The Fixer

11.

~Elijah~

"What's the problem?" I ask him feeling like this is the perfect dress.

He places his phone down in the center of his lap and leans forward rubbing his hands together before speaking.

"It's just too much for dinner in my opinion. Leave a lot more to the man's imagination. Make him feel like he has to give you what you want to get it. As long as you make him want it, you'll get what you want from him everytime." He breaks it down for me.

I crook my head a bit thinking on it.

As I make my way back into the fitting room I can feel him moving behind me. I turn around and he reaches over my shoulder which puts his body mere inches away from mine. His hand takes to my abdomen to gently push me back a bit.

"Watch out."

He looks down at me as he grabs one of the hangers.

"This is the one." He speaks lowly staring into my eyes. I'm not naked right now, but I feel like it. Something about this just doesn't feel right. Or does it?

Boundaries.

I take the jumper out of his hand and put it just in front of me to examine it again and put a bit of distance between us.

"I did think it fit me really well." I speak to myself.

"It did. Now let's get out of here. I need something to eat before I take my ass to bed. You got the day off tomorrow, I don't." He walks out of the stall closing the door behind himself.

I release all the air I was letting build up inside of me the whole time he was in here.

Damn.

~Jabari~

Whatever Eli did on that date worked because she came back with a whole bunch of information on Laura.

She was raised by a single mother of a total of 5 children, she's the oldest at 22, her mom had her at 15. When Laura was just four years old, her mom married some rich millionaire techie and they moved to San Francisco for a while. The marriage only lasted five years but resulted in three siblings for Laura and the fourth came from a football player who was kind of close to becoming a household name but never did because his career was cut short due to an injury.

The relationship between him and her mother didn't last. There are a string of police reports citing domestic disputes that were all physical in some capacity between the two. Laura's mom left him with all the kids and they found a home in Arizona.

Her mom is now a district manager of a grocery store chain and was able to send her to decent high schools and then off to college. But that didn't come easy, as it's reported that Laura ran away a few times chasing after older boys that went off to college while she was in 8th, 9th, and 11th grade. All athletes.

The apple certainly doesn't fall too far from the tree.

"I don't know her but I'd just be mindful of her history. To me the picture that's painted suggests she may have developed a specific taste in men that you align with and you never know what her plans are. To me the issue is how she came onto you. You're a man and it made you uncomfortable, so that's saying a lot."

I bite my lip thinking about it. I get it. A part of me is hoping that I'm just a type and that there are no ulterior motives at play. We just touched down in Phoenix and I definitely plan to pay her a visit. I'm overdue for a trip between the sheets and I might just take her up on whatever she's offering.

"Yeah, I got you momma. I appreciate you."

"You got it. Have a good game today."

"Will definitely do that. I'll talk to you later." I tell her hanging up.

After practice, I grab a quick lunch and invite Laura to meet me at the cafe just up the road.

She pulls up in a white two piece jacket and mini skirt wearing a nude colored camisole underneath. Simple but cute, I'm just realizing her look is very polished, kind of Plain Jane to be honest with you. Her hair is almost always either straightened or slicked back into a ballet bun.

I've kind of gotten used to either the unruly natural hair or the mini twists, being that I'm around it so much now.

She greets me with a hug.

"Hey." She starts softly.

"What's up?" I reach one arm around her briefly before we take our seats at the high table.

"Not much, just been working on some new projects since the last time I've seen you."

"Oh yeah? What kind of projects?" I ask interested in hearing what kind of hustles she got going on.

She looks around a bit and then grabs the menu to examine it as she speaks.

"I've decided to start a book club group actually. Something about reading to you that night kind of sparked the idea."

I smile a bit. I like that. She took something valuable from the last time we were together. I'm genuinely glad to hear it.

"That's what's up, so is it going to be like an online kind of thing?"

"Yeah through clubhouse and other social media."

I nod wearing an expression of impression.

"I dig that but uh, I wanted to talk to you about something." I start and she starts to look at little nervous.

"If it's about my behavior last time we were together, let me just apologize right now... not to cut you off or anything. I've just been thinking about it and I feel so disgusting coming onto you the way I did. It's just my friends have been teasing me about how passive I am in life and they taunt me about to taking more risks and want me to go for things. So that was just me trying to be a little more bold I guess. It was a fail I get that, but just so you have a better idea of where I was coming from with that."

I pause unsure of what to say. Like she studied a map of my mind and knew exactly where I was going with this conversation.

"I mean, Damn. So that was a good girl gone bad kind of moment for you huh?" I ask snickering.

She hides her face laughing.

"Kind of. I'm just going to stick to what I know and let life come to me."

She smiles cutely and offers her hand.

I take it admiring how soft her palms are.

"You're good boo, that's all it was. I was just thrown off a little but it's all good. You coming to the game tonight?" I ask curious to see if I still got a chance at getting some.

"I didn't plan on it, but if you want me too I can."

"It's up to you if you don't have any other plans. I was going to see if you wanted to get together tonight afterward for sure though."

"Of course. I just got my own place now too. I'm finally finished furnishing it, I'd love for you to come warm it up for me... not like that, just... you know. You'd be my first guest." She clarifies.

I smile nodding.

"Bet. I can definitely do that."