"Good evening, welcome to Rainfall how can I help you?" The waitress greeted the two.
Jazmine looked around. This was a high-class restaurant that was on the outskirts of Chicago. Jazmine had always wanted to come here because she heard the food was amazing.
"I have a reservation under Freeman." He told the hostess.
"Sure, I'll show you to your table." With that she picked up the menu and instructed the two to follow her. Subconsciously, Jazmine reached out to hold onto Huey's hand while the other one held onto her purse and dress so she didn't trip up on it.
Huey took a quick glance down at their hands. It was weird to hold someone's hand because he wasn't used to it but for some reason, he felt that it was going to turn into a new habit that he didn't know how to feel about. Within a few seconds, the three reached a table of two.
"Here." Huey quickly jumped behind Jazmine to pull out her seat for her.
"Thank you... have I mentioned you being a gentleman today?" Jazmine joked as she watched Huey take his seat across from her.
"Once or twice." He smirked and she mirrored his.
"May I get you some drinks?" The waitress asked.
"Jazmine? Get whatever you want." Huey asked. She was shocked that he asked her. Usually her date would order the most expensive drink to show off. As you could tell, she hasn't been on many good dates.
"Let's just get some of your finest champagne." Jazmine grinned at the waiter who nodded and walked away to get their order. "So how did you manage to get a reservation so quick when it takes weeks even months to get a table?"
"I have connections. I have connections everywhere." Hearing this made Jazmine realise how much influence he had. Huey Freeman was more powerful than she thought and she wondered how much more power he had.
After that the two sat in silence. They read through the menu on their own accord but Jazmine now felt as if she was using the menu to hide. She didn't want to do that, she hated when she started to do that.
"Hello, what would you like to order?" The waitress came back over.
'Damn the service is fast.' Jazmine thought as she looked at the grinning waitress.
"Yes, I would like..."
They ordered and waited for their food.
"You know. I don't like silence." Jazmine commented as she took a sip of her drink that the waiter had just brought over.
"Then talk."
"About what?"
"Anything you like." Huey looked directing into her eyes and they held onto each other's gaze for a second. Jazmine broke away because she was never one to be able to look people in the eye for too long, it made her nervous.
"I guess you was born and raised in Chicago. When is your birthday?" She asked. Huey saw she leaned forward as if she was ready to soak up the information that was about to be told but it also gave him a great view of her cleavage but he wasn't focusing on that at the moment.
"November 5th you?"
"Ohh a Scorpio. March 12th. Pisces."
"You really believe in that astrology shit?" Huey raised a questioning eyebrow towards the girl sitting across from him.
"Not really. I mean it's fun to read about and some of the things relate a lot to my personality so I can't help but read some things. Like it would say I'm a good friend, creative and emotional. Those are what I believe are true." Jazmine explained. She kind of felt embarrassed, a grown ass woman like her talking about zodiac signs.
"What do you think these websites, or where ever you find this information from, say about Scorpios that you think is true about me?" He enquired.
Jazmine sat there and thought for a moment, trying to think of the little facts she knew to answer his question. "You're determined, loyal, honest as fuck and stubborn as a motherfucker." Hearing her swear so effortlessly caused Huey's eyes to widen a bit from how causally she said it. "Sorry, Cindy is a Scorpio too."
"I see... so where you from and what you doing in Chi town?" He questioned. Not many people chose Chicago as their first choice to move.
"I'm from a town called Woodcrest. It's a basic place full of white people so you could imagine how annoying it was for an Asian girl, black girl and mixed girl to live with ignorant people. We chose the right white person to hang out with." Jazmine laughed as she thought about her group of friends. Before she could continue, their food was brought out. They thanked the waiter and dived right in. "Hmm this is so good! Thank you so much Huey!" Jazmine grinned as she tasted her fancy food.
"Glad you like it... So, Chicago?" He brought the conversation back to the previous question he had.
"Right yeah. We were planning on going school out here which we did for a while as a way to get away from our controlling parents but then we just found the stripper life. The rest is history." Jazmine shrugged before stuffing more food in her mouth.
"I see."
"You got any more siblings? Or is it just you and Riley?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. You got any siblings?" He took a sip of the bubbly champagne to help wash down his food.
"Nah. My parents never loved each other enough to have another child. One and done, I guess. I'm surprised they're still together after I left since it seemed like they stayed together just for my sake... Trust me, it would have been so much easier with less arguing." Jazmine couldn't help but roll her eyes. Jazmine would beg for a little sister but her parents just brushed it aside. When she was 10, she finally gave up the idea of there being another little Dubious. Her parents would always argue about little things that it became suffocating. She would find herself at one of her friends house every other day to get a breather away from their bickering.
"Trust me. One sibling is too much." Hearing this made Jazmine giggle. "Why did you straighten your hair?"
Jazmine stopped eating and looked at him with wide eyes.
'Why would I straighten my hair? That's a weird question. Does it look bad? Does he prefer my hair like this?' She thought before answering.
"I guess I do it sometimes if I want to um... impress people." She said nervously before downing the rest of her drink. Her hair had always been one of her biggest insecurities when growing up as it from her black side of the family. The white children and even teachers never understood what grew out of her head and made her feel like a freak. It took a lot of soul searching but she eventually learned to love her hair but there were still times, such as now, where she would fall back into those thoughts and will straighten her hair to impress people like now.
"You don't need to impress me with straight hair or even impress me at all. I like your natural afro, it is the crown on every Nubian Queens head. I have always liked natural hair on a black woman but if they wanted to do wear anything else, I have cool with that too, that's their choice." He said to her as he filled her glass up with more champagne.
"Nubian Queen..." She whispered.
"Yeah, that's what you are. That's what all black women are to me and should be to everyone else in the world." He told her sincerely.
"Wow... no one has ever called me that before, thank you." She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to avoid eye contact with him. All of sudden, she felt shy.
"No problem."
A few minutes passed by as they sat in silence enjoying their meal until Jazmine decided to break the silence again.
"What's it like, you know, being the leader of a gang?" Jazmine asked curiously. She always wondered how a 25-year-old male could run a whole gang and seem to be doing it so well too.
Huey was caught off guard and began choking on his vegetables which caused Jazmine to jump up in fear.
"Oh my gosh! Huey, I'm so sorry I asked. Are you ok?" Jazmine was ready to jump out of her seat but Huey held out his hand to stop her from coming any closer.
"I'm fine Jazmine. I just... didn't expect to hear that question. Not really a 'date' question."
Before Jazmine could let him answer, a large grin grew on her face. "So, this is a date?"
Huey barely had time to collect himself after chocking and now he was getting hit with another hard question which could send him on another coughing fit.
"It's whatever you want it to be." He answered smoothly trying his best to recover.
"Well then. I guess it's a date." The grin still didn't leave her face while the man across from her just nodded.
"To answer your question, there's no real answer to give. There is no easy thing about it. Every day you are met with new challenges, problems and threats. You can't show any weakness because there will always be something waiting to exploit it and use it against you. You have to make sure every single one of your people is taken care of or they will turn on you and that will lead to nasty results. Any decision you make, you have to be 100% sure you are making the right one because it will always, without a doubt, have a ripple effect. Where it will be a good or bad one is up to you which is why you have to pay attention to detail." Huey took a second to drink from his glass. He saw Jazmine's bright eyes wide with interest as she held onto every word that was being spoke.
"There is a constant threat of death. Whether I go, there's a target on my back... To be honest, in this climate, I don't want to be seen out with you by the wrong person which shows how irresponsible I am being right now." The afro wearing male took a deep breath to allow her to take in the information being thrown her way since it was about her safety just by being an associate of the Freeman's. Knowing the Freeman's never came easy to anyone, they experienced that problem first hand. "But don't feel bad, I asked you out and if anything happens, I'll protect you. Now, the good thing would be family. Some of these people have no family at all so we're to help, we don't discriminate."
Jazmine listened intensely at what he was saying. She knew it wouldn't be easy but damn, he had it hard.
"Wow and you're only 25."
"Yeah. I took over when I was 20 after my father nearly died, I stepped up."
Jazmine enjoyed listening to him talk, his voice was deep and it was just so inviting to her. It was weird but that's how she was feeling. Huey had the voice you could listen to for hours; too bad he chooses not to speak as much.
"You ever thought about having kids?" Jazmine curiosity asked him as she tilts her head to the right, waiting for his reply.
Huey sat there for a moment, staring at her. It was a question that he wasn't ask regularly so he didn't have a straight forward answer, he needed time to think.
"I guess maybe two or three. How many do you want?" He asked her back.
"Around the same. Maybe even four but who would want to have kids with a stripper?" Jazmine tried to hide her face away from him because of how stupid she felt. She heard it all the time: 'No one wants a stripper as a wife. She's had every man on her.' 'Can't turn a hoe into a house wife.'
She sometimes wondered if it was true because nothing seemed very successful for her so called love life.
"Just because you're a stripper doesn't mean you don't deserve to have children. It's like people saying I shouldn't have been born because my dad was a gang leader but I think I'm doing pretty fucking well." Huey reassured her, once again, making her go red.
'Really again? This is really getting out of hand!' Jazmine slowed her breathing in hopes to lose the redness in her face.
"I appreciate you saying that... How did you meet Hiro and Caesar?" Jazmine asked as she swallowed her piece of food.
"School. We were in the same class when we were 5. Been close ever since. I remember when we were 8 and a group of 11-year olds tried to jump Hiro so after school, we jumped them. They never looked our way again. I think that was the moment my dad realised that I could handle anything."
"Damn that's crazy." Jazmine commented.
"Tell me about yourself." Huey switched the conversation back to her as he sat back in his chair. He felt as if he had talked way more than he should but for some reason, this girl in front of him was making him do it. If only she knew.
"What do you wanna know?" Jazmine hated that question; it was so basic.
"Whatever you feel comfortable in telling me. Like how you became so good at stripping and medicine." Huey smirked at her while she just giggled. That's not a first date question. It's usually 'why did you chose stripper? You're so smart!'.
"Gymnastics. Captain of the cheerleading squad. My daddy's side of the family." Jazmine snorted thinking about how bad her mother's side was when it came to dancing. Her parents wedding looked very interesting in the videos. "Wanted to be a doctor but you know, stripping was easy and that money is too. Pervy men but as long as they paying, I keep it moving." She shrugged as she whipped her mouth with the napkin, very satisfied with her meal.
"All that experience seemed to pay off. As long as I own the club there will be no creepy men. Tell me and I'll throw them out... I see you enjoyed your meal." He nodded towards her empty plate and immediately she grew pink in embarrassment. "No need to get embarrassed. I rather you eat and be satisfied, then act like all you eat is salad."
"And if I did get a salad?" Jazmine raised an eyebrow and Huey mirrored her which she thought was sexy.
"Then you would go home hungry."
"Touché."
"You ready for dessert?" Huey asked as he saw the waitress coming back over to collect their empty plates.
"Hmm. I can squeeze a little something in."
They ordered their dessert and continued their night talking and laughing. Well, she did all the laughing and the majority of the talking but they enjoyed their selves. Jazmine got to see another side of Huey Freeman that she was glad to see. He was a very relaxed man who cared more than what he would show. His exterior was hard but she was chipping away at the even harder interior. She hoped they will continue seeing each other because this is the Huey she wanted to see more of.
She had a good feeling here.
Huey was beginning to feel the same way as much as the gangster didn't want to. He didn't do relationships. He couldn't. Especially not now when the Russians are on his tail but for some reason, she made him forget about all that. Everything about her way hypnotising. Her eyes, her gorgeous body, her beauty, her smooth voice. Jazmine Dubois was definitely a different kind of woman.
He had a good feeling here.
Part two of the date. I hope you enjoyed.
Until next time
-TBG
