75. Friend Zone 🚦

A.B. texted me at 7 a.m. saying he was on his way. I know I said bright and early, but can I get a few more hours of sleep? Even Monica was still knocked out. I ended up grabbing anything to wear, brushing my teeth, and washing my face before going outside to get in his car.

"Good morning, Jamie."

"Mmm-mmph," I mumbled as I put on my seatbelt and reclined the seat.

A.B. chuckled, "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Mmmmh."

"Donuts? Eggs? Grits?"

"Anything."

He rubbed my arm. "Go back to sleep," he told me.

I woke up to the smell of sausages. I sat up in one of the most comfortable beds I'd ever slept in. It was more comfortable than the bed back at the Rivers' Residence. I pulled the covers back and hopped out the bed. After stretching, I walked over to the door and opened it. I left the bedroom to see A.B. cooking. His back was to me as I tip-toed to the open kitchen. I was ready to scare him when my stomach growled.

"Hungry?" A.B. asked.

I smacked my lips. "Are you serious?" I looked down at my stomach. The betrayal!

A.B. turned around with two full plates. "French toast, scrambles eggs, grits, and sausage."

"Thank you for this and for letting me sleep." I sat down on a bar stool.

"Anytime. Do you want orange juice, milk, or water to drink?" He asked.

I rubbed my hands together. "Orange juice."

A.B. grabbed two small bottles of orange juice and put them on the bar top. Then, he sat next to me on the other bar stool. He said grace, and then we ate.

"You didn't have to put me in your bed. I would've slept on the couch with no problem." I chewed my food.

A.B. smiled, "That was all you. You walked in my room and got in the bed. I just left you alone."

I put my fork down. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. You've been working hard. If you need to go back to sleep after we eat, you can do that."

I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, but I want to spend time with you." There I go again - overstepping the boundaries.

"When do you go back to L.A.?" He asked me.

"Thursday. I really don't want to go back." I started to eat again. "Well, the one thing I really need to accomplish is getting this album finished with a release date."

A.B. nodded his head. "What happened to that song you were gonna let me hear."

"Oh, yeah. I re-sung 'Psalm 5.' I listened to Maranatha sing it. I loved the simplicity and that it was directly from the Bible. I thought it would be great as an ending to the album."

A.B. glanced at me without saying anything.

"What?" My heart tried to skip a beat, but I giggled to confuse it.

"Can you sing it - acapella?"

I opened my orange juice and took a sip.

A.B. wiped his mouth on a napkin before completely turning his body to face me.

"No, you don't have to look at me," I nervously spoke.

He turned back to his original position.

I took a deep breath before closing my eyes to sing.

Give ear to my words, O Yah-u-ah / Consider my meditation / Hearken unto the voice of my cry / my King and my God / for unto thee will I pray / My voice shalt thou hear in the morning / O Father, in the morning / will I direct my prayer / unto thee and will look up / Hmmmm

For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness / I will enter Your house in the magnitude of Your kindness / I bow to Your Holy Temple in Your reverence / O Father, lead me in Your righteousness / Read the blessing that is Psalm 5 / His Word is still ALIVE!

Give ear to my words, O Yah-u-ah (I call on your name God) / Consider my meditation (please hear meeee) / Hearken unto the voice of my cry / my King and my God / for unto thee will I pray, I pray, I praaayyy / My voice shalt thou hear in the morning / O Yah, in the morning / will I direct my prayer / unto thee and will look up (to You and only You)

When I opened my eyes, A.B. held a serious facial expression. Why is he so beautiful?

His unexpectant clapping snapped me out of my thoughts. "I'm going to play that nonstop."

"Really?"

He nodded his head. "Yeah."

I continued to eat my food.

"Would you ever only sing about God?" He asked me.

I admitted, "I'm no gospel singer. They'd tell me to sit down real quick."

A.B. chuckled, "But you have a very beautiful voice. With it, you can do more for His Kingdom than the world."

I agreed, "Maybe, one day." I took a sip of my orange juice. "So what are we doing today?"

A.B. replied, "I'm gonna give you two options. The first one is we can look at some of the properties I recently bought."

"How many is that?"

"Two. The other option is organizing my library."

I pointed at A.B., "You did that on purpose. You know I do not want to organize a thing. Let's go see the properties."

"Can't say I didn't give you options." A.B. stood up with his empty plate in hand.

"Yeah, but I have a feeling we'll come back here and still have time to organize your library."

A.B. put his plate in the sink. Then, he looked at me with those eyes. "At least we get to spend a lot of time together."

Nobody:...

Me:

My stomach danced as I took another bite of food. Help me, God! I need a way out. Quick!

"Do you need to go back to Monica's house to, uh, change clothes?" He asked me.

I started to say something smart, but I looked down at my oversized gray hoodie, bright yellow leggings, black socks, and pink fur sandals. Was my hair even combed?

"Can we go to the clothing store in that shopping center? I think it's a few minutes away from here." I would never trackback to change clothes for Monica to be a witness. She would think we did something.

"Yeah. We passed it on our way here." A.B. took my empty plate and washed it.

A few minutes later, we were in his car on our way to the shopping center. Sure enough there was a Bath & Body Works, Marshalls, Hobby Lobby, Burlington, and Best Buy. Standing alone, but adjacent to the strip was Chipotle and Aldi.

We got out the car, and I led the way to Burlington since it was closer to where we parked. I was just glad that it wasn't many people around to witness my horrendous attire. About twenty minutes later, I found two outfits - a cute long sleeve, sweater dress that stopped at my ankles and a really cute short sleeve, pink top to pair with a high-waisted denim jeans. A.B. found a pair of white high top sneakers and it  was the perfect match.

Before I could reach for my wallet, A.B. had already used his card to pay for my clothes and shoes.

"A.B.!"

He picked up my bags and gave them to me. "Go to the fitting room and change. Text me when you're ready."

I playfully jerked the bags away from him as I went to the fitting room. If I had a goal for today, it was going to be distracting A.B. so I can pay for the next thing we were going to do.

After careful consideration and checking the weather, I decided to wear the long sleeve, FITTED sweater dress. Once I was dressed, I texted A.B.

Me: I'm leaving the fitting room now

A.B.: I'll be by the exit doors

I strutted through the store to the exit doors. A.B.'s head was down as he looked at his phone. He wore a long sleeve, white thermal or was it a plane long sleeve shirt?... with khaki pants and white sneakers. Did I mention that my sweater dress was the same color as his pants?

I purposely walked passed him. "Let's go, sir." I pushed opened the door and walked toward his car. I could hear A.B. jogging behind me.

He unlocked his car doors. Before I could get in the car, A.B. took my shopping bags and placed them on the floor behind the passenger's seat. Then, he closed the car door. "Turn around."

I grinned as I did a dramatically slow spin for him.

A.B. lightly laughed, "Jamie, turn to look at the building."

I arched my brow.

A.B. pointed at the building. "You see Burlington and Hobby Lobby. On the far left, there's Bath & Body Works..."

"Yep, I see all of them." I folded my arms.

"I went to a City Council meeting last week, and they talked about East Grove growing, the population. East Grove Community College is expanding to offer more majors that students can use to get  bachelor degrees at 4-year universities."

News to my ears. "Really? That's amazing."

A.B. stated, "It is. When I learned that, I started to drive around East Grove to see if I could find any land or buildings that would be potential traffic-heavy areas. That's when I came across this strip mall. It has good, popular stores, the parking lot is huge with no issues. I pass it every time I drive to the music store from my apartment and vice versa. Then, I looked across the street, and there was the construction of a Chik-fil-A. That's when I called the owner and made a bid. Today, it's officially mine."

I was speechless. "You own this?" I pointed at the strip mall.

He smiled at me. "Yes. You look beautiful by the way."

I ignored his compliment and took out my phone. "This is unbelievable." I took a few photos of the strip mall. "Now I'm excited to see your other property."

"You ready?"

I danced. "Let's go. Let's go. Let's go."

The drive was no more than fifteen minutes, but I knew the location well. It was were the Mayor of East Grove lived, a former NFL Player, a Judge, along with doctors and lawyers, and entrepreneurs. It was North East Grove aka The Border. It was one street, no more than one mile long, on both sides were mansions of all kind from the ones that resembled castles to the ones with a modern façade.

After sitting in awe for a few seconds, I inquired, "Wait... are you buying one of these mansions?" I glanced at him.

A.B. answered, "I did. The funny part is that it's the smallest house on this street. There's no second story. It has high ceilings all throughout." A.B. parked the car in the circular drive way. "I bought it last week, and it sold yesterday morning."

"You sold it? I thought this was your house to live in."

"Oh, I could never live in a mansion. My apartment is convenient for now."

I shook my head, "Yet again, I feel like I misjudged you. I didn't know you made this kind of money."

A.B. took his hand off the steering wheel. "To be completely honest, no woman I've dated has ever known how much I make. They've speculated, but I also didn't feel like they would be able to handle it."

I looked at the mansion. It was definitely in the millions. "You don't have to tell me."

"I was telling you, because I don't want you to have any guilt when I pay for your clothes or your food. Just know that I'm not expecting you to pay me back... in any way." He made that last part clear.

I don't remember praying for a rich husband. If it's him, then God please unit me with Jace "A.B." Bravos.

The house was half the size, no, a fourth the size of the River's mansion but it was still bigger than my old apartment. We didn't go inside, but just looked at it on the outside. While it was a beautiful house, I was glad that A.B. didn't buy it to live in. He made his profit and shared with me a piece of his world. Soon, we left that property.

"I feel like I've been talking too much," A.B. spoke. "We can get something to drink at this nearby restaurant. They have milkshakes."

I nodded my head. "That sounds good."

As my thoughts fell to my heart, I didn't know if I wanted to run or hide. I also couldn't help but think why didn't A.B. tell me how much he makes? Does he think now that I'm a singer, I make more than him? Is this his way of telling me to enjoy it while I'm here?

I know he thinks we wouldn't survive a long distance relationship, but we're doing a lot of things that couples do. I glanced at him as he drove. I really like this man. Truthfully, I'm not interested in being just friends.