Annette scanned what she could see of the crowd, but didn't spot any hints of Anthony hanging around. Maybe someone had borrowed his car to get here. She sat down beside Tara and crossed her legs and Jordan followed suit sitting closely beside me.
"Girl, this little party is off the chain, isn't it," Tara said, looking over at her.
Annette smiled. "Yes, me and another friend actually attended a party over here about four months ago."
"Oh, for real. Where did you get that top? That shit is hot!"
"I think I might have ordered this one online."
"I wish I had breast that were as big and perky as yours. Gosh, I'm in a C, but my racks don't sit up like that!" Tara said, almost too loudly, grabbing both her breasts and re-organizing them in her skintight tank top. "You're a C cup, aren't you?"
"Thanks. Yeah." Annette was blushing like hell, hoping that Jordan hadn't over heard.
When Jordan leaned down and whispered in her ear, "C cups, eh?" she thought damn, not only does he know my head size, now he knows what size bra I wear.
Troy and David suddenly appeared in front of them with paper plates filled with grilled hot dogs and burgers. "Ey, man, they just took an ass of meat off the grill over there. Y'all better go get some food. Look at all these greedy ass muthafuckas ‘round here. If y'all keep sitting on your asses and wait for everything to get ate up, y'all might not get to eat." He had just devoured a whole hot dog in three bites and was picking up another on his plate.
"Troy, the only greedy ass muthafucka ‘round here is you," Tara spat.
"Whateva!" Troy said, and disappeared in the crowd again.
"You want some food?" Jordan asked Annette. "I'll go pick you up something, if you want."
"No, I'm not hungry. You go." Jordan got up.
"Tara?"
"No, thanks, babe." Tara nodded her head.
"I'll be right back," Jordan said. She watched as Jordan, Mike, and Travis took off to go get their plate.
"So, baby doll, how long you and Jordan been together," Tara started talking to her when the guys disappeared.
"We're not together, together. We're just friends. We've only known each other for a minute."
"Just friends," she said, raising her eyebrows. "That's what you say. You two haven't left each others side since you stepped foot in his house today." Tara cracked a smile and Annette caught a glimpse of her tongue ring.
"Believe it or not, we are," Annette said, smiling.
"Well, that may be the case now, but I've been around long enough to know that Jordan really digs you. He doesn't let too many girls on the back of that motorcycle with him. Shit, I would dig you, too … if I was a guy. You're cute, baby doll," Tara continued, crossing her legs just like Annette had, and lifting her elbows up on the back of the picnic table. When she turned to look at Annette again, she said, "How would you rate him in bed?"
Annette almost burst out laughing. "What? Did you not hear what I just said? We're friends! We haven't slept together!" Tara was a really bold one. Nice girl, but really bold.
"Just wondering. I hope you don't get jealous when I tell you this, but a lot of girls come and go out of Jordan's life. And don't get mad at him for that because he's a guy, you know. I've asked every one of them the same question about how good he is in bed on a scale of 1 to 10 and almost all of them said he topped the Richter scale!"
Annette eye's widened in surprise and then she placed a serious expression on her face. "I'm not one to get jealous. Especially since we're just friends." Annette believed that she meant that statement, too. She knew the moment she saw Jordan that he was a lady's man. Heck! He was built for a woman's eyes. He was eye candy, all right. "But let me ask you this. If he shook the Richter scale with those girls, where are they now?"
Tara shrugged. "Beats me. I do know that Jordan is very, very, extremely picky with his women. But you're a dime piece, baby doll, so I know why he picked you."
When the guys came back satisfied with their plate of food, Annette was kinda sorry that she didn't get any more information out of Tara about Jordan. It seemed like she would tell it all if they had time. Or at least most of it. Annette knew that she should still recognize that Tara was a HEAT RYDER and she would stick up for Jordan and the other members no matter what.
"You sure you don't want any?" Jordan was sitting beside her eating the hamburger.
"No, thanks." She guessed that the hamburger was small to Jordan because he ate the whole thing in less than four bites. Annette could tell right there that the brothers shared some of the same habits.
"What? Why are you smiling?" Jordan asked.
She didn't realize that she was smiling. "Nothing. I was just thinking about something. But can I have some of your water?" She pointed to the bottled water between them.
"I don't know where your mouth been." He smiled, mocking her from earlier today.
She rolled her eyes at him, smacked her teeth, and helped herself to a sip of his water anyway.
"They have some wine coolers up there, if you're interested."
"I might go get one a little later," Annette said.
"Did I tell you that you're the most beautiful woman here?" Jordan placed the empty plate on the table behind him and reached for his water.
"Stop being so silly," she said.
"No really. And you feel good riding on the back of my bike with me, too."
"I actually like riding on your bike with you," she said.
"Oh, yeah." He pulled a fast move and before she knew it, his hands were around her waist and pulled her into his side. "Then we should do that more often."
Annette didn't protest because nothing in her wanted to. "We should."
"You know … I was thinking how I was going to apologize for kissing you … but now I don't know if that may be necessary," he said, looking at her, eagerly, for the answer.
"You said that we would talk about it later. I was going to tell you earlier, but as you can see I was pushed to tell you a little prematurely without all the facts. I'm sorry if I upset you."
"I'm not upset." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.
Tara nudged her. "Hey Annette … Jordan, me and Mike are headed to the bar. Wanna come?"
She and Jordan nodded and they got up. She and Tara led the way to the bar as Mike and Jordan followed closely behind. On the way to the bar, the guys stopped to talked to a few people they knew.
"Oh, here they go wanting to converse with these cats." Tara rolled her eyes, then she yelled back to them, "Are y'all coming?!"
"Go on! Y'all go ahead. We'll meet you over there," Mike yelled back, motioned for them to go ahead. Annette looked at Jordan, who nodded at her.
"Okay, girl, let's go," Tara said, grabbing her hand as they pushed their way through the crowd. When they got there, they got wine coolers and stood off to the side, waiting for Jordan and Mike.
"Annette!" A familiar voice screamed out her name. It was Bianca! "What are you doing here, girl?"
Bianca rushed over to her, wine cooler in hand.
"Bianca, hey, what's up?" Annette smiled, hugging her friend.
"This party is off the chain," Bianca said, and then she looked at Tara.
"Bianca, this Tara. Tara … Bianca." Bianca and Tara both nodded at each other.
"Did y'all come together?"
"Yeah, I'm actually over here with Jordan and his crew," Annette replied.
"Oooh, girl! For real?" Bianca was giving her a "oh, no you didn't" look.
"Yeah."
"Oh, is TJ here, too?" Bianca asked, eagerly.
"Yeah, somewhere over by the picnic tables," Annette said, pointing in the direction.
"You date one of the HEAT RYDERZ, don't you?" Bianca said to Tara.
"I do. And I am a HEAT RYDER." Tara took a sip of her drink, and then peered around Bianca as if she was looking for Mike and Jordan. The two were taking a long time to come over there.
"Who are you here with?" Annette asked Bianca.
"Uh-" Bianca turned and looked over her shoulders. "Me and you might have to talk." She looked at Tara as if she didn't want to spill any juicy details in front of her.
"What? Tell me! I'm not waitin' either." Annette was going to make her spill all. Who cared if Tara was standing there?
"Me and Leroy are back together." The moment it came out of Bianca's mouth, she was utterly shocked. After the two of them broke up, they acted like they hated each other's guts. Talk about a bombshell!
"What! What happened?"
"It just happened like that one day. But I'll have to give you juicy details later," Bianca said.
Annette's smile suddenly turned into a frown when she spotted Leroy and Anthony was right behind him, beer in hand. "Oh, my God," Annette mumbled.