Summer in Manhattan

“Well, I’m not sure I’m all that wild. It’s just sometimes…well, I get to the point where I can’t follow one more rule. So I end up doing something like playing hooky from work and going to a baseball game or flirting with a guy in a club or…” she patted her stomach. “Sleeping with a guy that I shouldn’t.”

He squeezed her hand. “I had a couple of one night stands trying to forget you.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I feel like I’ve tried everything to get you out of my head,” he said. “But you just won’t leave.”

She didn’t say anything else and they exited the park and he led her to the restaurant he’d chosen. It was a pop up Asian fusion place that was run by Alfonso, the first kid he’d been a big brother to. That had been almost ten years ago. Alfonso was an up and coming chef and Hoop was proud of the man that he’d become.

“A pop-up?”

“Yes. Do you mind?”

“No. Not at all. Iona wants us to do something like this leading up to Christmas. She thinks that we can make money by having more than one location. But I’m not really sure how to monetize it.”

“Well, I know the chef and he runs this place like a small business. If you’d like, I can introduce you and you can chat with him about it.”

That would be a good idea. Hoop didn’t want Cici to feel pressured by this date, and their talk as they’d walked over had made him realize he hadn’t really thought this through. Granted, Cici was a very different woman than she had been the last time they’d hung out together, but he also hadn’t seen her as anything more than a sexy woman he was obsessed with. Her life was complicated and he could easily see himself falling for her. But he’d always promised himself he’d stay single.

He had no idea how a good relationship worked. He’d seen other couples make it work but he’d always known it wasn’t for him.

Cici was going to need a man who wanted more than a few months of sex and some friendship when he moved on. And Hoop wasn’t too sure he could deliver that. Hell, he knew he couldn’t.

He led her up the steps of the restaurant where Alfonso’s partner, Lulu, was doing the front of house service.

“Hoop. It’s been too long since we last saw you,” she said, coming over to give him a hug. Lulu was tiny, not even five foot tall. She had long brown hair that she wore in a thick braid down her back. She had her nose pierced with a small sparkling gem and she wore heavy eye make-up that made her look exotic.

“It has been too long. I have been meaning to stop by but the job has been crazy,” Hoop said. “This is my friend Cici.”

“Hello, Cici. Nice to meet you,” Lulu said. “Fonz thought being a lawyer wasn’t going to be your thing. Too many office hours.”

“He was right, but I do like the work so it’s not that bad,” Hoop said.

“You sound like me, dude,” Alfonso said as he came in from the back of the restaurant. The place was small and could only seat ten customers. There was a couple in the corner and another party of four eating appetizers near the window.

Hoop and Alfonso hugged and when Hoop stepped back he drew Cici closer and introduced her to Alfonso. He thought about how lost he’d been when Pops had stepped into his life and how he’d passed it on by helping out Alfonso when he’d been in the same place.

He kept in touch with both men, and with the other kids he was a big brother to and he liked it. It was enough for him.

But as Cici was talking and he watched Lulu and Alfonso he wondered if he was missing something.

“Ready for dinner? I’ve got a new dish that is going to blow you away,” Alfonso said excitedly.

“I’m ready.”

“Me too,” Cici said.

Lulu led them to a table and after they were seated and alone, Cici leaned in. “So you do a lot of work with Big Brothers?”

“Yes. It’s a good organization,” Hoop said.

“I didn’t see that side of you,” she said.

“We met in a club. You saw the party animal.”

“I did,” she conceded. “I’m trying to reconcile the two men.”

“They aren’t two men,” he said. “Any more than you are two women.”

“You’re right. It’s just I thought of you as one kind of person.”

“What kind is that?”

“I don’t know. I mean you’re an ex-cop turned attorney, you’re a big brother and you like Shakespeare…I guess I just had a one-dimensional image of you.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that. He wasn’t really super comfortable talking about himself and thankfully, Lulu brought over their complimentary appetizers; some spring rolls. They ate and Hoop steered the conversation to safer topics like books and music. They had some things in common.

Though he was never going to understand why women loved Jane Austen as much as they did. Cici made a convincing argument for the appeal of a man with manners. It was a fun night and Hoop wanted to pretend that he could be satisfied with it, but to be honest, Cici had whetted his appetite. He wanted more. He needed more.

He knew he was going to ask her out again until he could satisfy the growing need inside of him. He just had to.

Chapter 3 (#uff7ccf9f-610b-51d0-a31e-3f56cebe8f93)

Dinner was delicious and for a while she forgot about everything as they ate and talked about books, movies and what shows they binge-watched on Netflix. He was a sucker for police procedural shows and she favored comic book heroes.

They ordered dessert and as they waited for their dishes to come, he leaned forward. A thick swath of dark hair fell onto his forehead and he pushed it back, making him look more boyish in the dim lighting of the restaurant. He was always serious, so it was interesting to see this other side of him. The light stubble on his jaw did nothing to detract from the attraction Cici felt for him. In fact, she wouldn’t mind running her fingers down the line of his jaw. His eyes were blue, not like the sky, more like a grayish blue that she’d seen a few times at dawn. His lips were full and he was easy to make smile.

Life would be so much easier if she’d never met him, Cici thought. Hoop’s hair was longer on the top than at the back and a strand fell forward as he took a sip from his water glass. He raised his thick eyebrows at her.

“So tell me about the guy.”

The guy.

There wasn’t a note of judgment in Hoop’s voice. If there had been she would have shut him down and left. But instead there was curiosity and friendliness.

She closed her eyes, wishing she’d skipped dessert and left about two minutes ago. Before he’d gotten around to that.

He was an actor, but not one she’d ever heard of. Though she recalled that he’d been rather loquacious about a pilot he’d shot before coming to Jamaica, but frankly he’d talked a lot and she’d been more focused on the champagne than on what he’d been saying.

“There’s not really much to tell,” she said.

“His name maybe?” Hoop asked. “Listen, if you don’t want to talk about him…then I’ll let it go. I’m just curious.”

She wasn’t keeping the guy a secret so it didn’t matter to her, except that she sort of wanted to pretend that it had never happened.

“I really don’t want to talk about it because this entire thing is not who I usually am. I’m methodical, you know? I plan things out and then act accordingly.”

“Why didn’t you with him?”