#1 In the Company of a Stranger (A fanfic-complete)

Hold on, Life Changes

Odell's best friend, Jarvis, came into town a few weeks later and Odell, who just could not let sleeping dogs lie, took this as an opportunity to challenge me and Nylah again.

"This gone be perfect. Jarvis and I are college best friends. You and Nylah are college best friends. The dynamic duo versus whoever the hell the two of ya'll s'posed to be. We'll see who comes out on top this time."

"You won on the track -multiple times Odell. We're even now." I sighed.

"Nope! Odell doesn't do even. Odell beats asses soundly."

"Odell needs to stop talking about himself in third person." I laughed.

"Smart ass. Just get ready. Savage.com. Apex predators, baby!! You don't even know what that means." Odell winked as he set up the card table and pulled out his "special" deck. Having a special deck didn't help last time, I don't know why he had such confidence in it this time. And for an apex predator, he sure did lose a lot. But I'd learned quickly to just go with it. Fighting it just made the shit talking worse.  Fortunately, Odell had given up on spades and switched the game to poker. Best two combined hands. Unfortunately for him, I was even better at poker than spades.

"Umm hmm. You're still going to lose bae. Sorry." I rolled my eyes setting out snacks. I was not concerned in the least.

"Yea, we'll see about that Ms Cocky.  This time I got a real partner who actually knows cards.  The losers got dropped."  Odell shot back referring to Ben and TJ.

Whatever. I just hoped I got along better with his best friend than his mother. Nervous as hell, I was in the midst of a bad case of OCD and had spent most of the afternoon cleaning and recleaning Odell's house though it wasn't really that messy.

"Aight chill a sec baby girl. Jarvis is cool peeps." I felt Odell's arms circle around my waist and his lips press against the back of my neck. He rocked me side to side soothingly like a crying baby. "Don't worry. We're gonna have fun tonight.  Then I'ma take you home and we can relive your birthday night over and over again."

I  giggled as he nibbled at my shoulder trying to distract me from myself.  Turning around to face him, I kissed his lips and then puffed, "It's just every time we introduce each other to someone important in our lives, it never goes well."

"That's only our mothers." Then Odell pecked my lips again. "Believe me, Juice is the furthest thing from a mother. Not only that but he's a helluva poker player. If you gonna be worried... worry about that. We kickin' asses and taking names tonight, beybah."

He let go and strutted back over to the table starting to set up the chips.

"Yep." I still wasn't worried. Odell narrowed his eyes at me clearly annoyed at just how unconcerned I looked.

"And when we win, I plan to collect big." Odell pressed on with the shit talking, following me as I walked back out into the kitchen. "You wanna hear the bet or what?"

"Ok. What's the bet that I'm about to win?" I chuckled.

Odell stale faced me again and then said, "when I win, you sell your condo and move in here. And if by some fluke you win, you sell your condo and move in here."

I froze at the sink and frowned, no longer laughing. Then I turned and looked at him expecting to see a smirk. His face was completely serious. We just stared at each other for a moment.

Finally Odell spoke. "I'm tired of going back and forth Cas. We're together every night anyway. And there are weeks at a time that we're so busy all we do is sleep together.  It just makes sense. That way when you're outta town you ain't gotta worry about having someone watch your crib and vice versa. I got too much room here anyhow."