"What, baby doll?" Tara said, looking at her expression.
Annette was getting ready to grab Tara's hand and walk away, but it was too late.
"Look who's here," Leroy sneered.
When Annette didn't offer a hello, Tara responded for her, "Who are you?"
"I'm Leroy, baby." Leroy gave Tara a smug look, and looked at her a little too seductively up and down. Bianca took note and scowled.
"Annette," Anthony stepped forward, smiling at her breasts, taking in the way the jeans and tube top fit her body.
Tara looked from me to Anthony and then back to me again.
"Well, you ain't gonna say nothin'?" Anthony asked. Annette could tell that he had a little too much to drink from the slur in his speech. Annette knew him enough to know that he wasn't drunk, but he certainly had a strong buzz.
"Nothin' at all … " Annette snapped.
"I ain't seen you in minute, homegirl. I been callin' your phone like mad crazy and you can't even answer. How long you goin' stay mad?" Anthony stepped a little closer to her.
"As far as I'm concerned, you and I don't have anything to talk about," Annette said, stepping back.
"That's what you say. I miss that pussy, baby. When you goin' let daddy beat that pussy up again?" Anthony stepped forward again.
"You're fucking disgusting! Don't touch me." Annette hissed and she pushed him back. He stumbled, and then regained his stance.
Bianca's eyes were spread wide open and Leroy reached for his friend trying to calm him down.
"What?" Anthony said, reaching out and trying to grab her by the waist.
"Back the fuck up, nigga! Didn't you hear her?" Tara had gotten in front of her and pushed Anthony back, almost spilling his drink. Annette was so surprised at Tara's aggression and more surprised that she had stepped up for her.
"Whoa!" Anthony said, chuckling a little bit, "Damn, Annette, you ain't tell me that you was dykin'. What? You licking pussy now?"
Before Annette could check his ass, she felt a set of strong hands on her waist pulling her back into his chest. By the familiar smell of his cologne and firm, strong muscles in his chest, she didn't have to turn around to realize it was Jordan.
"Who the fuck are you? What's goin' on, Annette?" Mike said, angrily. They must have seen the quarrel from where they were standing in the crowd.
"Oh? So, you wit' this nigga now?" Anthony said.
Annette could tell that he was angry because the veins in his neck were popping up and his eyes were bloodshot red.
"Man, calm down. Let's walk away, man. Let's go," Leroy was trying to pull Anthony back.
"Answer me, Annette!" Anthony said, ignoring Leroy.
"I don't have to answer to you anymore!" Annette shouted.
Anthony took another step forward and Jordan pulled her even closer into his chest.
"Are you serious, man?" Anthony said, mean-mugging the fuck out of Jordan.
"Anthony, let it go," Leroy said, backing away trying to pull Anthony, too. Anthony snatched his arms away.
"Dude, listen to ya boy. You don't want none." Mike said to Anthony.
Anthony got even madder when he heard that and he threw his bottle of beer on the ground beside him. He threw it so hard, a drop of beer splashed out onto Annette's boots. At that moment, Jordan pulled her behind him and stepped in Anthony's face.
"You need to watch that shit, all right? Is there something you need to say to me … something you want to get off your mind?"
"Are you fuckin' my bitch?"
"I'm not your bitch! You know it's over," Annette screamed.
"You heard her, didn't you?" Jordan asked, standing his ground in front of Anthony. Anthony had his share of fights and would fuck a muthafucka up, but Jordan had him by a good four inches and about thirty pounds. Anthony wasn't a fool. He knew when to back away from a fight.
"Now, you need to calm down. Don't bring that dumb shit around me or around my crew. As a matter of fact, don't bring that dumb ass around Annette again. If you have a problem that needs to be solved, then we can solve that shit right here."
"What? You threatening me or something?"
"It ain't no threat, homeboy, that's for real."
"Do you know who you're dealing wit', nigga?" Mike said, stepping up beside Jordan.
"Shit, we can straighten this shit right now. We can do this right here!" Jordan said.
Anthony was pissed and Leroy was trying his best to pull him as far away as he can. Annette was even pleading in her own head for Leroy to pull Anthony away. She didn't want to see Anthony get his ass kicked.
"Let me tell you something, fool," Jordan started. "I don't waste time fightin' and shit. I will choke your ass out cold." Jordan's voice was so calm, but yet it sounded so serious.
The rest of the HEAT RYDERZ came out of nowhere and almost everyone at the party had their attention on the brawl going on near the bar.
"What's up, man? What's going on?" Troy came out of nowhere. Seeing Anthony acting a fool and shouting profanity at Jordan must have enraged Troy because he immediately reacted. "What? You got beef with my bro?"
Now, Jordan was pulling Troy back trying to prevent him from jumping on Anthony.
"Let me go. Let me get hold of your ass," Anthony was screaming at Troy, trying to get loose. This time it looked like he was making a little bit more effort to get loose from Leroy, because Troy was almost the same size as him.
"Muthafucka, I'm strapped. I'll merc yo' ass," Troy warned.
"Let's go, man. Let's go, y'all. We wastin' time here." Heat Ryder Travis came out of no where. "That nigga ain't gonna do shit." He pulled Troy away from Anthony successfully and the HEAT RYDERZ crew turned around and walked away.
"I dare you to do something." Troy taunted Anthony. Those were his last words as he shrugged his clothes back in order.
Like she thought, Anthony didn't do shit. And like she said, Anthony wasn't stupid. He knew how to avoid a good ass whopping.
After that, everyone decided it was time to leave to prevent any more flair ups. As we were walking back to the motorcycles, I grabbed Jordan's hand.
"I am so sorry that happened. I should have left."
"You don't need to apologize for that. That's not your fault. That guy is blatantly disrespectful."
"I just feel so bad for putting you and your friends in that situation."
"Don't worry about that. Okay?"
"I'm worried about it. I feel bad."
Jordan handed me my helmet and then took his. He gestured for Travis to come over to them. "Travis, Annette feels bad about what happened. She's sorry that she put us in that situation."
"Oh, baby girl, you don't have to be sorry about that. When you roll with us, we got your back. It's all good. You shouldn't take shit from that dude, anyway."
"Yeah," Troy had overheard the conversation. "I was praying for him to touch me or anyone else. I was gonna light his ass up so bad. We got you, shawty, plain and simple."
She swallowed. "Thanks, guys."
"See," Jordan said, helping her on the motorcycle. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forward, just before she pulled her helmet on. "We got you."
Chapter 18
When she and Jordan arrived back at his townhouse, he invited her to the small lake in walking distance of his front door. They were sitting on the bench and had just watched the sunset. For a moment, they didn't say anything, they just held each other's hand and looked up at the stars.
"I'm going to get to the point, Annette," he said, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. "I like you. I like you a whole lot. I was into you when you were in that relationship and I'm into you now. I can't imagine why you didn't tell me that you and your boyfriend had broken up."
"Jordan, it's only been two weeks, so this is all still so new. I just didn't want to think about it."
"What happened?"
"He was cheating on me."
"Oh."
"But, don't get me wrong. Our relationship was heading down south before that. We were just hanging on to each other, but the relationship wasn't the same anymore. I think we grew apart along time ago."
"That would explain why you asked me that question last weekend about cheating. So, basically, it's been two weeks and the guy figured out that he's made a big mistake and now he wants you back."
"That seems to be the case. Only thing he doesn't realize yet is that I'm not going back to him."
"So, it's over between you two now?" Jordan asked.
"It was officially over two weeks ago."
"Remember when we were at the house party?"
She nodded.
"Well, remember when I told you what my intentions were?"
"You want to have sex with me." She shouldn't have said it like that, but the fact of the matter was that's what she believed because that's what he said.