Thy Neighbor II: Lovin' The Crew

Chapter Two

Trevante feels relief once Ciara's name brightens up his phone screen. HIs text feels like such a Hail Mary after what went down last night and he's glad that it landed.

Although Trevante was happy that he and Ciara finally took it to the next level, he could tell that something was off about it – and her. Though he looked forward to the act itself, he mostly couldn't wait to experience the aftermath of it all; cuddling after the comedown, innocuous conversation as they both reorient themselves, playing with her braids as her head rests on his chest, waking up to her in his bed with the early sunrise peeking through his blinds and onto her skin.

All leading up to another round before work, her begging him not to go. Him kissing the forehead of her drained body before leaving off for the gym. Hell, skipping the gym just to spend more time with her before they would have to go their separate ways. Begging her to call out of work. He dreamt of it all. Ciara earned the fullness of Trevante, not playboy Tre. He wanted the complete moment to be with no one else but her. This could be wife, Trevante thought.

Boy was gone.

But he received a Ciara with a back turned away from him. Who, as he crept behind her, didn't respond to his arm draping around her waist trying to pull her close. And although Ciara looked, smelled and felt like everything he dreamt, he didn't get to try the most important sense of them all on her. He could tell that she wasn't present and accounted for, that it almost felt like she wanted for it to be over. Those noises he heard that one night failed to showed up. He just knew all of what happened last night to be off. And he hated it – and himself.

He felt like an ass after he caught a slight attitude when Ciara rebuffed his ask for phone sex that previous afternoon. This modus operandi started just weeks after Ciara and Trevante decided to give dating a try. They both couldn't stand not going home with each other. So one afternoon, in an empty office, Tre started it off and Ciara finished it. And ever since then, when Tre felt the need to get some part of Ciara, he'd give her a call. And she obliged, every time. He'd send her a text after to let her know how amazing she sounded. She would always delete it, racked with immense amounts of guilt.

Ciara never wanted to go there with Trevante but she feared that he would go deal with his desires with other women – which despite their new hobby, he did. Gym manager was still a frequent guest at Trevante's apartment on nights that Ciara worked late or had a late class. He even went over to her place, something Trevante hated to do. He still took girls' numbers and still received an attachment here and there from Alissa. As much as he thought he could handle Ciara's stipulations, he knew he wouldn't be able to do so. So with that loophole of them not being exclusive, Trevante took advantage. If an one-off with gym manager was enough to hold him until Ciara gave sex the green light, it was worth it. Enough to keep Ciara around. He didn't want to lose who he thought could be the one.

As "The One" sits on Trevante's couch with her laptop perched on top of her thighs, Trevante breaks Ciara's concentration.

"You hungry?" Trevante says as he hands over his carton of beef lo mein.

"Huh?" Ciara pulls out her earbuds as the smell of hood Chinese food carries in front of her. "My bad, Tre. You want me to try this?"

"No, I want you to eat. You've been staring at your laptop since you've been here."

Ciara smirks as she grabs her dinner from Trevante's hand. Studious Ciara is such a turn-on for Trevante. He desperately wants a redo of last night. "I could use a break."

"Word?" Trevante sits next to Ciara on the couch, removing her laptop from her body. Trevante lips meet Ciara's neck, his left hand trying to find its way inside Ciara's shorts. Ciara pulls away.

"Yo, C .... what's wrong?" Ciara hesitates to talk about last night but she needs to stand her ground. For once.

"I'm just not in the mood, Tre. This paper is killing me right now. I wasn't last night, to be honest."

"Yeah, I could tell. I didn't make you feel like you had to, right?"

"No, I mean..." Ciara's dam breaks. "You kinda do everytime you ask me to go there on the phone with you. Like, I can't always do it."

Ciara didn't want to last night until Trevante made his presence felt. Watching baseball games with Ciara became a coping mechanism for Tre, something he picked up after she insisted they'd watch games together when he was thinking about his Dad. When Ciara made an off-joke about Trevante's favorite team last night, he'd commenced to play fighting with her. She did that on purpose. She wanted to know that Trevante still desired her, that he wasn't holding her decision to not go there on the phone against her. That turned into kissing which turned into him touching her in ways that only she thought she knew. And at that point, she knew she still had his attention.

Tre feels guilty. "I'm sorry. I don't want you to feel like you have to do anything with me. We don't have to go there anymore, you got my word. Scout's honor." Trevante throws up the Boy Scouts hand sign and pouts in Ciara's direction. She playfully tugs on his beard in return.

"Appreciate you, Tre." Ciara plugs her headphones back in and burns away on her laptop. Trevante trades looks at her with stares at the playoff baseball game on his television screen. He kisses her forehead before he goes to bed, leaving her in his living room to type until her heart's content. Later waking up for a glass of water, he finds Ciara curled up on his couch, laptop staring at her sleeping body. He grabs a blanket to shield her from his apartment frigid air conditioning unit. He doesn't coaxed her into sleeping in his bed. That she-belongs-inside-my-apartment thing rears its beautiful head.