mocked.I really hadn’t seen that until she said something though, my bad.“Okay… I’ll do the pistachio vanilla crunch. In the dairy free option.”“The full milk option?” she asked, smirking as she handed Jay his ice cream, then picked up another cup to start mine. “Add some whipped cream on top?”“Very funny,” I said, as she lowered a fresh scoop toward the appropriate canister. “Actually, hold on… do I want the salted caramel instead? Or the apple pie?”Her eyebrows went up. “I don’t know, do you?”“Yeah… do the salted caramel. Wait! Nah… yeah… the salted caramel. Actually…”“You’ve got like two seconds before I—”“I’ll do the pistachio. Yeah. Definitely the pistachio.”She fixed her gaze on me. “You sure?”“Yes.”She hesitated for a moment, then went ahead and scooped, quickly fixing my order before I could change my mind again, and handing it to me.“What I owe you cousin?” Jay asked, finally giving me the context i'd been missing, and Jaclyn flashed him another smile.“After you got me out of the pokey at four in the morning? Please. I can’t take your money Jay.”He raised an eyebrow. “Aiight now, I don’t turn down free shit.”“Our parents raised us better than to do that,” Jaclyn laughed, pulling the pint of ice cream for Reese from a freezer behind the counter to hand to Jay. “Tell my Reesie I’m coming to see her this weekend.”“Will do,” Jay nodded, turning to leave, with me right behind him.“Um, excuse me,” Jaclyn’s voice rang out, stopping us in our tracks to turn back in her direction. “I said I couldn’t take his money. I ain’t said nothing about yours.”Jason burst into a cackle as he headed on out the door, leaving me to deal with his evil ass cousin. She was utterly pleased with herself as she rang me up, and I happily paid, because I knew something she didn’t.