Synergy (17 page)

“
How high are
those heels though
?” he asked
jokingly.

“
They’re not that
high
” she insisted.

“
You just lost
half your height
!” he laughed, sitting
down on the sofa next to her. She smirked, and looked his way,
their eyes meeting for half a second.

“
You want a
drink
?” he asked, as he hopped up from the
sofa again and made his way to the drinks
selection.

“
There’s orange,
pineapple, cranberry
...” he tailed off, as
he looked at the drinks that lay before him.

“
No
wine
?” she asked jokingly, picking up a
hotel menu that lay on the table in front of her.

“
They were all
out
”

“
Guess I’ll take a
cranberry then
.”

“
Vodka
cranberry
?”

“
Sure. Make it a virgin
one”

After he
poured them both a drink, he sat back down next to her and put
their drinks onto the coasters on the coffee table. Dee looked up
from the menu she was studying, and glanced at the drinks he’d just
made.

“
You can have a
beer you know. Just ‘cuz I can’t
.”

Jason shook his head. “
I don’t
mind
.”

Though
it may have been awkward in the car earlier that night, once the
pair of them had begun talking about food and what they were going
to watch, the conversation started to flow more easily. While they
knew they needed to talk about more pressing business, i.e. her
pregnancy and what they were going to work out between them with
the child, their conversation didn’t seem to head that way.
Instead, they decided on what food they were going to eat, and then
ordered it from the hotel phone. That prompted a discussion about
favourite foods and places to eat, and of course, their mother’s
home cooking. While Jason shared tales of his mother and
grandmother’s amazing food, Dee told a different story of a mother
who found it a chore to cook. While she noted her mother’s cooking
was as good as anybody’s, she said she didn’t find the time to do
it very often with working so many jobs. Jason couldn’t believe
that her mom worked three jobs, and suddenly, he had admiration for
a woman he had never met. He knew times were hard for his own mom
while he was growing up, and while she had worked hard, she had
never had to sacrifice so much of her time between multiple
jobs.

Jason
found himself more and more intrigued by Dee the more he spoke to
her. He felt like on the surface he saw this beautiful woman but
inside, she had so many different layers. As they watched TV, she
would talk to the characters, vulgar in her tone, swearing at them
for their actions. He found her fascinating to watch, especially to
see how such a small person with such a sweet sounding voice had
such a vulgar tone to her. He found it funny, really. As far as
voices go, she really did have a sweet sounding voice at times. He
thought that if he’d never heard her swear, he could imagine her
being this good, mild mannered girl, but some of her choice words
were anything but mild mannered. He laughed with her as she spoke;
enjoying seeing her character develop more the longer they spent
together. He really felt like he was getting to know this girl, and
he liked it. Suddenly, he realised that he wanted to make it work
in more ways than one.

Once
they had finished eating and their plates were cleared away, Dee
sat back comfortably and thought about how to ebb the subject of
her pregnancy. She didn’t want to ruin a good conversation, but she
knew no good would come of putting it off. Not one to think through
her words carefully, she decided to just go in full force and ask
what needed to be said.

“
So, what are we doing, with the baby and shit? I know you
said you wanna be involved, but is that like financially or you
gonna come and see them on a regular?”

Taken
aback by her lack of subtly, Jason took a deep breath and turned to
face her.

“
I wanna be there 100%. Financially, emotionally. I’m that
kids father right.”

“
You wouldn’t be the first guy to skip town.”

“
I’m not that guy. Trust me.”

“
So you gonna be taking plane trips every month? Every
weekend?”
Jason thought for a second. “I...guess I haven’t thought it through
completely but, I just know I wanna be there every step of the
way.”

“
You don’t gotta stick around for
the scans and shit, I know you prolly’ got places to be or
whatever. Work and all that.”

“
No, I want to. I
really do. I think I’m gonna stay based here around work, for now
at least. We’ll figure something out when the baby gets
here
.”

Dee
nodded acceptingly before Jason spoke again.

“
I...Kind of wanna
get to know the baby’s mom for now
.”

“
I thought that’s
what we were doing
.”

“
No...I mean,
really get to know. I really like you, Dee
.”

Dee
thought she might have just blushed, though she wasn’t sure she’d
ever done that. As a defence mechanism, she wavered off his
words.

“
You don’t even
know me. How can you know you like me
” she
said, purposely avoiding eye contact.

“
I know I like
what I’ve seen so far
” Jason said, as he
watched her eyes floating around the room.

He put
his hand out to touch her knee, inviting her to look at him. Her
deep brown eyes met his and he spoke to her again.

“
Seriously. I
thought you were beautiful from the first night I met you, but
you’re not just skin deep. You’ve got this amazing personality;
you’re funny, and witty. And you swear more than any woman I’ve
ever known, but I love it.
” He
joked.

Dee
looked at him intently, listening to his words.

“
I just know that
I want you around, and I wanna try and make this work. Is it so bad
that I wanna take my baby’s momma on a date
?” he joked again.

Dee
smiled, and it met his. But still, she wavered him away, telling
him to ‘shut up.’

Again,
Jason got her attention to turn back to him by brushing her arm,
and once more, their eyes met.

“
You’re
amazing
.” Jason said
again.

Dee
looked into his bright blue eyes, and saw the way he was looking at
her. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat, like she was nervous, or
excited, and then she wondered whether he was going to kiss her.
His eyes flickered from her eyes to her lips and slowly, he made
his way toward her. Instinct caused her to move his way too, and
suddenly their lips were touching. Something about what he had said
had put some kind of passion in her, and she sucked on his lips
with a sense of urgency, before he started to run his fingers
through her hair. She could feel it radiating from him that he
wanted her, and that only spurred her advances further. She let out
a small moan into his lips and slowly, he lowered her back onto the
sofa, climbing on top of her. His hands explored her body as if for
the first time and before she knew it, clothes were being thrown
onto the floor. His words had struck a match inside of her,
fuelling a passion that she didn’t know she’d had before. She
straddled him, their naked bodies moving together.

Dee
didn’t know what made Jason’s words different to the lines she’d
heard from men before, but she believed him when he spoke. He had
an honesty about him, and she believed he was genuine. It wasn’t a
cheesy line or something he had rehearsed, he truly thought that
about her, and she hadn’t heard that a lot. All she knew was she
wanted to make him feel good, like he had made her feel. The first
night they’d slept together, neither of them really remembered any
details, alcohol had prevented that. This time may as well have
been the first. This time neither of them would forget how it felt,
and they didn’t have alcohol to use as an excuse. After they
climaxed, Dee threw herself into the seat next to him, as they both
caught their breaths.

“
Wow
” Jason said, causing Dee to
giggle, embarrassed beside him.

“
I didn’t mean to do
that"

“
You’re totally forgiven”

Chapter 15 – Deleisha

After
the two of them put some clothes back on to protect their modesty,
there was a bit of an awkward silence. Luckily, Jason had a good
sense of humour, so when all else failed, he could always crack a
joke to ease the tension in the air.

“
So was that a yes
to a date
?” he asked, smirking slightly as
he waited for her answer.

Dee
rolled her eyes at his comment, but still, she said yes. She
thought she could probably do a lot worse, and since they were
about to have a baby, maybe it wasn’t the worst idea to try and
make things work. He seemed genuine, and she liked that. She’d been
with Trey since she was a teenager, and so she’d never really had a
man tell her things like Jason had. The fact he was a few years
older than her was probably a good thing too, since she knew how
much more immature men could be compared to women. Though he liked
to crack a joke, she didn’t see Jason as immature. Considering his
speech about how he was going to provide for her and the baby, she
knew he had a serious side to him, and she liked that she’d seen
that already. She thought something as huge as a baby coming into
the world should be enough to make a man wise up, but unfortunately
she’d seen it time and time again that it didn’t.

Her
brother had a daughter of his own with his high school girlfriend,
but that didn’t stop him creeping around with other women, or
breaking up and making up with her every few months. The pair of
them were supposed to be role models to their little girl, but
sometimes that little girl didn’t know whether she was coming or
going. Sometimes her mother and father were together, sometimes
they weren’t. Sometimes daddy lived with mommy and sometimes he
lived with grandma. Shontelle was four years old, and it was unfair
to confuse a child like that. That’s how Dee knew she couldn’t do
the same to Tushaun. She wondered sometimes whether Tushaun was the
motivation she needed to break up with Trey once and for all. She
knew it wasn’t fair to her son. She was glad Jason had stepped up
to the plate, but she knew things might change once the baby
arrived. Either way, she was going to try, and if it failed, she
could say she tried.

As the
two of them sat for a while idly watching what was on the
television screen, Jason glanced at the time on his Rolex and
realised how late it was getting. He was sad at the prospect,
because that meant he’d probably have to drop Dee home soon, and he
was enjoying her company. He didn’t remember the last time he’d had
a day off from work and had just sat with a woman, enjoying her
company. It had been years since he’d had a girlfriend that was in
the spotlight too, and though they understood each other’s
lifestyles, it was often hard to make time for one another. He’d
always thought it would be easier to have a girlfriend that wasn’t
part of this industry, someone who could make time for him, and
bring him back down to earth away from the fans and the
media.

“
It’s getting
pretty late
.” Jason announced.
“
You got any plans for the rest of the
night
?”

“
No, Tushaun’s at his dads so,
pretty much just chilling”

Jason nodded. “
You could always stay
if you like. You could have the bed, I’ll take the
floor
.”

Dee laughed a little then. “
You
don’t have to sleep on the floor. We just did that and you’re
worrying about sleeping next to me
?”

Jason shared her laughter. “
Guess it
does sound a little stupid.
”

“
But yeah, why
not
” she agreed.

“
There’s fresh
towels in the bathroom if you wanna shower or anything, I’m gonna
go anyway
.”

“
Thanks, I’mma
take you up on that
.”

Jason
watched her walk to the en-suite bathroom at the end of the room,
and shut the door. He thought about previous events and shook his
head disbelievingly that he’d just had sex with this beautiful
woman again. He hoped she didn’t think that’s all he was interested
in, but he wasn’t complaining either. He’d only meant to kiss her
earlier, but he felt the passion she’d brought to the table and he
couldn’t help but take it further. He got the feeling that he was
in for the ride of his life with this girl. There was something
exciting about her. She wasn’t the usual polite, well behaved woman
who did things the proper way, but he liked that. She said what she
thought and he could tell she could handle herself. He thought
there was nothing sexier than an independent woman.