Bus Stop

Everyone laughed and I went and closed the door. "Well, there is some real chicken here," I told the room. "There is a bunch of other stuff, too, so pull up your chairs around Patricia here and let's see if it's any good."

The smile on Tianna's face and the way her eyes looked at me was well worth the dent it had put in my credit card. I noticed the flowers had arrived, and the room looked cheerful. It smelled even better. We were short two chairs, so Tianna sat on my lap and Dianna sat on the bed with Patricia, giving her bites of everything there was.

The awkwardness was gone with the food, and it felt like sitting around with my family. Dianna told me, as I already knew, that she was a model, and Sam was an electrician. They both warmed up and I didn't feel so menaced by Sam.

"I knew Tianna was spending a lot of time with Rob," Patricia was telling her daughter and son-in-law. "I knew when she brought him to see me and he helped me with my flowers he was a nice boy."

"That's about as good as it gets, with Gram," Tianna told me. "If you a 'nice boy,' you passed the Gram test."

"Yeah," Sam said. "He's doing pretty good about passing the 'Dad' test, too."

Dianna just laughed, and didn't mention how I was doing with her. She had some reserve about her, but I liked her, already.

"I don't know about you, Patricia," I said. "I think you knew I had a date with Tianna tomorrow night and you broke your arm on purpose."

She laughed. "Honey, if I had known it would hurt that bad, I'd have found another way, I tell you that."

I had to go kiss her cheek again. "I'm so sorry, Patricia. I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen again."

She looked up at me. "Now how you gone do that, Rob?"

I winked at Tianna. "It's a secret," I told her. "I have powers no one suspects. Well, except Tianna."

Patricia scoffed. "Well, you got some kind of powers to get my Tianna to date you. I don't think she's gone on five dates in her life."

I was stunned! How was that even possible? A girl who looked like she did? People had to be hitting on her 20 times a day.

She saw my look and laughed. "Rob not a believer. I got high standards. I even wish they had been higher. I should have never gone on three of them."

"Wow! I had no idea," I said. "I guess I should have known from the way you put me through the Gram test and made me wait all this time. Now I feel special."

Tianna kissed my cheek. "You are," she said.

I whispered in her ear through all those curls while she was leaning in, "Boyfriend?"

She giggled, but didn't reply.

"Look at all these pretty flowers someone sent me, Rob," Patricia said. "They're from some company I never heard of. Some Diamond Aggregates, or something. I have no idea what that mean."

Tianna shot me a look. "Gram, they're from Rob," she said before I could stop her. "That's his company, and aggregates means cement, gravel, sand, rock, stuff like that."

"See, I told you he a nice boy," Patricia told Dianna.

"Yes, he certainly seems to be," she said. There was a little unbending in the smile she sent my way.

"You certainly got some game," Sam said. "Come and hang out with me, sometime, Rob. Let's get acquainted."

"I will. I'm looking forward to it," I said.

I stayed for another 20 minutes and Tianna walked me out to the elevator. "Thank you, Rob, for everything," she said.

I pulled her into a hug. "Patricia deserves to be treated like a queen. Snap me, Tianna, and let me know how things are going. If she's still here tomorrow, I'll come visit again. If she is released, let me know and I'll come pick you two up, okay?"

"I'll let you know, but Mom might want to pick us up," she said. Her hands tangled in my hair and she pulled me down for a kiss. It was a KISS, too, her lips full of promise and tasting like cherries. I watched her walk back down the hall and she looked over her shoulder, giving me a wink and a little twerk of that fantastic ass, encased in some jeans that left little doubt there was something spectacular inside.

*****

I went by Patricia's house and checked on the sidewalk and driveway on my lunch hour. It was poured and textured, yellow ribbon marking it as "wet cement" around it.

Tianna texted me at one, telling me that they were releasing Patricia, and asking if I could pick them up. Dianna was leaving on a shoot, once they found out Patricia was going to be okay. I agreed, and she Snapped me just before three and told me they were ready.

When I was a few blocks away, I Snapped her, and they were just coming outside, a nurse pushing Patricia in a wheelchair and another pushing a cart with her flowers, stuffed animals and balloons attached.

I put the stuff in the back, helped her into the front seat and Tianna climbed in the back.

"Thank you for coming to get us and carry us home," Patricia said. "Tianna gonna stay with me for a couple of days. I told her I would be fine. It's my right arm and I'm left-handed."

"I've heard that most geniuses are left-handed," I said.

She gave me a snort and a laugh. "Don't you forget it, either. You hear that, Tianna?"

"Yes, Gram, we all know you're a genius," Tianna said. "You always found a way to outsmart me, anyway."

We pulled up on the street in front of her house, she looked at the driveway and sidewalk in disbelief. "What in the world gone on here?" she asked.

"We can't have you falling, Patricia," I told her. "My guys were doing a big pour in the area, and I fixed your driveway and sidewalk. Now you're going to have to find a new excuse for keeping me from going out with Tianna."

She looked at me for a long moment, then burst into tears. I jumped out, hurried around, opened her door and held her tiny little frail form to me, hugging her as she sobbed.

"It's okay, Patricia," I assured her. "That sidewalk and driveway were a hazard to you, and we can't have you falling. It's okay. Look, we even made you a ramp up to the porch from the driveway."

She wouldn't look, just clutching my arm with her good one and crying. Tianna wiggled in beside me and we were both hugging her grandmother.

"Rob asked me if it would be okay, Gram, and I cried, too," she said.

Patricia gave a watery little laugh. "You two so nice to me," she managed, her voice catching. "Ever since my Leon... thank you, child," she gave my arm a squeeze. "Thank you, too, Tianna, for bringing us Rob."

"We shouldn't walk on it for a day or two," I told them. "You got a back gate, Patricia?"

"Yes, around in the alley," she said. "We use that."

Tianna and I got back in, drove around the alley and Tianna took her inside while I got her things out of the back. When we got inside, she directed me where to put them, and Tianna made coffee. We had a cup and I thought I should go.

"Do either of you need anything before I go?" I asked.

"You done enough, honey," Patricia said. "Thank you."

"It made me happy to do it for you," I said. "Let me know if you need anything. Can I come back and visit you?"

"Lord, yes, child," Patricia said. "You come back any time you can. I fix you dinner once I get out of this cast. I promise."

"You're in for a treat," Tianna informed me. "Gram can cook!"

She walked me out to the alley. When I opened the door to get in, she said, "Rob," in a low voice. I turned, and she was in my arms, all that smoldering hotness pressed against me, her lips seeking mine and she took my breath away.

She broke the kiss and looked up at me, making my head swim and my heart pound she was so gorgeous. "Thank you. I can't wait for our date. You're making me love you, Rob. Don't hurt me."

I squeezed her tightly. "Never going to happen," I said.

"I'll try to make cancelling our next date a little less dramatic," she said.

We both laughed. "I'm looking forward to it," I said.

I drove away with the taste of her on my lips and my heart singing a song. The only words were, "Tianna Edwards."

*****

I finally got that date. It took me two weeks, but buzzing Tianna's apartment, her telling me to come up, the door was unlocked, and seeing her come out of her bedroom was well worth the wait.

Her hair was up. I'd never seen her wear it up before. She looked... elegant. I knew how hot she was, how gorgeous, but this was a new side. She didn't have on the same black dress I had seen, but a different one. This one had a high collar, covering her neck. The sleeves were three quarter and laced up the outside, showing firm brown skin, and it was not quite to mid-thigh. It looked like she had been poured into it, emphasizing the swelling of her breasts, which looked bigger than I remembered, and showing off that spectacular ass to perfection.

She was slender, not much swell to her hips, but damn, when you saw her from the back or side! Her hair was amazing, too, even up. She had little baby hairs that she had made into curls on her forehead, and I wondered how she could keep them looking so perfect.

"Oh, my God," I said. "Tianna, I should leave and go see if I can find some celebrity to go out with you."

She came and kissed me. "Who you thinking?" she asked.

"Some actor or male model?" I said.

"Why you say that, Rob?" she asked.

"Because, baby, you are that beautiful," I said.

"You think I never met any actors or male models?" she asked.

"I have no idea."

"Well, I have," she said. "My mother is a model, Rob. I want no part of that life or those people. I like this dope-ass aggregates engineer. He my boyfriend. Now stop this silliness, and take me out, Daddy."

I had to laugh. I noticed that her eyeshadow matched her lips again, and so did her fingernails. The open-toed shoes she had on showed me that her toenails were the same. She noticed me looking and tickled me with her fingernails under the chin, before wiggling her fingers before my eyes.

"I got my nails done today. They hella nice, huh?"

"Everything about you is perfect, Tianna," I said. "Well, except your English."

She laughed. "I know how to speak, Rob. If I'm in a professional setting or a formal one, I promise I'll be as perfect as you please. When I'm with you, do you want me to be myself, or some snooty East Coast white bitch?"

"I was only kidding," I said. "Of course I want you to be yourself. I know who you are, and I love every part of Tianna Edwards, okay?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought," she said. "Let's go. Where we going?"

"Where," was Mourad, a Moroccan place I had been before. Tianna had never experienced a Michelin starred restaurant, and never eaten Moroccan food. We had olives, preserved in lemon, and palm hearts for appetizers, she was delighted with the lamb shoulder La'acha, and we shared a honey and almond beeswax dessert.

She was pressed tightly against me as we left. She looked up at me and it was like she was glowing. "This a great date, so far," she said. "Rob spoiling me."

"That's my job: Spoiling Tianna Edwards," I said. "Wanna stroll and let our food settle?"

She did, and she tucked her little hand into mine, long slender fingers feeling cool tucked between my big fingers. We looked in store windows, just ambling along, and I guided us back to the parking garage after about half an hour.

Tianna wasn't 21 yet, so most clubs were going to be out. I took her to Arena SF. They had a live band, they were pretty good, and Tianna on the dance floor was an unreal experience. She was, as I knew, extremely athletic, and she had obviously had some sort of ballet training or some other formal dance training. She wove me into her web of motion, made me the center of her whirlwind of movement, and she was spectacular.

There was a steady stream of guys and four women who asked her to dance. She clung to me when they asked, and politely declined. "Tianna, I don't mind if you dance with someone," I told her.

"Noo, Rob, I'm with you."

That seemed to be the end of the matter, so far as she was concerned, and I didn't mind a bit. I had the most beautiful girl in the club on my arm, and there were plenty of beautiful girls there. I could get used to it, I decided.

We left around midnight, and I took her home. "Rob wanna come up for a bit?" she asked.

"I'd love to, but I'm going to go home and remember how awesome this was until I fall asleep with a huge goofy smile plastered on my face," I told her. "This was the greatest date I've ever been on, Tianna. Can we do it again?"

"Any time you ask," she said. "Ion go out on school nights, though. Gotta keep those grades up, you know."

"I do," I said. "Friday?"

She nodded. "Yes. Snap me, okay?"

I promised, went around and opened her door, and she lit me up with a toe-curler of a kiss. I put her in the elevator, and drove home.

*****

We dated every Friday, and many Saturdays after that. She stopped by my place after work quite often if I was there, and I got that dinner at Patricia's I'd been promised. It was everything that had been advertised.

Tianna was a very physical girl. She wanted to be touching me all the time when we were together, and it always gave me that sense of euphoria when she would stroke my arm, play with my hair, run a long fingernail across my cheek.

Five months after our first date, I asked her if she was ready to go kayaking with me. She took a week before she made up her mind, and then she said yes. We were at my place with her snuggled up against me.

I got online and booked a place for us to stay Friday and Saturday night, while she watched. We would get in Friday afternoon, spend the night, take the kayaks down the river Saturday and spend the night Saturday.

I was booking our rooms, and had just selected two rooms, when she stopped me. "I wanna do it," she said. She pulled my laptop away and filled out some forms. I watched as she changed the reservation to one room with a king-sized bed.

She looked up at me and her huge brown eyes had a smokey, smoldering light in them. "Tianna... I... really?"

"Yep," she said. "Do you love me, Rob?"

I knew I loved having her as my girlfriend. Hell, she was my best friend. I wanted to be more than that, and every indication she had given me was strictly a "girlfriend, but I'm in no hurry" kind of thing. I thought about it as she looked up at me expectantly.

I loved her quick wit, how funny she was, how she would flare up in emotion, sometimes anger, sometimes tears, sometimes laughter or passion. I loved the way she looked, the way she carried herself, the way she twirled one of her fingers in a curl when she was pensive or thinking. I loved her touch, her moods, her sweetness and kindness. Although I had been feeling it, I hadn't really quantified it, but yes, I was in love with Tianna Edwards.

I took that gorgeous face between my hands and kissed those luscious lips. "Yes, Tianna, I'm in love with you. Desperately in love with you."

"I love you, Rob. You know me, Ion just do shit. I've been thinking about this for a long time. I've been in love with you since you showed up at Gram's hospital room with all that food. Maybe before that. I want you, Rob. I've been burning up wanting you, but I had to know for sure, you know?"

"I do," I reassured her. "This is going to be awesome, baby girl. We're going to have a blast."

After she left, I went back and sat on my sofa, hardly able to contain myself. Tianna Edwards loved me! I knew how lucky I was, and I vowed that she was never going to regret it for a single moment.

*****

It was a long drive, and I got a chance to learn the music Tianna liked. I also got to hear her sing for the first time. She sang along to every song she knew, and she knew a lot of them. She synced up her phone to my stereo, and I discovered whole new genres. She liked almost anything, I discovered, except country. She absolutely refused to listen to any of that, not that I wanted to, either.

We rocked down the highway with her leaned over toward me, her left hand on me constantly. I asked her if she wanted to drive, and she was very excited about that. Neither she nor Patricia had a car, although her mom and dad both had them.

She was very cautious, and I could tell she didn't have a lot of experience. She was so cautious that I complained that we would miss our kayaking if she didn't get a little speed on. She laughed and kicked it up to the speed limit.

We got there and checked in. It was a really nice room. There was a microwave, a little refrigerator, two chairs and a table, a bathroom with a sink in it, and one outside, too. I had the kayaks locked up in a room for that purpose the hotel had, and we ate at a little drive-in. They had really good burgers and Tianna loved the tater-tots.

We drove down to the river, and Tianna got a little anxious. "You sure about this, Rob?"

"What?"

"It looks hella fast," she said. "Imma wreck, I know it, and drown."

"No, you won't," I assured her. "I'm going to be with you. We may wreck, but we aren't going to drown."

We skipped some rocks, and I felt great. I was where I loved to be, I had my gorgeous girlfriend with me and it was going to be great. We stopped and bought snacks at a store, and went back to our room.

We took turns in the shower. I went first, and when she came out, she had on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt top that was cropped just below her breasts. I could even see a hint of the full bottoms when she raised her arms.

I had a bottle of wine on ice in a cooler, I got cups off the bathroom counter and got out the wine. She gave me a look when I got it out and popped the cork with the corkscrew on my knife.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't drink," she said. "Besides, I'm not old enough.

I checked in the closet and bathroom while she looked on, a bemused expression on her face. "Nobody hiding in there," I told her. "Just you and me. I'm not telling anyone, are you?"

"You a nut," she said, laughing. "Okay, Rob, I drink one glass." She lied. She drank two, and I could tell she was mellow. We got a movie on pay-per-view, and she set the pillows up so we could prop up in bed, watching the movie while we munched on some nuts and chocolate.

She was snuggled up to me, her right leg over mine and her right arm over me, her head on my chest as we watched the movie. It was a romantic comedy, and she loved it. I loved her, and enjoyed listening to her laugh.

I wrapped my arm around her, my hand on the bare skin of her back. She felt like satin, her skin so soft, so smooth, and I could feel the muscles underneath. I stroked her and she made a purring sound, but she was still watching the movie. I slid my hand up under that little top, across her shoulder blades, up until I was cupping the back of her neck. She wiggled a bit, nuzzling her cheek into my chest.

"Comfy?" I asked.

"Mm-hmm," she murmured.

I slid my hand back down, down to where I could feel the swelling of her butt begin. She had a little hollow there, with a soft, fuzzy feel. When I stroked her there, she made a little gasp.

I slid my hand under the waistband of her shorts, feeling little lacy panties in there. She gasped again as I slid my hand under the panties, and over the amazing roundness they contained.

I had wanted to squeeze that ass since the first time I saw her, and there it was. It was everything I imagined, and more. She tilted her head back, looking up at me. "Rob like my ass, huh?"

I laughed. "You have no idea, Tianna. I mean, you know what you look like, but I doubt you know how men think you look."

"Juicy," she said.

That set us both off and we laughed as I pulled on her, urging her up on top of me. She scooted over me, and I got both hands on that ass, pulling her into me and we kissed, a lover's kiss, full of the promise of the night.

She sat up on me, pulling her top over her head, then tugging at my t-shirt. I helped her, and she tried to settle down on me, but I held her up. "I want to just look at you, Tianna, remember this moment for the rest of my life."