Jeremiah.
I sat across from my co-workers, opening the lid to my Tupperware, revealing my lunch of cubed steak smothered in gravy, mashed potatoes, Mac and cheese and mixed vegetables. "Damn, this nigga eating lavishly," my co-worker, Javier teased, causing me and Keith, mostly Keith, to snort laughing.
"Bro chill out, I was off yesterday and decided to cook. I be tired of eating out all the time" I laughed, digging a plastic fork into my tender meat that broke apart easily. Little did they know, I called my momma and made her stay on the phone while I cooked half of it. I needed her step by step guidance on how to cook the meat exactly the way she do, and since I got a hard time remembering little shit like seasonings and how long to cook it, she had to stay on the phone with me. I wanted it to taste like if she'd driven 1000 miles to me and cooked it herself, right in my kitchen.
Nothing made me feel closer to home than a meal that could come even halfway as close to my family's cooking. While 22 year old me loved the concept of me being on my own for once in my life, 26 year old me still missed my people like crazy, especially my moms. Nothing was harder than leaving my family, but I would never know what life would be like if I continued to stay cooped up with them in Nevada.
Moving to Seattle has been good to me since I finally locked in and started focusing on my career more. The clubs, parties, drinking and girls were fun when I was having just that, fun. Now don't get me wrong, a girl, a party, nor a drink here or there never hurt anyone, but I knew that if I wanted to be anything in life and live out these huge plans that I've had brewing for so long, I'd have to shift my focus. Make sure to put nothing but God above said goals.
Having that faith and discipline alone opened so many doors for me already, how could I ever not give Him the recognition He deserves? "Well next time, bring us some. You can't just be leaving a nigga starving, eating toddler meals. This some shit my 4 year old niece would eat" Keith grumbled, pointing down to his plate full of chicken nuggets, had to have been about 30 of them bitches on one flimsy paper plate, a side of ranch.
Javier let out a loud laugh, pointing at Keith's plate, causing me to let out the full belly laugh that I was stifling. Keith slouched down in his chair, manspread with his elbows resting on his knees, looking at me and Javier like a disappointed dad.
"Not a side or nothing? You want my macaroni?" I laughed, being for real with my offering. I lowkey wanted him to say no, but if he said yeah, I'd let him have it. "Deadass? Hell yeah" Keith grinned, sliding his soggy plate over to me as it repeatedly stuck to the table instead of sliding smoothly, causing Javier to go into a fit of laugher again, resulting in all of us to laugh harder than before.
I just got this job at a startup tech company that works with programming and application development about a year and a half ago. It's how I met Javier and Keith. If I'm being forreal, I think the HR might be a little racist cause we the only men of color and they put all of us on a team together, plus 2 other new guys. Javier is a goofy ass nigga who don't take nothing serious, which is why we leave him to do the coding, the easiest part of the job. I'm a software engineer and Keith was the team leader and a graphic designer, the other two guys were engineers.
After having lunch, I headed back to my desk to finish up checking over my work before sending the file to Keith. Music playing from the speaker of our team room. Everyone worked in comfortable silence as my phone pinged. I had a message from a girl who occasionally hits me up when she needs a little something something. If I'm honest, I wasn't feeling it tonight.
I feel like I'm officially growing out of my phase of having casual sex, crazy, right? After doing it for so long, it's growing old. I'm 26 and I've only been in 2 real relationships, lasting only months at a time. I've had a few girls who I used to casually have sex with, just sex, no relationships, no attachments, and only one, one night stand.
YOU ARE READING
Noelle.
Romance"Noelle." He spoke. That was my first time hearing my name off his lips, and I may have lost my cool for the first time in my life. "Now that I say it, you're more of a Noelle than a Nikki" he gave a goofy grin.
