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AYOLUWA'S HEAD WAS STARTING TO FEEL HEAVY ON JOSHUA'S DUVET COVERED CHEST.
The couple were laying on their California king bed, the only noises coming from outside, a mix of boisterous music and taxis racing by.
She was in a towel, after just finishing her shower.
There was a slightly awkward silence between them, even after the sexual intercourse that they had just had.
Actually no, scratch slightly.
It was extremely awkward.
"Um..." Joshua looked to the sunlight flooding on the floor, "You want pizza? I want pizza."
"No, I can't do dairy right now. Can we just lay here for a little bit longer?" Ayoluwa asked, sitting up against the chestnut finished headboard and fixing her dark brown locs.
"Uh, I don't know." Joshua sighed.
"Well... I was thinking that maybe for Christmas, we can invite my sister, Jamal and the kids to stay for a couple of days," Ayoluwa flashed Joshua a wishful smile, "Myles just turned old enough to fly."
"Um, maybe. I don't know if that's a good idea right now. Later." Joshua looked away from her.
"Christmas is just around the corner, so when is later?" Ayoluwa glanced down at the cell phone laying on the nightstand.
"I don't know. I just... I want to eat or sleep." Joshua pulled himself off the bed and tugged on his boxers from earlier, "I don't want to think right now."
"Come on," Ayoluwa dragged the last word out, "Lauryn loves Home Alone 2 and I was hoping that the two of us could show her around Times Square and stuff. You know she adores you and-."
"Not right now, Ayoluwa!" Joshua snapped, "It's too early for you to be nagging me!"
There was another long silence between them as Ayoluwa looked up at him in surprise.
Joshua simply gazed back, a little annoyed at the incessant talking.
Her cell phone interrupted the staring contest and Ayoluwa answered it, "Hey, 'G'. What's going on?"
Joshua rolled his eyes at Gloria calling Ayoluwa this late in the day.
"Now? Do I have time to-." Ayoluwa started to say.
Ayoluwa nodded at whatever her manager was saying on the other line, "Yeah, I'll be there in twenty minutes. Wait, no. fifteen Can you-? Ah, thank you."
Ayoluwa stood up and then threw the phone on the bed before walking over to her walk in closet.
"You work too much. Where are you going now at this time of the day?" Joshua asked.
"I'm meeting with the people at Saturday Night Live. They might want me to be one of the hosts and the musical act next month." Ayoluwa grabbed a sweater and a pair of leggings and put them on her side of the bed.
"Really?" Joshua asked.
"You sound surprised." Ayoluwa opened a drawer on her side of the room to shimmy on a pair of panties and then a bra.
"I just thought you had to be funny to go on that show." Joshua shrugged.
Ayoluwa pulled on her leggings then looked at him, "Why would you say that? What's been going on with you lately? Is something wrong?"
"No, there's nothing wrong." Joshua stated in a blank tone.
"You know you can tell me everything right? I'm here for-."
"Please drop it," Joshua closed his eyes and took a breath, "I'm sorry. Practice has just been hard lately. Steve Nash has been on my ass lately. Plus, you work way too much. You're never home."
"I was home yesterday. We could've done something but you didn't want to." Ayoluwa pointed out.
"You were working." Josh replied.
"Just because Amy and Gloria were with me? Yeah, we were talking about my next projects but I was ready to send them home if that's what you needed."
Joshua rolled his eyes at her tone of voice.
Ayoluwa pulled her gray oversized sweater over her head, still silent, then hesitated at the door, took a peek at Joshua's face, thought better of it, then slipped out of the room, a pair of heels in her hand.
Joshua could faintly hear the front door to the penthouse open and close and he breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Sometimes, Joshua wondered if asking Ayoluwa to move in was the right idea because she could be absolutely fucking suffocating sometimes.
At the time he thought that taking the next step in the relationship was the right idea but with each day, he found more and more that he wanted her at arm's length not all up under him.
Joshua went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and scoffed at the sight of Ayoluwa's satin headscarf balled up on top of the beige counter.
He took it and threw it underneath the sink before taking the large bottle of blue Listerine mouthwash, gargling and then spitting it out.
Joshua's phone was in the kitchen, charging and when he walked into the room, his phone screen was lit up with several messages from his teammates letting him know that his practice had been canceled for today.
Joshua went to Google and typed in Valhalla bar then felt his face grow a smile at the times.
Joshua rushed to get dressed and leave the apartment as well, following his phone for directions through the streets until he came upon the familiar neon lighted bar.
Through the window, Joshua could see Letitia cleaning the glass on the top of the bar with Windex and a yellow rag.
Joshua stepped through the bar and Letitia looked up and smiled when she saw that it was him.
"Jay. I'm guessing that you want a round?" Letitia smiled at him and her grin was so infectious that he just couldn't help but to smile back.
"You got it." Joshua responded as he slid onto a stool.
