"How was that?" Jordan asked her as they removed their helmets.
"Fun," she breathed, running her fingers through her hair to straighten it out.
"I think they stopped here to eat. You hungry?"
"Sure."
They all walked through the parking lot and through the mall to get to the burger joint everyone agreed on. Annette remembered that Anthony used to bring her here when they first started dating. She immediately banished all thoughts of Anthony out of her head. Today, she didn't have time to think about him. She didn't even have time to think about how he had wronged her. She wanted to focus on Jordan. Everyone sat outside on the patios and began chowing down on their burgers and fries. When she and Jordan were done eating, he ordered her a cherry milkshake at her request and they began walking back to the parking lot where they left the bikes. She noticed that the others had not followed along and were nowhere in sight.
"Where are the others?"
"Probably in the mall acting like fools. They'll be out here shortly. Why? You wanna go join them," he said, leaning on his motorcycle.
"Not to act like fools. But, really … you and your friends are fun to be around and hang out with. You guys know how to have fun."
"Trust me. This ain't the half of it, yet."
Annette wrapped her lips around the straw and took a sip of her cherry milkshake. "Mmmm. This is good."
"Can I taste?" he asked, using her free hand to pull her closer to him.
She didn't protest to getting closer to him. In fact, she would rather be on top of him. "Taste? I don't know where your mouth been. You might have germs." She scrunched up her nose.
Jordan laughed. "I could think of numerous places where I want my mouth to be on you, of course."
She took another sip of her shake. "Mmmmm, good," she teased him, without making any moves to offer him any.
"Oh, so you gonna tease me like that, Annette?"
"You knew that I was a tease when you met me … so don't be all surprised. I may be a tease, but I don't give in so easy. I'm not easily convinced to give in either."
"Is that all I have to do? Convince you to give in … to me," he had pulled her too close to him. She was now pressed to his rock hard chest and pelvis area. She didn't know if it was just the sun beaming down on them, but it felt like her whole body was on fire.
"I … "
The milkshake cup in her hand was the only thing separating their lips from touching. She had just stopped midway of another sip before he had pulled her into his body. The milkshake cup was not much of a barrier because he maneuvered around it and pressed his full set of lips against hers in a kiss. His lips lingered on hers for a moment, and then he pulled back and looked at her, as if asking for permission to continue, but her brain was not working and her body felt frozen. He pressed several more kisses on her lips again and coaxed her mouth open. When she felt his tongue against her lips, she began kissing him back. She felt his hands move to the very tops of her jeans, not touching, but resting near her ass, as they kissed feverishly as if they were not standing in the middle of a crowded mall parking lot. Their tongues interlaced and moved together in unison. She felt ripples climb up her spine when he moved his hands up her back, pulling her in even more. She didn't want the kiss to stop, but they had to come up for air or they would have suffocated trying to tongue kiss the hell out of each other. As she breathed uncontrollably, he pressed small kisses along the side of her neck that caused her whole body to shiver. He moved to the other side of her neck and did the same.
"Jordan … " she whispered, in protest, but she was still lifting her neck to give his lips easy access. He ignored her and gently kissed her lips closed, preventing anymore fake protests from her. Finally, he pulled back a little, but when he moved forward again, she thought he was going to kiss her, but instead he wrapped his lips around the straw of her cherry milkshake and took a long sip.
"Mmmmm. Good," he said, mocking her from earlier.
Annette smiled. "Ha, Ha, Ha. Very funny."
"I convinced you, didn't I?"
Before she could say anything, they were both startled when the crew started walking toward them. Apparently, they were done eating and acting a fool in the mall.
"Hey," Travis said, nodded towards Jordan. "We're going to Shalene's picnic on ‘da east side. Some cats in the mall said they got a call saying that shit is off the chain right now."
"Yeah," Troy said, pulling on his helmet, "And they got free food, too."
"Boy, you just ate! Your greedy ass." Tara laughed at Troy.
"What that got to do with it? And I'll eat again, muthafuckas." Troy said, revving up his motorcycle.
"You all right?" Jordan asked, hands around Annette's waist as they walked the distance to the private party someone was having on their lawn. The streets were jammed pack with cars parked bumper to bumper, confirming that the party was off the hook. They couldn't even find a place to park the motorcycles and had to park two blocks down, which was why they were all walking.
"Yeah," she said as she caught a glimpse of Mike carrying Tara piggy-back style and as laughed and joked. "Those two are cute together."
"They've been seeing each other for years now," he said, as they stood at the cross section waiting for the okay from the streetlights to cross the street. "I think they were meant for each other. They have wild sex life. Really wild."
"What do you mean? Wild sex life?"
"They share. Not exactly open relationship, but they invite others in their bed. She claims she just likes to have fun in the bed and try new things with her man and that she's not bisexual, but I beg to differ. Mike enjoys it."
"Oh," No wonder Tara was being extra nice to her. "Does he share her with other men, too?"
"No. Mike doesn't get down like that. They only bring females into the mix."
"I guess most men would find that appealing, but … "
Annette stopped halfway in her speech and her eyes mouth dropped open. Only about three feet away from the beginning of the picnic, she spotted a tricked out, brand new, shiny, black Mercedes with license plates reading JLYRICS. It was Anthony's car! She stopped abruptly in her tracks. And so did Jordan.
"What's the matter?" Jordan asked, looking from her to the retreating backs of the rest of his crew.
"He's here. Anthony's here."
"Where? Did you see him?"
"No, that's his car." She pointed to the tricked out Mercedes.
"I'm sorry for bringing you here. I didn't know he would be here. I don't want to get you in trouble. You want to leave?" He reached out and took her arms in a comforting gesture.
She started walked in the opposite direction of the picnic. "Jordan, listen … " They were posted up against the brick wall enclosing another home on the street. None of the picnic attendees could see them at that angle. "Anthony and I broke up."
"What?" Jordan looked totally confused.
"We broke up a little while back. If I knew he would be here, I wouldn't haven shown up here … like this. I've been trying to avoid him."
"Why didn't you tell me? When did this happen?"
"Look, I don't want drama to go down here. I haven't talked to Anthony since we've broken up and you don't know Anthony. He has a bad temper, so I don't know how he will take this. Us."
"I'm not worried about ya boy," Jordan said, placing his palms against the brick wall beside her, looking down at her. "It's you I'm worried about. If you're uncomfortable, let's leave. I want you to be happy."
"I just don't want Anthony to get angry. We--,"
"Get angry? So what if he gets angry? From what you just told me...and why the hell you didn't tell me before, I don't know … you and he broke up. Fuck him! You can move on with your life."
Annette took a deep breath and took in what he just said and realized that he was right. "You're right. Let's go. Let's just avoid him, at all costs, if we see him."
Jordan took her by the hand. "You and I are gonna have to talk about this bombshell that you've been keeping from me. We'll talk about that later, though. Let's eat, drink, and have some fun, okay?"
She smiled, but as they started walking she couldn't help but wonder if he was mad at her deep down inside for withholding the fact that she was now a single woman. She wondered if he considered her one of those "immature females" that he was talking about earlier. She should have told him that day she sprained her ankle.
When they turned the corner, she was relieved that Anthony didn't come busting out of the crowd somewhere out to cause problems. She really hoped that she didn't even see him today. The crowd was so deep that she doubted that it would be a problem. As they walked over to the rest of the crew who had taken a seat at an empty wooden picnic table, she suddenly figured out how popular HEAT RYDERZ was. They drew attention like a moth to a flame. Several male and females began making their way over to say their hellos and pay their respects.