Love Survives (BWWM)

Talk It Out

I got to Aaron's house the next day, but when I knocked, no one answered for a while. I rang the doorbell and finally, someone answered the door.

It was a black woman who looked to be in her early thirties. I think I lost my shit when I realized she was wearing a robe. Her short, curly hair was wet, and she had the audacity to smile at me.

"Um, who the hell are you?" I hoped my voice sounded confident despite my heart pounding in my chest. I thought I would throw up as my mind wandered.

"I'm Janelle," she said. "You must be Kyra."

I didn't like that she knew my name. "Okay, this is weird. I'm leaving. Tell Aaron we're over."

I turned to walk down the steps when I heard Aaron's voice.

"Dear God, woman quit playing around," he snapped. "Kyra, wait."

He grabbed my arm and pulled me to his chest. "Aaron, let me go!"

The woman laughed from behind Aaron. "I'm so sorry," she said.

"What?" I was so confused.

"That's my sister, Kyra. She was messing around." He turned to glare at her then looked at me. "I'm sorry about her. She can be annoying."

"Hey," Janelle complained. "I am not annoying."

The three of us went inside. Aaron forced Janelle to get dressed before properly meeting me. We sat in the kitchen, and while we waited for her, Aaron made some coffee.

"She likes to do that a lot, mess with—" He cleared his throat, "people."

I rolled my eyes. "You mean your girlfriends."

"Your words not mine," he mumbled.

Janelle entered the kitchen a few minutes later, and she was wearing a black dress that hugged her figure nicely. Her hair was in a bun and, she looked like she was going somewhere special.

She saw Aaron's curious face and rolled her eyes. "I have a meeting," Janelle explained.

Aaron choked on his coffee. "Dressed like that?"

She waved him off. "Come on, baby bro."

He made a face. "I'm older than you."

Curiously, I asked, "What's the meeting for?"

She turned to me. "Well, it's more like a date. At a bar. Do you wanna come?"

Why on earth would I want to accompany her on a date?

Aaron slammed his mug on the table and stood abruptly. "No, she came over to meet you. You can't leave."

She ignored him and grabbed my hand. "We'll get to know each other. I can always judge a person's character by how much they can drink."

I was a hundred percent sure that that wasn't true. "I wouldn't have anything to wear."

Aaron looked relieved. "Too bad."

She pouted. "Okay, well, it was nice meeting you." And just like that, she was gone.

"She's a bit of a party animal," Aaron said. "It's kind of how she deals with everything."

"How old is she?"

"Thirty-two."

She was still young, so going on a date, for someone her age, wasn't that unusual.