"Nia." Her name softly fell from his lips and she soaked in his sweet breath like a pancake to syrup. Her eyes were low and she was watching his chest rise and fall. She couldn't look at him just yet. She was frozen in place.
With just this brazen...
Nia couldn't tell if she was going crazy. She stood in her bedroom running her fingertips over the defined pen strokes she had confidently imprinted on the page when she had written the list years ago.
Was she seriously contemplating having sex with Malcolm?
Yes.
The answer came somewhere from the back corners of her mind.
But was this some weird reach of desperation after potentially the most perfect man's singular flaw was exposed?
No.
The voice replied again. But still, she couldn't figure out what propelled her brain to suddenly consider Malcolm as more than a friend after years of him being exactly just that to her.
It's called epiphany, bitch.
The voice came louder and more pronounced this time. Maybe she really was going crazy. She made a mental note to check her calendar for openings to book an appointment with her therapist once Malcolm left. She returned the journal back to its bedside throne and left her room.
"What were you doing in there? Making revisions?" Malcolm's lips curved in a slight smile. It sent Nia's heart straight to the pit of her stomach and back up again.
Weird.
"Uh, no. Shut up." Nia stammered awkwardly before sitting next to him on the couch.
"What do you want to watch? Basketball docuseries, murder mystery, or whatever feel-good classic Black movie is on?"
"You pick." Nia knew she was too distracted to choose.
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Malcolm tossed the edge of the blanket stretched across his lap in Nia's direction. "See Nia you say that, but I already know this mind game you're playing. You can't use reverse psychology on me. I'm too smart."
"Mind games? Reverse psychology? You - smart? What the hell are you talking about Mac?" Nia grinned quickly shedding her anxieties as she inched closer to his corner of the couch and slipped under the shared cozy throw.
"Haha." He deadpanned. "I'm saying, I know that if I pick the basketball thing, you're gonna complain and tell me to just watch it at home. And if I pick murder-mystery, you're gonna be pissed at me all week if you're too scared and don't sleep through the night." He nudged her with his elbow. "So I guess we're watching..." His voice trailed off as he clicked the remote to the app's live channels. "... Brown Sugar. I can get with that - I love Sanaa Lathan."
"But then technically, isn't my reverse psychology working? I got my preferred outcome either way." Nia asked as the movie started roughly 10 minutes in. She watched Sanaa and Queen Latifah mingle at a party before Taye Diggs' character entered the scene.
Malcolm's smile emerged from his rough beard. She had the most unnatural urge to reach out and touch it. "Yeah but I wasn't tricked into it. You got it because I wanted to give it to you."
