WIFEABLE :: ORIGINAL

matchbox & pineapples

"After high school I went to UC Santa Barbara. For some reason I wanted to go all they way across the country, but..." William shook his head in disbelief, "it was cool. Mandy and I were still dating or whatever, but I knew something was up when I came back."

"Something like what?" Jelisa asked, walking beside him down the street. They wanted to catch up, so to speak, and they met at the same parking garage minutes ago and decided to walk into Chinatown.

"She had gotten thicker," he chuckled, "like, um...her hips and everything. When we first saw each other she was giggling on her phone, you know that 'I don't want you to know I have a side nigga' giggle? That soft shit. Anyway, in my gut I knew something was up, but I thought females were better at hiding this shit."

"We are, Mandy is just stupid," Jelisa rolled her eyes and hugged her body, "well, I'm not disrespectful, so I've never done it."

"Right," he nodded, looking ahead, "and I let it happen for another year until she was bold enough to bring the nigga in my apartment. Breaking up wasn't hard for me, I just wished that, since she was cheating, not to be so careless."

"William, you sound dumb," Jelisa told him straight up, "you should've gotten rid of her years ago."

"I do?"

"Yeah."

"Well," he shrugged, opening the door to a Matchbox and letting her through, "I was."

"Hello, welcome to Matchbox," the hostess greeted with a smile, "just two?"

"Yes, please," William replied. She grabbed menus and guided them to a booth, Jelisa sitting on one side and Will on the other.

"What would you like to drink?"

"Jack and Coke," William said.

"Uh," Jelisa looked at the beverages quickly, "Bourbon please."

"Alright, I'll be right back," the woman left and William turned to Jelisa with raised brows.

"What?"

"Bourbon."

"I'm an alcoholic," she laughed, holding her menu open and looking at him, "I should start drinking regular drinks at restaurants."

"I'm not going to judge," he replied, "but it depends on what you get."

"Huh?"

"If you eat a pizza and beer, you're fine, but beer and some fancy ass pasta? Alcoholic."

"Okay, it's not beer, it's bourbon."

"Which is some strong shit, so what do you want to erase from your mind?"

"Don't get all therapist on me now," she huffed while scanning her menu. "Tell me more about you."

"Like what?"

"What do you do? Shit like that."

"Athletic coach," he replied, "mostly soccer and basketball."

"Basketball," she scoffed, "you still suck."

"Me? I think not--"

"I was winning before all that other shit happened," Jelisa pointed out with a grin, "you can't deny that."

"I'm not. Look, it wasn't you who sucked, it was everyone else in that group of yours."

"It was a last minute thing, don't blame me."

"Pretty shitty," he sang, closing his menu, "you were winning, and I got jealous, I admit that. I was dumb. But then I woke the fuck up and realized women are fantastic at a lot of shit. So..."

"At least you know," she shrugged a shoulder before closing her own menu, "what are you getting?"

"Pineapple pepperoni pizza."

"Ew, what the fuck?" Jelisa grimaced at him, "you're honestly as disgusting as I remembered."

William scuffed incredulously before looking away. "That's a damn lie, and you know it. That unibrow was the death of me."

"I still see a little bit of it," she tried pointing at it but he slapped her hand away, "rude."

"Jelisa," he rollled his eyes and touched between his eyebrows, "damn."

She just laughed.

"Wait, so what do you do?"

Jelisa wiped her mouth before swallowing her food and looking up at him. "Speech-Language Pathology."

"What's that, Jelisa?"

"Like, um...you remember that boy Jabir from fourth period who always left in the middle of class for speech? I'd be one of those people."

"Oh," he replied in understanding, "that nigga got on my nerves, he had a different girl every week."

"The most confident stutterer I've ever met," she laughed, chewing on her straw, "but yeah. I'm not at a school, though, it's an actual therapy building. The one near the Smithsonian Zoo?"

"I know where that is," Will replied, picking the pineapples off his pizza and eating them, "what made you want to do that?"

"Uh, well, it was mostly because my big brother, Max. Not many people know, but he has mild autism. So, I mean, I was the main one who helped him out and stuff, because we're so close. And doctors always brush black kids with autism under the rug. I helped him talk and walk and be the socialite he is now."

"Really?" William seemed surprised by this information, mostly because her brother was so "normal" to everyone. It wasn't expected.

"Mhm," she downed the rest of her drink and cleared her throat, "it's crazy because, I watched him from being so self conscious and quiet to this like, annoying ass little boy," William chuckled at that, "he went from not talking to never shutting the fuck up. And it's all because of me. It's something I had a passion for, like knowing I helped someone be as smart and kind and confident, I knew it was something I wanted to do."

"That's honestly great," he replied, and hand on the side of his face, "inspiring actually. Is there still anything that he needs help on?"

"Honestly, he has a slight temper and he gets impatient quickly, but he's fine."

"That's good, that's good. You should write a book."

"I did," she replied while William raised his brows in surprise, "what?"

"Is it published?"

"No," she muttered quietly, "and that's fine with me. I do it just to vent."

"Can I read it?"

"Maybe..." Jelisa trailed off and hid her blush, sort of flattered William took interest in what she did.

"I won't pressure you, but," he held a finger up and licked his lip, "I'd definitely read it."

"Thank you, William."

wow okay

I wrote some very smutty chapters but they're not until way later I'm so upset