Her smile lifted higher and her shoulders straightened. “Okay. Bella, lay down.” She snapped her fingers. Bella whined and walked to Nakyra, rubbing her nose against her leg.
“Lay down. Go play with your bone.”
Bella listened, going back to where she was when I first got here and laying down.
Nakyra and I took our seats on the blanket across from each other. She handed me a bottle of hand sanitizer then proceeded to unload the basket.
“I kept it simple with everything.” She pulled out a couple wraps, fruit, a bowl that looked like pretzels and cheeses, two glasses, and a bottle of wine. “I hope you like sweets because I went by Sugar Bliss and got cupcakes. I also made Italian wraps.”
“Everything looks good.”
Nakyra then pulled out plates and silverware. While she distributed everything, I watched her silently. She seemed to be concentrating intensely.
“Why are you staring at me?” Nakyra lifted her head, making eye contact with me.
“Just like what I see.” I smirked, reaching for the wine.
Nakyra blushed and handed me a wine opener. The evening was nice, the weather fair. The two of us started off eating. Tonight I planned on letting Nakyra lead. I wanted to see where her head was with everything.
“I want us to get to know each other a little better,” Nakyra mentioned, after taking a bite of her wrap. She used a paper towel to wipe her mouth then her tongue to grab the remaining sauce. “On three we’re going to call out our favorite color, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Nakyra counted and on three we called out a color.
“Yellow.”
“Black.”
Her face balled up. “Black? Black isn’t a real color.”
“Says who?”
She rolled her eyes and took a sip of wine. “It’s like a mix of all the colors or something. It’s not a color you can favor.”
I chuckled. “A’right then, green.”
“Okay, now… favorite movie.”
For the next thirty minutes the two of us got to know each other, bouncing questions back and forth.
Nakyra was pouring her second glass of wine and staring at me with a calm, buzzed smile on her face.
“What you looking at me like that for?” I asked with a crooked grin.
She giggled and tilted her head sideways. Her hand brushed over her right ear and her bottom lip tucked into her mouth. “I know I said this before but the more time I spend around you, the more it’s hard to believe you and Rome grew up together.”
“Correction, we grew up in the same house, but I wouldn’t say together. I was raised mostly by nannies, remember. Rome was the one who got the personal, one-on-one time with our parents.”
She snorted. “It shows. The two of you couldn’t be more different.”
My tongue swiped across my lips. “Is that a good thing?”
She swallowed more wine and lowered her eyes. “I think it is. You’re more humble than he is. Easier to talk to. You care about those around you and take others’ feelings into consideration.”
“Rome doesn’t do that? Not even for you?”
Nakyra’s eyes went to the wine glass as she swirled the liquid around before lifting her shoulders and allowing them to fall. She set the glass down and pulled her legs up, folding them under herself.
