• • •

My eyes followed every step the waiter took until he arrived at our table, placing our dishes gently in front of us.

"Wait." I popped Jailyn's hand, holding my phone at the perfect angle to take a picture of our food. Once I added the location tag, I posted the picture to my Instagram story and reached for a fork.

She stared at me with a blank face, "Can I eat now?"

"Go ahead, love."

"I can't stand going out with people like you."

"And yet, you're always going out with people like me," I replied with a bright smile.

Coby hadn't specified how long I needed to keep her away from the apartment, but I wanted to give him enough time to do whatever it was he had planned.

The task was easy seeing that I loved spending time with her anyway. It was like we never needed anything to talk about because we always had something to talk about.

Our conversation drifted to her newfound employment status and I tried to brainstorm where she could begin her search, "Look for a job on campus."

"That's the first place I looked."

"Ask Coby if you can be his hype man. You'll probably get special treatment."

She laughed into her hand as she swallowed the last of her water, "You damn right. When my baby blow up, no you cannot hang."

"Here you ladies go." The waiter eventually placed our bill on the table, "It's no rush, just whenever you're ready."

"Do you work next Thursday?" Jailyn asked while watching me examine the small paper.

"I'ma have to look," I mumbled in response.

"HomeGoods is having a sale. You remember last time you said you'd stand in line with me."

I did say that, but that was only because I didn't expect her to actually want to stand in line for a chair. In any case, whether the schedule said I had to work or not, I was telling her that I had to.

As I logged into the app to check the schedule for next week, she continued to try to get me to remember my words and I pretended to have not the slightest idea what she was talking about.

"Aw, fuck." I groaned, sitting back against the seat, "I forgot to clock out."

"Call up there. Duh."

I gave her a look of annoyance, "They take the phone off the hook so nobody can get through. Duh."

You'd be surprised at how many stupid questions people could call to ask about coffee. Maria decided to avoid this by taking the phone off the hook when she was scheduled. It worked when it needed to, but times like this, it was inconvenient.

"You don't have any of their numbers?"

"Just Maria's, and she love tryna act like she follows company policy so she's not gonna clock me out."

"Oh well. It's not like we weren't going to the mall anyway."

This was true, but I didn't even wanna go to work when I was scheduled, let alone on my off days. I sighed and looked at my plate, "You right. I'ma finish this first though."

• • •

"It's been slow all day." Maria relayed happily as she watched me log onto the computer.

"How nice."

"Yup. I've just been sitting back here."

Our store was nearly always busy, a result of being in the middle of the mall, so the occasional slow day was welcomed. When at our busiest, even her lazy self had to do above the bare minimum.

I quickly clocked out and rechecked the schedule, "See you Thursday."

Jailyn stood by the books silently flipping through the pages of a magazine as she waited for me. I was opening my mouth to tell her I was ready, only to pause when I heard my name called loudly.

Instinctively, I began looking around for the culprit. There weren't many people in the area, and even if they were, the two men coming directly towards us told me exactly who said it.

"Ouuu who is that?" Jailyn whispered.

I slowly shrugged my shoulders, trying to confirm that I didn't know, "I don't know."

"He called your name like he knows you. And your dumb tail gone stand here." She yanked my arm, "Let's go before we have to beat his ass in this mall."

I didn't know the man who'd called my name, but I remembered the one he was with, his dreads giving him away. He was tall, and I found him to be slightly intimidating, but that could've been because of the shades that were shielding his eyes from view.

Jailyn was still trying to pull on my arm and I remembered I wasn't saying this aloud, "They came in my job yesterday."

"I never see niggas who look like that at my job."

Usually, I didn't either. As mentioned, I only remembered the customer on the phone, not the one who'd apparently called my name. He was the one who'd left before I could get a good look. Now that I had the opportunity to rudely stare, I could commit his features to memory.

He stopped in front of me, glancing briefly at Jai, "I'm Eli."

".....Okay?"

Jailyn coughed out a laugh and turned to pretend she wasn't listening to the conversation while his friend openly laughed, "Like he Jesus or some. That woman don't give a fuck."

A smile appeared on Eli's face and he ignored the other guy's words, "My bad. It's Ken, right?"

"I'd hate for it not to be after the way you got done yelling it." I threw in a giggle to let him know I was flirting.

This is why I'll die alone.

He laughed instead of leaving, again showcasing a perfect set of teeth, "You keep giving me things to apologize for. The muffin, yelling at you, telling you my name." Eli stopped listing items, "I'm starting to feel like Ian' shit."

"I usually wait 'til I get to know people better before I start telling them they're not shit."

A very brief pause, "You busy Saturday?"

"Saturday?" I repeated stupidly.

Throughout our conversation, it seemed as if he was trying to force me to maintain eye contact with him. I couldn't, for some reason, and would periodically look at the guy behind him to relieve the stare.

"You said you needa' get to know me better, and I'm good with Saturday." He ran a hand over the hair covering the lower half of his face, "Are you?"

It was Tuesday, giving me more than enough time to prepare, I just found it strange that he asked for a date before he even asked for my number. Granted, you do go on dates to get to know people, but it never happened like this.

"Yeah," I replied in what was supposed to be a... confident voice? Either way, it came out blandly.

Jailyn's sigh of disappointment reached my ears and I knew we'd talk about it later.

I accepted the phone he'd extended after I agreed, and quickly typed my name and number before handing it back, "Ken." He read the contact aloud, "It's short for..."

Very few people still called me Kensley on a regular basis, and it was because I heavily associated it with scenes. The name was easily phased out since I rarely went by it anyway, and now I told everyone my name was Ken.

Instead of telling him that again, I said, "Kensley."

"Kensley." Eli held my gaze like he knew what it was used for, or as if he'd heard it used in that capacity before, "It'll likely be dinner, but we'll talk before Saturday."

Again I was taken aback, this time from him telling me what we'd be doing rather than the 'It's up to you' I'd become accustomed to.

"He might as well have pulled his dick out, chile," Jailyn observed when we walked away.

"Sure would like a piece of that..." I waited till she looked at me, "Cock."

"Go to hellll."

Not that anyone was keeping count, but it'd been 382 days since I'd been on an official date.

I'd gotten offers, and agreed to some, but they always fell through last minute. I felt like it was because our generation wasn't big on dates. I could understand wanting to chill instead of going out, but how I'ma chill with someone I don't know? Now it's boring and we looking stupid.

"Where you going to get some clothes from?"

"I was just-" My mumble was cut short by Jailyn holding up a hand.

"You was just gone go buy something to wear. That's what you was just gone do."

"Okay."

She beamed at how easily I agreed, "Baby that's a man. We need new shit."

Everything was an excuse for Jailyn to buy new shit. She was the richest, broke person I knew.

This scenario was also a dream come true for her. I honestly believed she wanted me in a relationship more than I wanted it for myself, being that I didn't think about it too much until I got horny or lonely.

"Eli said he likes ya' and he wants ya'." Jailyn continued before pausing, "Hold up...How you let him know your whole name but you don't know his? We need full governments. You know how many 'Eli's' it is? Hell, I got an uncle named Eli. You ever met my uncle Eli?"

"Everybody met your old ass uncle Eli, Jai."

The remainder of our morning was spent in the mall.

• • •

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