Kofi's Coffee

Chapter 8

Kofi POV:

The apartment was finally spotless. Melissa and I had decided to clean up since we invited Jhene over. Our apartment was nowhere near as nice as Jhene's. Her floors were wooden and shiny. Every appliance of hers looked brand new and expensive. The floor of our apartment was also wooden, but it had scratches on it and only looked shiny when you dropped water on it. The cupboards were beige in color, though they were originally white, and creaked every time you opened them. Basically, Jhene's house was a solid 10 out of 10 and mine was a 3. It kept us safe, dry, and warm which was all we needed. Apartments in LA are not cheap and Melissa and I weren't exactly rich.

Jhene told me she'd be getting here a little bit late because she had to finish something up in the studio. That gave me enough time to shower before she got here.

"Fifi," Melissa knocked on the bathroom door while I was showering, "We get a second pizza free if we pick it up so Imma head out now and go get it."

"Okay!"

I finished my shower and turned up the music that I had been playing from my speaker. Kelhani's voice rung out throughout the apartment. It was so loud that I hadn't heard the text messages my phone had been getting.

There was a brief silence as the song ended and switched to a new one. That since allowed me to hear that someone was knocking at the door. Melissa probably forgot her key. She does that all the time.

"Dammit, Melissa," I mumbled under my breath. I was only in a towel and my hair was pulled up into a very messy bun.

I wrapped the towel around myself a little tighter so that it wouldn't fall as I opened the door.

"Hi, sorry I'm early. I finished up in the studio early. I had texted, but you didn't answer," Jhene gave me a sheepish smile.

Well, that surprised me. Not in a bad way. But it did make me very aware of the fact that I was only wearing a towel. All of a sudden, I felt a little nervous. I could feel her eyes on me.

I hope she likes what she sees, I thought.

Wow, where did that come from? Kofi, pull it together.

"You're okay! Melissa just went to pick up the pizza. Come on in," I stepped aside and let her come in.

She had two bottles of wine in her hand. Taking them from her, I set them on my small kitchen bar, that also served as Melissa and I's dining room table.

"Imma get dressed," I could see she was taking the place in, "Make yourself at home."

I hurriedly threw on some sweats and a t-shirt and redid my hair into a less messy bun and went back out to the living room.

Jhene was on my sofa. Her head was leaned back on the sofa back with her eyes closed. The last time I had seen her, her hair had been straightened and it went a little past her shoulders, but now she had it in long black box braids. Her chest rose and fell with every breath. She looked so peaceful. I felt butterflies in my stomach looking at her.

Fuck. I shook my head and made my way over to the kitchen to grab two glasses. I don't know why I keep reacting this way to her. Maybe I'm still not over the whole celebrity factor. But deep down I knew that wasn't the reason.

I couldn't like Jhene. She was a girl. Not that I had a problem with girls liking girls, but I have only had feelings for guys before. The possibility of me liking a girl had never crossed my mind. But I guess I never really gave the idea enough thought for me to actually try to figure out my feelings. Ever since I was young, I had the image of me one day at the altar getting married to the man of my dreams. I guess I had shut down any other possibility at such an early age that I never had thought that maybe I wouldn't be standing next to a man at the altar. Maybe I had put myself into a box so early on in life that I never thought I could step outside of it.

Focus, Kofi.

Jhene was still taking a mini nap on my couch. Poor thing must be exhausted.

I grabbed one of the bottles of wine that she had brought and put it in the fridge so it'd stay cool. There was a french name on the bottle that I had never heard of.

Figuring I was too broke to understand the name, I filled the cups up halfway and took a seat on the opposite end of the couch.

My moments cause Jhene's eyes to stir a little then fully open.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," I handed her her cup, "Thanks for bringing the wine."

Sitting up straight, she took the cup and smiled, "Can I be honest?"

I nodded my head and took a sip of the wine while keeping eye contact.

"I don't know shit about wine," she stirred the drink around a little, "I just picked the one with a fancy-sounding name."

A smile spread on my face, what a cutie. I have to stop complimenting her inside my head.

"Congratulations on your role, by the way! I had forgotten to say that when I first came in," she smiled.

I thanked her and we began talking about things that had happened in our lives since we'd last seen each other.

The wine was sweet which made it super easy to drink. Time was starting to go by faster and my words started to get a little more slurred. I was on my third glass by the time Melissa came back.

"Melissa," I yelled as I got up from the couch excitedly, "You brought pizza!"

"And you brought a celebrity, holy shit," Melissa remarked as she put the pizzas on the kitchen bar and dodged my drunken attempt at a hug as she went over the introduce herself to Jhene.

Melissa, just like most people, loved celebrities. She always loved to fill me on celebrity drama that I had missed. She was a fan of Jhene's and probably knew more than I did about her.

"I'm Melissa," she stuck out her hand for Jhene to shake, "I'm Kofi's best friend, roommate, and better half."

Jhene seemed to be on the same level of drunk as I was cause she pulled Melissa into a hug.

"Kofi's told me a lot about you. I'm Jhene."

I sat back on the couch, right next to Jhene, and refilled my cup. I glanced over and noticed Jhene's cup was empty so I decided to refill that too even though we definitely didn't need more alcohol.

Melissa quickly caught up to our drunkness level while Jhene and I had taken a pause to eat pizza.

"This is the b-best food in the world," I slurred as I bit into my pizza.

A loud laugh escaped from Jhene, "Y-You're drunk as f-fuck."

"Y'all sound dumb as fuck," Melissa chuckled as she wiped some pizza off my face.

That just made Jhene and I burst out into more laughter.

There was a knocking at the door.

"Probably the neighbors telling us to keep it down," Melissa got up from the couch to answer it.

Jhene and I paid no attention to it.

"Penny, you have some pizza on your face," I told her.

"Get it for me, please," she gave me a puppy dog face.

I took my thumb and gently swiped it across her chin, getting rid of the tomato sauce.

My first instinct was to lick it off my thumb. And sadly, my ass was too drunk to stop myself from not doing it. Jhene began to laugh again but I was distracted by something. Melissa was standing halfway in/halfway out of the apartment as she argued with someone.

"Mels, everything okay?"

She shot me a quick look from around the door, "Everything's fine."

But her eyes gave her away. She was worried.

"What's going on?" I got up from the table and started towards the door.

"Kofi, sit down. I'm serious," Melissa ordered as she pointed back to where Jhene was.

I ignored her and looked behind the door. My blood instantly went cold once I saw who it was.

I wish I had listened to her.

"Hello, Kofi. Miss me?"