Crossing Lines & Breaking Walls

Good Ol' RESPECT

True to his word a group of four men came to my home bright an early. I woke up a few hours early to straighten up in the basement and anywhere else I thought they may look around.

I also went to get something for whomever showed up to eat. I had donuts and coffee ready for them from Dunkin' Donuts...two dozen since I didn't know who was coming or how much they could eat.

I was busying myself in the kitchen while three men were downstairs measuring things and taking pictures while Wun Su waited outside on the porch for Odell to arrive.

I have to say, Wun surprised me a lot! I thought he would have been some old Chinese man who spoke broken English that I wouldn't be able to understand...turns out he's Odell's age and talks better English than me! Cracking jokes, telling me how they met in college...once Odell told him his plans of coming back here...Wun was right with him.

"Aja! Good morning beautiful." I looked up from washing the ribs in the sink and saw Odell and Wun walking in.

"Good morning Odell." I smiled and quickly looked him over and went back to my task.

Odell had on a black shirt with Aaliyah on it, some red joggers and red and black Jordans.

"We having ribs?!" I smiled at his excitement and opened my mouth to respond, but I felt his body behind me and soon his arms were around my waist and his chin was on my shoulder...reminding me once again we need to talk about personal space.

I washed my hands and moved his hands from around me. I turned around; causing him to lift his head to see Odell barely moved back, just had his hands down at his side. I looked over and saw Wun glancing at us, but trying to keep his eyes on his over sized Ipad.

"Uh...Odell...five feet please?" I placed my hands up. Odell raised a brow and looked me over. I looked back at Wun and when I did his eyes went back to his Ipad, but this time he had a smile playing on his face.

I looked back up at Odell and saw his eyes were still roaming over me before he took another step towards me and our bodies were now touching. I let out a small gasp and backed into my sink. Odell eyes settled on mine. He bit down on his lip and released it slowly while cocking his head to the side. I swallowed the lump that has suddenly formed in my throat and tried to control my breathing. Just as I felt my my hands start to shake with nerves; he smirked at me before outright laughing and moving away from me with his hands up.

"My bad "Ms. Aja"...I'm just playing. Su let's go take a look at everything and see if anything needs changing with the plans." He nodded towards Wun and grabbed a chocolate donut on his way down the basement.

As they went down to the basement, I stayed in my spot looking straight ahead. I closed my eyes and started taking slow deep breaths and wrung my hands until they stopped shaking.

This boy had me acting like a damn teenager and I had a crush on my hot next door neighbor or something! The look in his eyes just screamed at any point in time he could have me any way and at any time he so pleased and it was a turn on and scary at the same time!

Once I felt myself calm down, I opened my eyes and turned back around. I filled up a big pot with water and put the ribs in. After putting all of my seasonings in; I turned the fire down to low. With that being on the back burner I set the timer for three hours and cleaned up my mess before slowly heading down to the basement.

I was a few steps away from the bottom and for a few minutes listened to Odell give orders and ask questions about what was next.

"So Odell, what is the budget for all of this? I can get a crew out either today or tomorrow to start demo-" My mouth dropped at how soon everything could start and I slowly sat down on the step and listened for an answer.