Slow Down | ✓

05. MELT-ON-THE-TONGUE TYPE

05. MELT-ON-THE-TONGUE TYPE

TWO WEEKS HAD PASSED since Aliyah walked out on the man she met at the bar and the foggy memory was starting to clear up.

She knew that she walked into that bar with the intent to get drunk ━ however, she did not expect to wake up the next morning in someone else's bed with a satisfying pain between her legs.

The shaking of her legs lasted for a week before she finally got over it.

If only she could remember it.

For the first time in forever, Aliyah has time off. She'd been working her ass off for the final preparations of one of her client's weddings and they'd given her the day off before she has to attend it and make sure everything is running smoothly.

And what does Aliyah Pryce do with her day-off?

She bakes.

It's the middle of the day and she already has trays of cookies laid out on her kitchen island, all gooey and the melt-on-the-tongue type. Her music blasts from her JBL speaker, her rocking to Must Be Nice by Lyfe Jennings.

Currently, she's cleaning up the last of the ingredients that she spilled, swaying her hips to the beat.

She starts the sweeping process when the sound of the front door being pushed open interrupts her. She continues dancing, knowing who it is that walked in.

"Ooh," The hype squeal escapes Aliyah's best friend's mouth as she begins to dance to the music as well. Toni Rothford drops the apartment key on the counter, "You vybing, ain't you?"

Toni was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina and moved to Charlotte the year after she graduated from Chapel Hill, ready to get away from the 'rednecks with the red necks'. Her and Aliyah had been close friends for the better part of seven years when they met at a mixer for the two schools ━ Duke and UNC.

"Sho am," Aliyah chuckles. The song changes to one from her reggae playlist ━ Likes by Chronixx. The best friends' eyes widen at the starting beat, their smiles growing.

In no time, Aliyah props the broom up against the side of the island and grabs Toni's hand, pulling her to stand beside her.

They break out into their dance, popping their shoulder forward to the beat. Back when the song first came out, Aliyah taught Toni how to dance to it and fed into her best friend's obsession with Jamaican culture.

Halfway through the song, Aliyah stops to take a breath. She hunches over, reminding her of when she used to do 400's on the track team back in college.

"Whew," She huffs, "I need some water."

"And some exercise," Toni laughs, gently pushing her friend's shoulder, "Didn't I tell you to start working out with me?"

"Uh, yeah, you did," Aliyah raises an eyebrow, "But did I listen?"

Rolling her eyes, Toni shuffles around the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and handing it to Aliyah, "Obviously not."

Aliyah scoffs before going to pull the last batch of cookies out of the oven, "So, how was work?"

Toni shrugs, dramatically and flops on one of the stools behind the oven, "Boring as hell. I'm tired of working in an office. It's agonizing."

Scrunching her face up in disgust, Aliyah replies, "You chose it."

"Well, what the fuck else am I supposed to do with a marketing degree?" Toni groans. She grabs a tray of cookies and starts to munch on them, "Why you stay baking so much?"

"Because I can," Aliyah sticks her tongue out, playfully, "And you can do a lot with a marketing degree. There's PR and... PR."

"You said that twice," Toni holds two fingers up, an eyebrow raised, questioningly, "I should be Beyoncé's PR agent if that's the case. I deserve to rep icons."

"As you should," Aliyah agrees with a grin, "By the way, are your hands even clean?"

Toni shushes her best friend before grabbing her hand sanitizer and lathering it over her hands. She goes back to eating the cookies with a triumphant grin on her face, "How's it going with planning those assholes' wedding?"

Aliyah rolls her eyes at the mention of Kayla and Trevor.

"It's going, I guess."

"Wow, so enthusiastic," Toni teases, "I don't understand how you said yes to them."

"What did you expect?"

"For you to kick 'em out your office or snatch that bitch weave or something," Toni shrugs, nonchalantly, shoving another cookie in her mouth, "Ion know... Something to get you on World Star."

"And get my business license revoked?" Aliyah raises a brow, "Nah, I'm good. They paying me good money so I'm not too bothered."

That's a lie.

Aliyah is very bothered.

"Shoot, then I woulda done it," Toni whistles lowly, "They aggy and I ain't even met them."

Aliyah laughs, "Girl, shut up, you wouldn't do shit."

"Like hell I won't," Toni reels back, "Bitch, I been waiting to snatch somethin' or someone since I got hired for this boring ass job. Nah, but for real though," She pauses, earning a questioning hum from her best friend, "What the hell you gon' do with all these cookies?"

"Uh," The two scan the island surface, taking in the many trays of chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies ━ which Aliyah definitely wasn't going to eat, "That's a good question."

y'all the southern in me just jumped out this chapter

ANYWAYS, toni is played by logan browning

and @juicejays and paIinoia keep distracting me so blame their crackhead energy for this late ass update 😭😭