Against the Odds (Book 2)

♥ Chapter XIV ♥

♥Karissa♥

"What do I wear, what do I wear," I chanted anxiously. I was standing in my closet in nothing but my underwear, jittery and queasy.

It was tonight. I was spending the afternoon with Zahair and I assumed meeting his family. He hadn't said anything about meeting anyone, but I'm going over there at eight o'clock for dinner so it was a given.

"Something easy to take off. So maybe a skirt," Jada said over the phone.

I grimaced at the device sitting on my footstool in the middle of the pink carpeted floor. "Jada," I reprimanded.

"A dress then!" she amended. "Something short-"

"Ja-"

"But not too short!" she cut me off mid shout. "Come on, Karissa! Stop acting like you haven't been fantasizing about him since the moment you bumped into each other at that damn mall."

I ignored most of what she said and twisted a lock of curled hair hanging down the side of my face. "I might be meeting his parents tonight, so no, nothing's happening," I disagreed firmly.

Jada and I had huge influences over how the other saw things, so I needed to make it clear to myself and not let her words give me a big head. Zahair and I weren't doing anything tonight. Especially not in a house with any family members. Not when this was my first time meeting them. The thought alone of anyone overhearing anything made me cringe. It wasn't like I was the quietest person during... passionate times.

"Not unless you take an uber over there and he offers to drop you off at my house when the night ends..." she said. Her words came out in a rushed breath and trailed off suggestively.

I stared aimlessly at a spot on the carpet as my mind wondered the possibilities she left out in the open. A hotel room. Air BnB. Back of his truck. Better yet- the driver's seat of his truck-

"No," I blinked out of it, shaking my head. I squeezed my eyes shut and unclenched my entire body. "No, No! Not happening. Plus, we've known each other for like a month." I moved toward my wrack of dresses. A dress would probably be more fitting for the situation anyway.

"So?" I could tell what face she was making without looking at my phone. The kind of face that showed how absurd she thought I sounded. "I'm surprised you two haven't ripped each other's clothes off yet."

"Not my fault we haven't," I muttered to myself.

"It's not even about that," Jada went on. "There's something so magnetic about you two, I'm actually jealous. You can't put a cap on your attraction just because it hasn't been a certain number of days. Let shit happen!"

I bit down on my bottom lip. There wasn't much that I held back from telling Jada. In fact, if she was here and saw my face right now, all she'd have to do was ask and I'd spill the beans.

It wasn't that I was holding back or didn't want something to happen between us, I didn't care about timelines. Not with him anyway. I've had one, two, and even three-night stands and I wasn't ashamed of it. It was him. He wasn't ready and I respected that. He didn't openly say that but that's what I concluded from him subtly turning down my advances to do more or go a little further. It stung sometimes but I held back from showing it too much because I didn't want to push him.

I hadn't told Jada about it because Zahair and I were so new. Still trying to get used to whatever force that kept pulling us together. It was strong, but there was something so delicate about it. And I wasn't ready to disclose certain things just yet. For my piece of mind.

"Can I focus on getting some clothes on right now?" I called over my shoulder.

"Oh?" she said, her tone falling into something more playful. "Are you naked right now?"