Page 43 of Jaeda
“No need to make a mountain out of a molehill. Everybody isn’t meant to be in your life forever, even if you want them to be.”
“True.” I took a sip of my wine as I peered over at him. “You think this will go anywhere?” I asked, pointing between us.
He grabbed my hand and kissed it. “I think this can be whatever we want it to be or what we make it. Like I said, I want to know you, Jaeda. Pardon me if this sounds creepy, but I felt something the moment I saw your face on that app. Sometimes you just know that someone will be your person. In my heart, I feel like you will be mine.”
Heat rose in my cheeks from blushing so hard. I could tell he was being genuine. His eyes were sincere, and he looked into mine as he spoke. Unless he was a hell of a con artist, I had no reason to believe that he was lying.
Leaning in, I cupped his face and pressed my lips to his. I felt bold and empowered, making the first move this time. Me, . . . Jaeda Janelle Dillinger, could actually make a first move. That was big for me. I was confident in most every area of my life professionally, but when it came to my love life, I had more than a tinge of insecurity.
When you were used to niggas getting close to you because of who your family was or because they just wanted to fuck you, your self-esteem took a hit. Sometimes, even as beautiful as I knew I was, I didn’t feel desirable for more than just that.
This was a nice feeling.
Dinner was lovely.
Not only had Quaid put his foot in the food, but he killed dessert with homemade strawberry crunch cheesecake. I ate two slices, and he’d given me the rest to take home.
I’d kicked off my shoes and made myself comfortable. Currently, we were in the living room watching Jeopardy of allthings. This was one of my guilty pleasures in my alone time. Once upon a time, I wanted to go on the show because I loved trivia. As a kid in school, I used to get teased about being filled with useless information.
Certain things would trigger something I saw or learned, and I just had to tell anyone willing to listen, a fun fact about it. I learned quickly that kids could be cruel, and I couldn’t depend on a friend outside of my brothers or cousins.
I’d always been the quiet one. The shy one. The one most people said couldn’t have been a Dillinger because I was the least threatening. They used to make me feel like I didn’t belong in my family. I used to cry about that shit until my father sat me down one day.
“Jaeda, you’re different, and that’s okay. You’re special because your brain works in ways that most people’s can’t. There is nothing wrong with being gifted because that is God’s gift to you. As you get older, some people will appreciate your smarts. Others will be intimidated by it, but fuck them. You never stop learning. Never dumb yourself down for anything or anybody, especially not some nappy headed lil nigga or some pissy tail ass lil girl. Never stop being you. And if anybody has a problem with you being you, tell them to come see me ’cause daddy will handle that ass.”
That was one of the many things he taught me that I took to heart. When I graduated with honors from high school and college way ahead of time, he was the proudest of me. Senior may not have been the best example of a man as far as relationships were concerned, but he was the best example of how a father poured into his kids.
“On February 1, 1960, four students held a historic sit-in at a lunch counter in this North Carolina city in protest over segregation.”
“Greensboro,” Quaid and I answered simultaneously.
“What is Greensboro,”the lady on the screen answered.
“Correct!”
“I’ll take history for four hundred.”
“The 1944’sAbsent in the Springis one of the non-mystery novels she wrote under the name Mary Westmacott.”
“Agatha Christie,” we answered again.
“Who is Agatha Christie?”
“We would have killed it on this show,” I said, crossing my legs.
“I wouldn’t have taken it easy on you either.”
I playfully mushed him. “Is that a competitive spirit I sense?”
“Hell yeah.”
I laughed. “I guess I saw a bit of that when I was trying to get past your firewall.”
He elbowed me. “See, there you go bringing up old shit.”
“You are never going to live this down, sir. That is going to be quite an interesting ‘how did you two meet’ story.”
“Do we leave out the kidnapping or what?”
