Chapter 16

Pulling up to Big Kahuna, I paid the driver before stepping out and walking up to the restaurant. I had never been here but I could tell it was more on the fancier side. Walking inside, I looked at the decor before stepping up to the waitress on the stand.

“Hi, welcome to Big Kahuna. Do you have a reservation?” She asked with a friendly smile on her face.

“Hey, yes I do, under Bore,” I let her know as I saw her scan through the names on the IPad that was set on the podium.

“Ahh yes, here we go. Table for five. Please follow me,” She let me know as we walked through the restaurant more towards the back.

Getting to the table that was set out for us, I found Jess and Kay Kay already sitting down nursing a couple of drinks.

“Lmao, what is wrong with you ladies?” I asked as greeted them both before taking a seat next to Jess.

“Girl, first of all, look at this body ody ody! Why have you been hiding your body, you are thicker than an actual snicker!” Jess gassed me up being all ghetto, causing a couple of heads at other tables to look over at us.

“Honeyyy! This dress on your body! Your titties are sitting right gahdamn!” Kay snapped her fingers being just as loud as Jess.

“Bruh you guys are embarrassing meee!” I whined with a chuckle at the end, rolling my eyes as they both burst out into laughter.

“Girl, why did your man feel the need to bring us to this boujie place? All these people looking at us like we’re mad.” Jess said as she stared down at an older couple that couldn’t seem to take their eyes off us, probably wondering how we could afford to be here.

“Chill, Collin’s Uncle owns this place so drink and eat up,” I let them know as I pulled my phone out, noticing it was less than 10 minutes to 8pm and Collin wasn’t here yet.

“You know what that means Jess, we finna order lots of food,” Kay said as they both burst out laughing again, giving each other a high-five across the table. Before I could speak again, we were interrupted.

“If you girls don’t stop cackling out loud,” Ma said as she walked in with Pops on her arm, dressed up hella nice shocking even me.

“Yooo ma, whose man are you trying to steal dressed like that? You are going to have all these guys drooling over you,” Kay asked with shock evident in her voice.

“Girl if you don’t shut your mouth, speaking all that nonsense about my wife. Ain’t no man finna step up to my wife acting like they don’t know who I am,” Pops said, causing us to all burst out and laugh.

Getting up, we all gave them hugs, complimenting them on how much they dressed up before taking seats at the table again and ordering a couple of drinks to start us off. Pulling my phone out again, I quickly texted Collin asking where he was. It was already 8:15 and the impression he was going to leave would be negative. Not getting a text back quickly, I chopped it up to him driving here and decided to relax.

“So honey, where exactly is Collin? I thought the reservation was meant to be at 8pm,” Ma asked as she flagged down a waitress.

“Yeah, what type of man is actually late to something he sets up? I would have expected him to be here at 7:30 sharp.” Pops said as he took a glance at his watch for the 5th time tonight, showing how unimpressed he was.

“Yeah, what pops said,” Kay said while laughing, causing Jess to laugh and then me in turn.

“Guys, he’ll be here soon. He is super busy with being a manager at the bank now. Sometimes meetings run late.” I tried to reason with them, feeling myself get a little bit annoyed at the fact that he was running late and didn’t see a reason to let me know.

“Hey everyone, I’m so sorry I’m late,” Collin said as he walked in 35 minutes late.

“Hey baby,” I said as I stood up and hugged him. “Let me quickly introduce you to everyone beginning with Mr. Jay aka Pops, the most important man in my life,” I said, watching them shake hands as Pops started him down.

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Collin politely greeted.

“It would have been nicer if you made it here on time,” I cringed internally as I heard the statement, watching Jess and Kay snicker off to the side at what was said.

“Okay, Collin this is ma, the leading woman in my life,” I introduced them, observing how ma briefly greeted him with a small smile, the complete opposite of how she usually was when she met people.

“Nice to meet you, you look very beautiful tonight.” He added, probably trying to sweeten the moment.

“Baby, meet Jess and Kay, my overly protective sisters.” I introduced the three of them, pleading with my eyes that they would behave.

“Hi, nice to meet you. Just so you know I will go to war for Amaya without hesitating if you ever mess with her,” Jess let him know straight up, not offering a smile or anything.

“I’m Kay. I don’t appreciate you being late though. We all are pretty busy people and tired as you can imagine, oh and don’t mess with A, it’s a lot of people behind her. It’s nowhere you will go that we won’t be able to find her ” She let him know with a smile on her face.

“It’s nice to meet you ladies, and I understand everything you have said,” He let them know, keeping things classy which I was grateful for.

“Okay let’s have a seat, please,” I directed everyone to the table. I had already ordered Collin a drink which came shortly after we sat down.

“So Collin, tell us about yourself,” Pops started off the conversation, taking a sip of his drink.

“Okay. I’m Collin Bore, I’m 27 years old, currently a finance manager at a bank. I come from a family of five children and two parents who have been married since they were 18. I plan on owning a barbershop and tattoo parlor in about two years’ time,” He ended, putting a smile on my face.

“Hmm okay,” Jess commented, taking a sip of her mimosa.

“Uhh, so where do you see you and A going in the next year?” Ma asked.

“Short term, I see her moving in with me in about the next month and lo-,” Before he could finish his sentence, he was cut off sharply by pops.

“Absolutely not. Amaya is not moving in with any man until I walk her down the aisle and hand her over to him.” He said, acting like he had just heard an abomination come from Collin’s mouth.

“I completely agree with you baby.” Ma agreed, shaking her head while waving her hand around.

Clearing my throat, I picked up my glass of apple juice and took a sip, flagging down our waitress, letting her know that we were good to start the process of ordering food. After everyone else around the table had ordered, the waitress finally got to Collin and me, and I was excited to try out their poached lobster that Miss Kay raved about when she was brought here on a date.

“Okay, so I will be having your steak and lobster with a side of mashed potatoes and my girlfriend will have a caesar salad with some grilled chicken,” Collin ordered for himself and I as well, something I noticed he tended to do alot.

“What the hell, is Amaya not capable of ordering her own food?” Kay asked with the most stank look on her face.

“No, not really, I just know what she should be eating hence me ordering for her,” He responded without looking up.

“Hmm,” I heard pops comment, letting me know that he was not impressed.

After that awkward moment, not much was said so when the food came out, I was relieved that everyone would have something to do. With the whole crew done eating, we thanked Collin who had gotten the bill taken care of before we even got here.

“Well Collin, it was nice to meet you. We would spend more time but us old folks would rather head home now,” Ma said as she stood up, prompting everyone else to follow suit.

“It was nice to meet you too,” He said, shaking her hand and pops who decided to keep quiet and respond to Collin with only a handshake and head nod.

“I’ll see you tomorrow A, let me know when you get home,” He said as I gave them both hugs.

“Ayt girl, we leaving now. Do you need a ride with us or,” Jess asked.

“Nah, she’s good I’ll take her home,” Collin quickly interrupted her, gripping my waist tightly.

“Hmm okay,” Kay commented, rolling her eyes really hard.

“Bye babes. You better call us the minute you get home or I’m calling the police to let them know you’re missing,” Jess hugged me extra tight, whispering in my ear that she was going to track me till I got home, getting a weird vibe from Collin.

“Okay, let’s get you home,” Collin said after everyone had left.

We walked outside and waited for the car to be brought up by the valet. After tipping him off, we started the drive to my place in a very awkward silence. I couldn’t tell whether Collin was kinda mad at the way things had gone tonight or if he was just tired so I decided not to say anything.

When he pulled up to my apartment complex, he shut the car off and didnt say anything for about 5 minutes. Before I could speak up he said something shocking me.

“I can’t believe you let your family disrespect me the way they did. What the hell A?” He ended, raising his voice.

Shocked by his outburst I gripped my clutch. “Collin, I didn’t expect tonight to go like this at all I-,”

“I dont give a flying fish what you expected. I’m your man, you have to defend my name to everyone!” He said banging the steering wheel, scarring me.

“C-Collin, I’m sorry, the night just didnt begin well. Everyone was mad that you came almost 40 minutes late. That just set the tone. But I promise I’ll talk to them,” I let him know, hand on the door handle getting ready to leave quickly incase I needed to.

“Bruh just get out of my car,” He yelled.

Getting out quickly, I basically ran up the stairs into my apartment. Letting everyone know I had made it home safely, I jumped in the shower and got ready to go to bed, trying to process how Collin had reacted today. I really want to chop it off to stress but I’m not sure. Obviously I’m not going to tell anyone what had happened. Everyone already disliked him. This would make them flat out hate him.

Getting into bed, I decided to text Collin goodnight before drifting off to sleep, second guessing a million and one things about the relationship we had.