The taste of the meatballs Ryan had bought for us, was completely refreshing. I shut my eyes, smiling like a drunkard. Could meatballs make a person feel on top of the world? Yes.
“You like it that much?” Ryan laughed at me.
I nodded like a maniac. “Very much. It’s so… gosh. No words can express it.”
“Mind if we get ice cream after this meal?” He offered.
I nodded crazily. “Yes. Ice cream. Vanilla. And strawberry. And chocolate.”
He smiled. “Alright.”
I grabbed some burnt ends and corn dogs from the plate in front of me, and chewed on them like a hungry goat. Ryan stared at the brown colored soup in front of him, which had a whole lot of green leafs, pepper, and catfish in it, seeming quite hesitant to drink the soup.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s up with you? You’re scared of it? You know the soup isn’t gonna swallow you.”
He grimaced at me. He looked like a little chic who was about to cry after taking an injection. “I’m scared,” he confessed.
I chuckled. “What? Why? It’s soup.”
“Well, you see…” He propped his elbow on the table, leaned close, kind of whispering. “The owner of this restaurant is a foreigner. She’s from an African country. The country is Nigeria. And, um, she dared me to drink a common soup from that country. It’s called Pepper Soup. She said the soup is extremely spicy, but I told her I’d drink it.”
“You don’t have to do it. You can just pour it into the toilet.” I leaned into my seat, laughing at him.
He glanced sideways, then shook his head at me. “She’s staring at me. And, we kind of made a bet. If I’m unable to drink the soup, I’d give her a thousand bucks.”
“What?! You’re such a freak,” I remarked. With a smirk on my lips, I folded my arms around my chest. “Go on now. Drink it. If you don’t, I’ll ask her to come over.”
He shot me a playful glare. “You. Won’t. Dare.”
“Drink it.”
He took a deep breath, and grabbed a spoon. Closing his eyes, he pursed his lips, muttering to himself. And, finally, he summoned some courage to sip a full spoon of the soup.
“Hm…” He licked his lips. “I-It’s actually good.”
“You’re sure?” I raised an eyebrow at him.
He sipped another full spoon of it, and cleared his throat. “It’s really good. I think I’ll survive this.”
“Survive?” I chuckled. “Let’s see how it goes.”
All of a sudden, his face began to turn red. He was smiling, but his nose was getting wet. He sucked his teeth about five times, tears starting to form in his eyes. It seemed like he was burning in spice.
“You need water?” I asked.
He just shook his head. He obviously couldn’t speak anymore. This was fun!
“Ryan, are you fine?” The owner of the restaurant asked. To my surprise, she was already standing beside our table, a teasing smile lingering on her lips.
He nodded at her. He still wasn’t speaking. The redness of his head was aggravating, and I felt like he would collapse soon.
“Just drink some water!” I threw my head back, burst out laughing.
The woman nodded at me, winked. “Yes. Ask him to drink some water. Cause, I need a thousand bucks.”
A tear left his eye, sweat starting to seep on his forehead. His nose became redder as water left it, and he suddenly began to sniffle.
Unexpectedly, he yanked at his hair, and hopped from his seat. “Ah!” He cried, still yanking at his hair as if he was high on drugs. “Someone, help me! Get me water! Water! Water! Please! Oh, Jesus! Save me!”
He was roaming like a maniac, so I hurried over to him. “Calm down, Ryan.” I was soothing his back, holding back my laugh. I turned to the restaurant owner. “Water, please? We don’t want him to pass out, do we?”
She chuckled. “Sure. Why not? But, too bad, he didn’t eat the catfish.”
“Just get me some water!” He roared at her.
She nodded, and hurried over to the fridge behind the selling counter.
I bit my lower lip, resisting the urge to burst out laughing. “Calm down, okay?”
He turned to me, sucking in some air as if he was sucking smoke from a cigarette. He grabbed my arms, towed me to him, his eyes widened at me. “Serene, please, do something. I think I’m gonna die.”
I giggled. “It’ll be fine, honey. Next time, you won’t take such a bet.”
“Here you go.” The woman appeared, holding a glass of chilled water.
Ryan grabbed the glass from her, and gulped down its content in only a few seconds. He sighed as if he was relieved, and threw his butt into his seat.
“Oh, goodness.” He sighed again.
“My one thousand bucks.” The woman stretched her hand towards Ryan, smirking at him.
He threw his arms up. “But, I drank almost half of it.”
“No, no, no.” She shook her head. I liked her attitude, and her accent. “You didn’t drink all of it. So, I’ll take a complete thousand dollars.”
And then, they started to argue with each other. I just stared at them, wondering why Ryan wouldn’t just give her the money. I knew he was capable of giving her such an amount.
As I watched them argue, my phone beeped from the pocket of my pants. Grabbing it, I saw it was a text from Kenneth. My heart jumped to my throat. I hadn’t seen him in days, and I really wasn’t ready to see him.
“Hi,
Saw you walking into Nadi’s restaurant. Mind coming outside to see me? I’m waiting for you.”
I gulped. He wanted to see me?
Keeping the phone back into my pocket, I glanced at Ryan. If I told him I wanted to see Kenneth, he’d probably not like that. I didn’t think it was important to tell him. He was still arguing with the woman, and, after all, I’d only spend a few minutes with Kenneth.
I turned around, heading out of the restaurant.
As soon as I stepped out, my eyes caught Kenneth. He was making an invisible sketch on the ground, using his feet. He had his hands dug in the pocket of his denim jeans pants, looking handsome as usual.
“Hey,” I greeted, as soon as I reached him.
He looked up, a smile curling on his lips. “Hey. Been a while. How’re you doing?”
I sighed, and returned his smile. “I’m fine. And, I can see that you’re good as well.”
“That’s what you think.” His smile became small. He swallowed, glanced at the floor, then fixed his gaze at me. “Serene, why did you run away? Is it a crime to express my feelings? I’m surprised to see you here. I live around here.”
“Oh.”
“I’ve been worried about you,” he said. The faint and disappointed tone of his voice was proof that he was worried. He wasn’t lying. “I-I felt like I’d done something terrible by telling you how I feel.”
“It’s not that.” I looked down. As if he had expected me to do that, he raised my jaw with his fingers.
He shook his head. “Don’t avoid eye contact with me. What’s going on? What’s the next step? What can I do to myself? Do you wanna accept my feelings or not? Can you—”
“I have a boyfriend,” I stated.
His eyes darkened, a strange emotion abruptly racing in them. He raised his eyebrows a little, and I had a feeling he felt hurt. “What?” That came out in a whisper.
I took his hands, squeezed them in mine. “That’s it. There’s no way I can accept your love. My boyfriend and I love each other so much. I know it might hurt you, but you’ll need to move on. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have been so close to you. I feel like I’m the fence between Marsha and you.”
“Oh.” He swallowed, and gave me a curt nod. “Yeah, it truly hurts. I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were in a serious relationship.”
I cupped his jaw with my right palm, giving him a warm smile. “It’s fine. And, don’t worry, you’ll find a better woman, okay?”
“Thanks.”
“Serene, what’re you doing—”
I flinched when I heard Ryan’s voice. I snapped my hand from Kenneth’s, and took a step backwards. The way I had acted, made it seem like I had been doing something bad. Shit!
Ryan moved his eyes to me, then to Kenneth, then back to me. Gosh, what would he think? I had been cupping Kenneth’s jaw with my hand, which was something I only did to Ryan. There was no doubt that Ryan would misunderstand this. This was the reason it was bad to have a jealous boyfriend.
Ryan stepped closer to us. “Serene, what’s going on here? Why are you with… him, on our date?”
I looked away, rolled my eyes, and sighed.
When was I going to stop dealing with these men? I was tired of it already.
—