Their Redemption

6: Budding Romance

Ronnie

I wake up before my alarm even goes off. First thing I do is text Malcolm. He’s my man now so I might as well boldly flirt with him.

Good morning sexy. Getting ready for work and I’ll see you soon.

He doesn’t respond right away, so I go brush my teeth and find something to wear. When I return from the bathroom, my phone is buzzing. Malcolm is calling me.

“Morning Mal,” I answer.

“Hey sweet Roni. I wasn’t sure if you were up yet but when I got your text, I knew it was safe to call you.”

“I’m about to leave for work in a few.”

“I’m about to get ready for work in a few. I think I’ll stop by like I did on Friday. Maybe I can catch you alone and steal a few kisses to help jump start my day. I like the way your soft lips feel against mine.”

As he finishes his sentence, his voice goes deep. He’s purposely teasing me. I giggle uncontrollably and he laughs.

“I guess you realized what I was doing,” he chuckles. “I’ll let you go, sweet Roni. I just wanted to hear your voice. See you soon.”

“See you soon,” I say.

He has to be the one because this feels so perfect and right. I grab my apron and head downstairs. As usual, mama and Derek are in the kitchen. Dory is always the last one up.

“Tell Dory, I’ll see him later, ma,” I say as I grab a piece a toast and head out the door.

Soon as I get to work, Serena hounds me. She’s dying to know what happened this weekend and what our date was like. Right on queue, the morning rush hits. When the morning rush finishes, I think about Malcolm. We nearly sold out of cinnamon raisin buns this morning. Knowing Emily, there’s some baking in the back, and I should probably get the fresh ones and put them out and get Malcolm’s stuff ready. I head back there and there’s two pans that need to be taken to the front. After taking the pans to the front, I take a few out for Malcolm and place them in a bag and put the rest away.

“Roni,” I hear a calm voice say.

I immediately turn around and see Malcolm smiling at me.

“Mal,” I say, smiling, “when did you get here?”

“Before you came out with that pan of fresh buns. I hope a few of those are for me. I guess you were working so hard you didn’t notice.”

“You want me to get your things,” Serena asks him.

“Nah, Veroni – I mean Shay got me,” he tells her.

I cut my eye at him and he squinches as he mouths sorry at me. I collect his buns, grab a pecan sticky and make his mocha latte before leaving from behind the counter to hand him his food. He opens his arms for a hug and I hug him. He tries to hand me his card to pay for it, but I refuse to take it.

“It’s on the house,” I say as I continue to hug him.

“Don’t go getting into trouble because of me now, Roni. Also, sorry for calling you Shay,” he whispers. “Obviously she doesn’t know you as Veronica.”

“She doesn’t, so you get a pass… this time. Now go to work and let me get back to work,” I say.

“Mm, yes ma’am. I like this sassiness.”

“There’s more where that came from,” I chortle.

We are still embracing when he leans forward and seductively kisses me. His full lips are so moist. He must have licked them the entire ride here. He tugs on my lips before gently swirling his tongue in my mouth. He then pulls away and smiles at me.

“I’ll call you later when I get off, okay baby,” he says.

“Okay.”

I bite my lip as he turns around to leave and I turn around and prepare to return behind the counter when I see Serena standing in awe with her mouth wide open.

“You know if you keep your mouth open any longer, a fly is going to fly in,” I say to her.

“Now I need to know what happened this weekend. Did you two fvck? That was a pretty sexy kiss he gave you before he left. Not to mention your little flirtatious behavior.”

“We literally had two dates this weekend, then he asked me to be his girlfriend. We did not have sex.”

“You didn’t have s**x and y’all are acting like that? He asked you to be his girlfriend already? Crazy what can happen in two days. Y’all are moving pretty fast. I’m so jelly. Malcolm is so fine and it’s obvious he is crazy about you. He watched you while you were doing the buns, and he was smiling at you the entire time.”

“Really,” I beam and feel myself blushing.

“Yeah! He watched you all googly eyed. His face literally could’ve been the heart eyes emoji.”

“He’s so sweet, Serena,” I exhale.

“He’s sexy as hell, too. I’d love to have a man look at me and kiss me the way he just did you. Congrats girl.”

“Thanks,” I say.

“Yeah, you’re lucky he’s good looking and it’s obvious he’s really into you,” Emily chides, “or else I’d reprimand you for leaving behind the counter and kissing him.”

She came out of nowhere.

“Sorry Emily,” I remorsefully voice.

“It’s okay… this time. It was very cute watching you two, honestly.”

Malcolm doesn’t hide the fact that he’s into me. Everyone can see it. I like that. It means I don’t have to worry about anyone catching his attention because he only has eyes for me. How in the hell did I get so lucky to get the man off my dreams like this?

———

——

—

Malcolm

I asked Veronica to be my girlfriend not even a full day ago but I feel myself falling hard for her. She’s showing her sassy side more now that we are exclusive and it makes me falling for her so easily. I can’t give any other man the opportunity to take her away from me. After seeing her at work, I honestly didn’t need the food or coffee. All I needed was her arms around me and her sweet lips pressed against mine. That alone is enough to make a man happily start his day.

I eat my food and drink my coffee anyway and head straight to work. Normally when I get to work, Danielle and Nicole always flirtatiously greet me. They do as expected, but I’m so busy thinking about Veronica that I don’t even notice until they both yell at me to get my attention.

“Malcolm! Did you not hear us,” Nicole says as she taps my shoulder.

“What’s up? Sorry, I was in deep thought.”

“We both said hello handsome,” Danielle says as she caresses my arm.

“Oh, I thought you guys actually needed something,” I say, much to their heartache.

Danielle makes it no secret that she wants me but she’s not my type. Plus, I don’t like how she throws herself at me. That’s not ladylike.

“Good morning to you both,” I greet before trying to walk away.

“Where are you running off to? You smell so good. You are always so yummy looking and smelling,” Danielle flirts after grabbing me.

“Danielle, get off me. I don’t want you and I never will. I have a girlfriend now, so you and Nicole both need to chill with all this flirting.”

“Girlfriend,” she says with anger.

“Yes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll head to my office now. I have an appointment in a few minutes.”

I lied, but it worked well enough for me to get away from them. I enter my office and close the door behind me. Veronica crosses my mind again, but I snap back to reality because I have work to do. I have an appointment with a client this afternoon and I need to get a head start on their documents. I’m working diligently when there is a knock on my door.

“Come in,” I say.

I see it’s my mother as the door opens, and she looks angry.

“Malcolm Jamal Moore, I have not heard a single word from you all weekend! You didn’t even speak to me when you came in, but you talked to those little whvres, Danielle and Nicole,” she scolds.

“Well actually ma, I hadn’t noticed them just like I hadn’t noticed you. Nicole tapped my shoulder. You know the only reason I look toward the bank tellers is for you but I was in deep thought so I didn’t even look that way,” I say.

“Mm-hm. Well, since you didn’t call me this weekend, you need to tell me how it went with that girl you mentioned. What was her name again?”

“Her name is Veronica... and it went perfectly! We had a great evening on Saturday. We saw a movie yesterday after her mother questioned me. I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said yes.”

“What do you mean her mother questioned you and why did you get to meet her mother and I haven’t met her? You made her your girlfriend and we haven’t even met yet?”

“Okay first off, I didn’t want to meet her mother yet but I did it because Veronica wanted her to see the man that I am. She doesn’t like the fact that I’m twenty-six, so Veronica thought it was best for us to meet. Her mother is a lawyer and she was in full lawyer mode, but she approved of me.”

“Of course she approved of you! I didn’t raise a bum, but why would she have a problem with you being twenty-six,” she asks.

“Veronica is eighteen.”

“Eighteen? She’s a little young. Malcolm, don’t you think you’re moving too fast?”

“No. You and dad moved pretty fast. Dad told me how you two met and got together. You didn’t waste any time either. Dad said he knew you were the one. I feel the same way about Veronica. I can’t explain to you how I know, but I know she’s the one for me.”

She grabs her diamond necklace when I mention dad before replying, “I guess that’s a man thing. Marcus did say that he knew I was the one from the very beginning. You surely didn’t say that about Tamara. I hope Veronica is better than her. As long as you’re sure and you’re happy, I’m happy.”

“Thanks, ma. You’ll be meeting her soon. She’s staying with me this weekend and she’s getting off early Friday. I’ll introduce you two then. I promise you’ll like her.”

“I better meet her! You may be twenty-six, but I’ll still stick my foot up your ass if I don’t meet your girlfriend! Now I’m going to get back to work before the other tellers b***h about me being gone.”

I laugh as she leaves out. I get back to work but my Roni stays in the back of my head, so I suppress my thoughts long enough to get some work done. She texts me at 6:30 to let me know she just got off and she’s heading home. I’ve been home for an hour, patiently waiting to talk to her.

Around seven, I decide to FaceTime her. She should be home by now. She answers, but we literally talk for thirty seconds because she tells me she wants to take a quick shower and that she will call me back. I decide to take one myself. When I come out, my phone is ringing and I hurry to answer the FaceTime call.

“Hey beautiful,” I say.

“Heyyy,” she smiles.

I could literally look at that smile all day, every day. I set my phone on my dresser and get a pair of boxers to put on. As we continue to chat, I lay on my bed and stare at her as she moves around in her room.

“How was work,” I ask.

“It was good. Serena and my boss saw our brief exchange.”

“I didn’t get you in any trouble, did I?”

“Well according to Emily, if you weren’t so handsome and our exchange wasn’t so cute, then I would’ve got in trouble.”

“Damn. Sorry. I won’t let it happen again,” I say.

“It’s fine, Mal. You’re worth the trouble,” she giggles.

I don’t want her to get in trouble and lose her job because of me. Since she called me back, we haven’t actually looked at each other.

“Roni, let me see you with your beautiful self.”

She picks up her phone and gasps. It confuses me.

“What wrong,” I say in a panic.

“Nothing, it’s just nice to be reminded of what’s mine,” she laughs and props her phone up while she lies on the bed.

“It is nice to be reminded. I hope you’re satisfied because I’m satisfied with what I got.”

“Oh, I’m very satisfied,” she says as she bites her lip.

I lightly chuckle at her. There’s a knock on her door. She tells me to hold on and she gets up, making her phone fall over. I see her walk to the door and I get an instant erection. Veronica has on a long old gray t–shirt but she has no bottoms on. Literally no underwear, so I’m getting a clear look at her juicy ass. The way it jiggles when she walks is mesmerizing. I stare at her until I hear her mother’s voice. I put my phone down and deeply exhale. They continue their conversation. Naughty thoughts completely overtake my brain. I think about bending her over and watching that ass get thrown against me. I think about smacking that ass as she rides me and I stroke myself. I try, but I can’t get rid of my sex.ual thoughts. I need to bust a nut.

“Fvck,” I quietly moan.

I continue to jerk off; wishing it was Veronica I was slow stroking instead of my hand.

“Mal, are you still there,” she says.

I pick my phone up to see her face.

“Yeah, I’m still here,” I voice, trying to maintain my composure as my d***k throbs.

“You don’t look good. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I caught a bad Charlie horse and I was massaging my leg.”

I caught a Charlie horse alright… between my legs.

“Listen, I’ve seen your face and heard your voice for tonight. I’m going to go get some ice and finish massaging my leg. I’ll let you go. Good night Roni, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Alright then. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she smiles.

She hangs up and I look at my throbbing d**k. As the image of her walking flashes through my mind, I quickly bust a nut. I need to do better. I need better self-control, but it’s so hard when I have such an attractive girlfriend. After cleaning myself up, I prepare to go to sleep. My sex.ual attraction to her is tainting me. I genuinely like her and I don’t want things between us to be lust centered. I know once I make love to her, I’m definitely never letting her go.