Take it All (Blinded by Love) (17 page)

“Shit, Em,” Caleb interrupted loudly and jumped up from the couch, and pushed an already awake Lennox to the side.

Lennox looked up at Caleb confused and half asleep, wondering if she had heard his friend right. Before either of them could say anything, his friend sauntered in and froze, as he looked between her and Caleb. “Who’s your friend, bro?”

Caleb looked back at Lennox with a weak smile as he ran one of his hands through his hair, “Em, this is Lennox,” he paused and turned to him, giving him a knowing look before turning back to Lennox, “Lox, this is Emerson, met him when we moved to the coast.”

Emerson’s jaw clenched as he looked at Caleb. He knew his mouth should have remained closed instead of busting through the door with it running, not knowing whether Caleb was alone or not, then quickly relaxed as he regained his composure and turned to Lennox, smiling. “Nice to finally meet you,” he said.

Lennox looked between the two, unsure of what was going on or what Emerson didn’t get to finish saying when he came in before Caleb freaked and cut him off, clearly not wanting her to hear whatever it was he had to say. “Hi Emerson,” she said, smiling at him, knowing he could see it wasn’t genuine but forced.

The room then went quiet and no one said anything for what seemed like forever. Caleb still had his back slightly to Lennox with his stare on Emerson. Emerson had his hands shoved inside his jeans pocket as he looked from Lennox to different spots around the room, avoiding Caleb’s glare. Lennox sat on the couch, uncomfortable by the silence as she looked between the two, not liking the vibe she was feeling in the room.

Before anyone could say a word, Caleb’s cell phone he had placed on the coffee table after breakfast started to vibrate across the table. Turning away from Emerson, and without a look at Lennox, he moved a few steps to the table and snatched his phone, flipping it open and putting it to his ear without seeing who it was, and said, “Yo.”

“Oh hey, mom,” he said, listening to what she had to say. Nodding his head, and rolling his eyes, then rubbing his hand over his chin where his scruff was becoming darker, “Well yeah, I’m sorta on a date.” He finally looked at Lennox and his face gently softened as their eyes met.

She watched as he listened to his mom. “Yeah, remember Lennox, mom?” he waited, nodding his head as if she could see what he was doing. “Last week, but yeah, we’ll see. Listen I gotta go, I’ll grab Haley and drop her by.” She said something then Caleb said bye and hung up, and tossed his cell phone back on the table.

“Everything cool?” Emerson asked, pulling out a pack of smokes from his back pocket and placing one between his lips, lighting it with the lighter he pulled from his front jean pocket.

Caleb turned his head in his direction, still not pleased with him, and said, “Yeah, man, what’re you doing here? I thought you worked today?”

Emerson blew out a breath of smoke, “Took a late lunch, thought I’d swing by and see how you were feelin’, boss said you were sick,” he inhaled another, as he looked from Caleb to Lennox who was still on the couch, the blanket thrown across her legs. “But I see you’re doin’ just fine,” he paused blowing the smoke out before continuing, “So I’ma head, Lennox was nice to meet you and I’m sure we’ll be seein’ one another again soon.”

Lennox tossed the blanket to the side and stood up, nervously crossing her arms over her chest, “You too, Emerson, and I’m sure we will be.”

He looked at Caleb and they nodded at one another before he turned around and walked back out the door. Lennox stood in the living room looking at Caleb, wondering if she should bring up what happened or if she should just leave it, as it wasn’t any of her business. If Caleb wanted her to know, he’d tell her. Instead she went with a different subject, “So, that was your mom?” she asked, curiously.

Caleb’s head turned to her, and a look of surprise was apparent on his face. He swallowed, then shook his head as if he was clearing the thoughts he was thinking away, “Yeah, uh, she needs me to pick up Haley from school at two forty-five,” he told her.

Nodding, she said, “Cool, can we grab a bite before, I’m starving.”

“Yeah, anything you want, Lox,” he said, his voice was soft and he wore an expression that said he was relieved, and he didn’t bother in trying to cover it up.

“‘Kay, just gonna use the bathroom, then we can go,” she said, then turned and made her way down the hall and into the bathroom, not hearing if he said anything in return.

She planted both hands on either side of the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. She knew what she heard. She had woken up a few seconds before he came in, and was just lying in his arms, enjoying the feeling it gave her. So there was no doubt in her mind that when Emerson came busting in he had said something about Caleb’s dope. She reached across and pushed the handle down on the toilet and waited a few seconds before turning the water on.

“Dope... could mean anything, doesn’t mean he’s selling or smoking... or it could,” she said quietly, under her breath, “You always said it was a deal breaker, Lennox, the one thing you didn’t want the guy you dated to do.”

Drugs was a deal breaker. She had said so for the last couple years. She didn’t want to be with someone who smelt like a dead skunk or someone whose personality changed and because of that she never knew who she was with. There were a lot of different reasons drugs was a deal breaker.

“But...” she whispered to no one but herself, “it’s just pot, what’s the big deal?”

Lennox started to think it over and as she did, she knew he’d never push it on her or make her try it; if she knew him like she thought she did, he’d refuse her if she ever asked him. She thought it over, and came to the conclusion that she had two choices. The first being, she could walk out and ask him, straight up, and if he said yes to both she could make her decision by staying or ask him to take her home. And the second choice was, she could leave the bathroom and join him in the living room, where he was waiting for her, and not say anything and just let it be; because it was just pot.

She knew her decision before she made it, before she even came up with her two options; even before she stepped foot in the bathroom. Shaking her head as a smile crossed her mouth, she surprised herself. She always saw herself, if it came to it, telling the guy sorry but if they’re involved in drugs then they can’t be involved with her, plain and simple. So pushing that fact aside, granted she didn’t know anything for sure, was somewhat surprising, but if there was one piece missing it was that, if it was anyone else she was seeing, the decision would have been a different one; it was because it was Caleb, her Caleb from long before that made the decision an easy one.

She turned the water off, left the bathroom, and headed back to the living room where Caleb was putting out his smoke in the ashtray on the coffee table. The minute she stepped in the room, he knew and he looked at her, a wave of worry swimming not just in his eyes but all over his face that told her he wasn’t sure what was going to happen; whether she was going to ask to go home and never see him again or the opposite.

He stood tall with his hands in his jeans pocket as he looked at her, apprehensively, and asked, “Still wanna go for lunch?”

Lennox walked up to him and stopped an arm’s length away, her face unreadable. “One condition,” she challenged.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“It has to be sushi. I have a hankering for California rolls,” she grinned, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

Caleb’s face relaxed and his arm shot out and pulled her into his embrace, “A hankering huh?” he half smiled down at her. “I guess if my girl wants sushi, then sushi it is.” His head dipped as her neck stretched and their lips met in a soft, warm kiss.

“Let’s get outta here,” he mumbled over her lips, and a small laugh sounded from her lips, vibrating against his before he pulled back. He bent down to pick up her coat and purse, dropped her purse on the couch next to them before holding open her coat for her, just as he had done a week ago after coffee.

“Why thank you, kind sir.” Lennox turned to face him as she pulled her coat closed and buttoned it up, then grabbed her bag and waited for Caleb to lead the way, but he didn’t move; he just looked at her.

“I forgot to tell you,” he said, pausing, his face serious.

“That you have sushi here, so we don’t have to leave?” she said, jokingly.

“No,” he shook his head, his chest lightly shaking as he laughed, “I forgot to tell you that, you, look absolutely gorgeous, Lox.”

Lennox felt her cheeks burn at an instant as his words flowed through her. “Caleb,” she said, embarrassed, sliding her hair behind her ear.

“Sorry, couldn’t keep it to myself anymore.” He grinned then motioned to the door as he reached for her hand. She let him take it and guide them to the front where she put on her Uggs and him, a pair of runners, before they made their way out into the chilled air and down the sidewalk to his car.

They were sitting in a place called Sushi Express, laughing at one another as they tried their skill at eating with chopsticks, neither of them having any sort of luck, when Lennox’s cell phone started ringing in her purse next to her. Swallowing her mouthful, she opened her bag and dug around until she saw it at the bottom and pulled it out.

Looking at the screen she saw it was a reply from her mom. Lennox had sent her mom a text telling her she was spending the day with Tatum and Londyn by going to the mall followed by lunch and a movie and that when she got home she’d explain everything. After, she realized what she had sent and wanted to kick herself for basically coming out and telling her mom that she was hiding something and lying to her about it. So when Kelli texted her back asking when she was going to be home, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when she didn’t ask what she had meant by her text. Lennox sent a quick reply, telling her she wasn’t sure and that she would text her when she was on her way, then tossed her cell phone back into her purse and went back to her sushi platter only to see Caleb staring at her with a mouthful, amused.

“What?” she asked, with a giggle, picking up a spicy tuna roll.

“Your parents don’t know you’re with me, do they?”

Lennox looked at him surprised, “No, I told them I was spending the day with Tatum and Londyn, at the mall.”

“Why didn’t you tell them you were going out with me?”

Lennox shrugged her shoulders as she popped a mini California roll in her mouth, “I don’t know,” she mumbled, not wanting to tell him her reason.

He eyed her carefully as he wrapped his lips around the straw that sat in his cup of regular pop. “Tell me,” he said, knowing she was holding back.

“Tell you what?” she asked, playing dumb as her bottom lip found itself in her mouth between her teeth.

“Are you nervous or afraid to tell me?”

“What makes you think I’m nervous or afraid in the first place?”

“That,” he motioned, lifting his chin in her direction.

Lennox looked down her chest to her lap, trying to find what he was talking about, but couldn’t see anything, and looked back at him and gave him a look asking him to elaborate what he meant.

Caleb chuckled and motioned again, “You do that, with your lips when you’re nervous.”

Her teeth released her lip in a split second, and she said, “I do not.”

“You do actually, you’ve done it since I’ve known you, probably just didn’t notice when you did it.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Whatever you say.”

“I do, now tell me why you didn’t tell your parents about me.”

Lennox took a deep breath then exhaled, contemplating if there was another topic she could bring up in order to distract him from their current one, but knew there wasn’t a chance that would happen and decided to bite the bullet and tell him. After all, she really didn’t have anything to worry about considering their day so far. “I didn’t tell them because...” she started then trailed off, fidgeting in her seat.

“Because…” he urged, having too much fun with her as his face lit up with amusement at watching her squirm.

“Fine, fine I didn’t tell them because I wasn’t sure how today was going to turn out or if this,” she motioned between them with her hand, “whatever it is, was going anywhere. There, happy?” she huffed, sitting back in her chair then popping another piece of sushi in her mouth.

“Quite happy actually,” he said, and there was something in the way he said it with such conviction in his voice that made Lennox look at him as he continued, “I think– no, I know, you have nothing to worry about, and you should tell them about us.”

Lennox swallowed her sushi and looked at him as he said the word, ‘us’. Hearing him say it first, out loud with certainty, meant something; something huge. And at that moment, something happened to her, something inside her shifted and aligned, giving her a feeling she had never felt before. She wasn’t second guessing what he said, she wasn’t thinking ‘what if’, or if it was too soon to know if they were ready to be an ‘us’; she wasn’t thinking if it was too soon in general to even be on the subject; she wasn’t thinking about anything other than knowing they were an ‘us’.