Wrong for Me

14|elephants

NAOMI COLE—JULY

THE NEXT WEEK AND a half flew by as Dante was busy with work and I was trying to still get accustomed to the internship. At work, Dante and I only shared lingering gazes and a few passed words before we were both off on our own paths. But each night we still made time to text or talk on the phone for hours.

"You know," Dante began lowly over the phone, my eyes drooping slightly as the time passed three in the morning. "I want to take you out somewhere tomorrow...somewhere nice."

"Okay," I sighed, followed by a large yawn that I knew Dante heard, as he chuckled lowly.

"Get some sleep, sweetheart. I'll pick you up at six."

We said our goodbyes and within minutes I was fast asleep. Sleep seemed to come much easier whenever I had been on the phone with Dante; maybe because of the sound of his soothing, deep voice over the phone or his sweet words.

***
MY JAW DROPPED AS I drank in Dante's appearance from the other side of the door. His hair was freshly cut and he was clean-shaven—a new look for him that I really liked surprisingly. He was dressed in yet another suit, this one charcoal gray with a forest green tie that perfectly matched my dress of the same shade.

"You can stop staring, I know I look good," he quipped with a wink, placing his hand under my chin and literally closing my mouth for me. "Weren't you the one who said staring was rude?"

"I take it back," I rushed out in a breathy tone as he took my hand and pulled me out into the hallway along with him. "You look too good for me not to."

"Hmm, I could say the same for you, Naomi. You look magnificent."

After locking the door behind us, I followed him out to his car—a completely different one this time. He opened the passenger side door for me, but just before I went to sit he pulled me into him and pressed a passionate kiss to my lips, softly biting down on my bottom one as he pulled away.

"What was that for?"

"I need an excuse to kiss you? Sit down, Naomi."

His demanding tone shouldn't have made me feel the way it did, yet here I was squeezing my thighs tightly together as I felt a familiar feeling low in my stomach.

Within minutes, we were at the restaurant and I had my arm intertwined in his as we walked inside and were led to the table he had already made the reservation for. Already on the table was a bottle of wine for the two of us and a tray of bread.

"I've never even heard of this place," I muttered, taking in my surroundings as he poured glasses of wine for the two of us. "It's very nice."

"You'll love it," he stated, passing me my glass as he sent me an indecipherable look. That had seemed to be common with him recently.

We sipped on the wine and dabbled in eating the bread as we caught up with each other after talking a bit less in the past couple of days. He had been very busy recently and I was still working a few shifts at the restaurant which left me utterly exhausted.

After placing our orders he told me, "My sister's coming to town on Monday to spend the week with me so I'm gonna have to take a couple days off to spend with her."

I pouted, but in actuality I was excited that he was getting the chance to see his sister, as he had told me that he hadn't seen her in a while.

"Are you two very close?"

"Very. We were so close when we were younger."

I smiled, replying with, "That's great. I always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. Being the only one is sort of boring."