I went home Tuesday morning after the Labor Day game night fiasco, exhausted and sore. I stayed up super late with Jake proving to him he was the only person I wanted to be with. I was so glad I didn't have to be at work. The only reason I was up was that Jake woke me up on his way out. Moving forward, I was going to let my actions outside the bedroom show that I loved him.
I entered my apartment Tuesday morning, went straight to my room, took a hot bath to relax my body, and dragged myself to bed. I slept for a few more hours before I got up. I went down the stairs when I heard Sammy up and about. I was surprised to see Corey in the kitchen with her eating cereal.
"Good morning." I said, giving them both a smile.
"Hey." Sammy said.
"Good morning." Corey greeted me.
I grabbed a cereal bowl from the cabinet to join them.
"So... I heard there was some drama last night." Sammy questioned.
"Yeah?" I said, not wanting to get into it with her.
"Rocky called asking if you came home and she told me to have you call her as soon as possible." Sammy explained.
"Urgh, I haven't even looked at my phone. I hope she didn't call anyone else." I sighed.
"You and Jake ok?" Sammy asked.
"Yep." I said, simply.
"I'll let you two have girl talk. I'll call you later Sammy." Corey said, putting his bowl away. She gave him a hug before he left.
"So, what's going on there?" I asked Sammy as soon as I heard the door close.
"We literally just crashed. We made plans to hang out after I was done with work, but I was so tired. He came over and watched me sleep." Sammy smiled.
"Awww creepy, but cute." I smiled too.
"Speaking of creepy, but not so cute, what's really going on with you and Jake?" Sammy asked, hands on her hips.
I thought about what Jake said about getting advice from her. "Nothing. Really. We're ok. I didn't come home because I was with him." I replied.
Sammy looked skeptical, but left it alone and went back to bed. I checked my phone. I returned Rocky's text saying I was ok and would meet her for lunch. I went for a run at the nearby park. I came home, showered, and dressed in jean shorts and a tank before meeting Rocky for lunch.
She was wearing oversized shades, slacks, and a button-down. She wore no make-up and her short hair was pulled back into a clip. I could tell she was hurting. I did want to see where her head was at with the whole Brandon/Bilal situation, but thanks in part to her drunken antics, I now had to focus on my own relationship. Last night, as I drove to Jake's apartment, I wished for a hangover from hell on her. Now, I felt bad when I looked at her. It didn't stop me from giggling at her sad appearance.
"It's not funny Lily. I fucked up." Rocky moaned.
"Poor baby. Want some bread?" I grinned, reminding her of our bathroom dialogue.
Rocky frowned. "I'm so sorry. I can't believe I said that last night."
"I can't believe you remember what you said."
"Oh yeah. If EJ's question, Ethan's face, and Jake and you running out didn't sober me up, Brandon going off definitely did." Rocky explained.
"What?" I said, shocked. She was way out of line last night, but I didn't think Brandon had the cojones to go off on her.
"Yeah. The party kinda ended when y'all left. Brandon was so pissed at you so I told him what I said and what you said and why we were in the bathroom in the first place. I told him the truth about inviting Bilal." Rocky explained.
"Rocky, you didn't have to-"
"Yes, I did. Now he's not speaking to me. He slept on the couch last night." Rocky admitted.
"Are y'all going to be ok?" I asked.
"I hope so, but if Brandon hasn't already, I will tell Jake what happened. I'm really sorry." Rocky said again.
"Rocky, it's ok. Really. Jake and I are fine." I reassured her.
She just looked at me.
"Well, we will be fine, but don't blame yourself. It's completely on me." I admitted.
I truly felt that way. I didn't take Jake seriously when we first met; He was right about that. Between Rocky's opinion of him and him hooking up with Sammy, I didn't want to get to know him. When I did, I fought my feelings for him because of my pre-judgments. I finally accepted my feelings, but I still didn't treat him fairly. In my need to prove my independence, I was selfish and disregarded his feeling. I know how I felt just thinking he and Criscelle hooked up. Jake knew the sordid history of Ethan and me. I couldn't imagine how he must have felt having Ethan constantly around me. I needed to address and correct that.
"I'm fixing it. Wish me luck." I smiled.
"Yeah. Ditto." Rocky said. I gave her a hug before we went our separate ways.
I called Jasmine to set up a hair appointment after lunch. She said she could take me then so I headed over to the shop. She gave me side-swept bangs that looked amazing with the light brown color added to my blonde hair. She was friendly and chatty, so I knew Jake didn't tell her about our fight.
"I have really cute pictures of you and Jake from this weekend. I was going to post them, but then I noticed y'all don't have any pictures posted together." Jasmine said as she straightened my hair.
"Oh, I know. We've been so busy, just send them to me." I said, quickly. I needed to talk to Jake about that. He might not want our pictures posted. I noticed none of his pictures had girls in them. Even when we weren't dating or hanging out or when he was hooking up with Sammy, he just didn't post women he was dating. He did have that weird no sleeping over rule; maybe that was another rule of his.
"So, how did the talk go?" She asked.
"About?" I said, deep in thought about the pictures.
"About Jake's ex?" Jasmine prompted.
"Oh, good. I know that was super weird for him being around his ex's sister and kid. Not going to lie, I was relieved to hear she's out of his life, but I trust Jake regardless. " I replied.
"What all did he tell you?"
"Just that she was his ex and lives in Georgia now."
Jasmine nodded. I used the time with her to get some more information about Jake. Not about his exes, but more of his favorites. After my hair was done, I texted Jake asking if we could have dinner together. He replied that he would call me when he got off. I decided to surprise him with his favorite movie for a date night at his apartment.
I went home and got dressed in a fitted nude tank and camo miniskirt. I put on the pink kitten heels and did my make-up. I practiced walking in heels as I ordered food from a Cuban restaurant called the Latin Pig. While I waited to pick it up, Jake called me back.
"Do you still want to do dinner?" He asked me.
"Yes. Ok if we meet at your apartment?" I asked.
"Sure."
After retrieving the food, I headed to Jake's apartment. I waited in my car, with the engine and A/C running, touching up my hair and makeup for about 10 minutes before Jake pulled up. I picked up the bag of food from the passenger side and hopped out my car.
He got out of the car and approached me, looking me over.
"How long have you been waiting?" He asked, with a frown.
"Not very." I shrugged, wrapping my free arm around him in a hug.
"You look nice." He said, hugging me close. After we separated, he ran his fingers through my hair
"Thank you. And I'm practicing." I smiled, kicking up my feet in the heels.
"What's the occasion?" He asked taking the bag from me.
"I figured we could have a Scarface night. I even brought Cuban food." I motioned to the bag.
"I'm guessing by the hair and the movie choice, you've been scheming with my sister." Jake said, holding my hand as we walked (very carefully) to his apartment.
"Scheming sounds so shady. More like studying." I confessed.
Jake smiled. "You wanna study me? Should I be worried?" He said, unlocking his door.
"Not at all." I said as he let me into his apartment. "I just wanna know more about you, so that I can make you as happy as you make me." I said.
"Cariño, you make me happy." He said, putting the food down and pulling me into his arms. "Don't ever doubt that. I'm sorry about not listening to you last night. Rocky told me what was said. I overreacted." He apologized.
"No, you didn't. I should have been listening to you. When you've been telling me how my friendship with Ethan makes you jealous-" I started.
He looked away. "I wouldn't say jealous..."
"Whatever you wanna say, I understand it. I know how I felt around Criscelle, even when Jasmine told me she wasn't your ex." I explained.
"You were jealous of Criscelle? What did Jasmine tell you?" Jake asked concerned.
"That I should talk to you about her and you're right. And maybe not jealous. More uncomfortable."
When Jake sighed and gave me a little smile, I continued.
"Down the road, I'm sure we can all be friends, but for now, you're my priority and my relationship with you is more important than trying to have a friendship with Ethan." I finished.
"I don't want you to feel like you can't be friends with him. I'm not trying to be that guy." Jake said.
"I know. If you were that guy, I wouldn't want to be your girlfriend." I smiled.
He kissed me on the lips before we broke apart. I set up the movie and food while he changed out of his work clothes. We ate Cuban sandwiches, fried yuca with a garlicky sauce, and sweet pastries as I playfully ripped his favorite movie apart. I made fun of the accents, the clothes, and how the whole ending could have been avoided. Then I challenged why he called it a classic.
"It's a classic because it's still relevant today and you don't have to be selling coke to get it." Jake explained.
"Give me one example." I grinned at his seriousness.
"All I have is my words and my balls and I don't break them for no one." He said.
"Words to live by. Literally. Truth or death." I laughed. "Still don't see why Gina and Manny had to die."
"Because a lie by omission is still a lie." Jake said, thoughtfully. He then looked me in the eye. "This was fun. Thank you for doing this." He said, changing the subject.
I smiled. "Anytime babe." I snuggled up to him on the couch. "Hey, I have a question for you." I said, after a moment. "It's actually about something Jasmine said."
"Yeah?" Jake said, clearly uninterested.
"Um, why don't we have any pictures on our social medias? Is that another one of your rules? No face, no case?" I asked quickly.
Jake laughed. "You're my girlfriend. No rules apply to you. We can post one right now."
I smiled. "OK."
I showed him the photos Jasmine sent me from the boat, but I vetoed most of them. We either looked drunk or were kissing all over each other. Jake loved a video of me twerking on him in my swimsuit, so I let him keep it as long as he promised never to post it. He pulled out his phone and took a few selfies of us. He chose the picture where I was making my not-impressed face and he was smirking at me.
He posted it on Facebook and tagged me in it. He captioned it:
Trying to explain the genius of Scarface to @Lily #FuckinWithDaBest
