A Minute Thirty Ch. 03

Sorry for the delay with this installment, I was experiencing a nasty bit of writer's block with deciding what direction I wanted this story to go in. With a change of attitude, however, I managed to get past it and push out this chapter. Needless to say, I'm pleased with the outcome. I made up and airline due to the fact that not all airlines have the same policies, so please, no one look up Zinc airlines, it doesn't exist. Anyway, this one's a little longer, I hope you all enjoy!

-Celestial Child.

C H A P T E R T H R E E

L e i l a

Leila felt infuriated. She finally made some progress with Antonio, though not much, and got him to agree to meet up with her at Simon's Bar and Grill. Simon's was a place they both loved to go when they were dating. True to his asshole character, Antonio made their phone conversation as difficult as possible, replying with short, monosyllabic answers for much of the conversation.

"Antonio, I've been trying to get in touch with you for four days now. Don't you think you should have at least called me back?"

"Yeah." He said simply.

Leila grumbled.

"Okay... so why didn't you?" She asked, as if she were speaking to a toddler.

"Busy." He replied.

"You were too busy to give me an explanation for throwing me out?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah." Antonio muttered.

Leila sat perched on the edge of the large comfortable guest bed, rolling her eyes at the sheer stubbornness of him. Though she hated to admit it, she should have listened to Nisey and stayed far away from Antonio Juarez in the first place.

"Okay, fine. I guess I'll do most of the talking." She breathed heavily, "I was thinking that you and I could meet up and chat for a little bit. Maybe at Simon's? I had some news I wanted to tell you before... well before all of this, and I think you'd be interested in what I have to say." She held her breath waiting for another short answer from Antonio, and was both surprised and relieved when he gave her a full two sentences.

"That should be fine. When do you want to meet up?"

"Tonight around nine? I have some things I have to do before I can meet up with you, but I don't think this should wait any longer." Leila persisted.

They confirmed their plans for the evening and after they hung up, Leila went grocery shopping and stopped back at Denise's house to put them away, all before heading to the bar and grill.

She was nervous to say the least, and although she should have been fire-spitting mad, she couldn't help but feel apprehensive about telling Antonio the news about the baby. She didn't know what to expect when she told him about their little bun in the oven. Leila's hands flew protectively to her stomach as she fretted over his response. Like herself, Antonio was sometimes incredibly crude and an asshole, and she knew that if he didn't like the news she had to deliver, he would say some pretty harsh stuff. But she was serious about this baby, and she didn't know if she was making it up, but she could already feel her maternal instinct kick in.

She had a soft smile on her face, imagining a future of her nursing and taking care of her baby, when a motion at the door caught her attention. She smiled brightly at seeing Antonio walk in. She had to admit that he looked good, even after all of this shit he put her through, he still had the ability to steal her attention with his sexiness.

He wore black slacks and a burnt orange dress shirt with the top two buttons undone. On his right arm, he wore the golden Rolex she had gotten him for his last birthday, and on his face were a pair of dark shades. Once he stepped into the dimly lit bar, he removed the shades and looked around for her.

She decided to observe him from afar a little more before alerting him of her whereabouts. He was a very beautiful man. He had curly dark brown hair that was short cropped on his head and a closely shaved beard. His hazel eyes were framed by beautiful long eyelashes. If he were smiling, she would have been able to see those straight pearly whites he had too. Her eyes zeroed in on Antonio's full heart shaped mouth and she sighed. She once loved kissing those lips of his. Leila reminisced about all the times those lips brought her pleasure. Those had been very good times. Leila smiled smugly to herself. Antonio was a reminder that she had never had a boyfriend that wasn't attractive. Though in the end, their personalities were always a little questionable, she couldn't help but be a little prideful in knowing her man was the usually the most attractive one in the room.

Antonio was beginning to look a little frustrated, so Leila stood and waved her hand. He caught the movement, and hurriedly made his way to the table.

He sat heavily in the seat across from Leila, and looked down at his watch impatiently before giving her his undivided attention.

"Okay. I'm here." He said, sucking his teeth and placing his interlaced fingers on the table.

Leila smiled softly at him, trying not to let his foul mood affect her. This was happy news.

"It's nice to see you too Antonio. How are you?" She said sweetly.

"Just dandy," he replied sarcastically, "Can we hurry this up? Cindy and I have somewhere to be after this. She's waiting in the car for me." He mentioned casually, craning his neck around to find a server.

Leila had to swallow the initial shock she was feeling. 'Who the fuck is Cindy?' She thought bitterly.

"Cindy?" She managed to ask, just as a cute blonde server came around and cheerfully asked for their drink orders.

"Hi, what can I get you folks?" The server asked, a large and pleasant smile on his face. He was oblivious to the growing tension at the table.

"Yeah, bring me a Crown Royal and a coke." Antonio said, avoiding eye contact with him. Whenever Antonio went out, he never made eye contact with the servers. It was a part of some weird power trip he was perpetually on that Leila always felt annoyed by.

The waiter, however, seemed unfazed by his behavior.

"Sure, and you?" he asked, turning to Leila.

"I would just like some water." Leila replied with a smile.

Antonio scoffed.

"YOU are just getting water? But you drink like a fish, Princess." He said, using that endearing nickname he had once used for her as an insult now.

The waiter picked up on the negative tension finally, said his bit about being back ASAP, and left them all alone in a hurry. Antonio looked expectantly at her and tried again.

"We gonna talk or what?" He asked with attitude.

She let out a strange chuckle.

"I don't really know where to begin." Leila said.

"Really? I thought you would for sure have your spiel down by now. Hasn't it been enough time?" He asked, a smug look on his face.

Leila narrowed her eyes, and couldn't control the snarky comment that escaped her lips.

"I don't know why you're giving me all that fucking attitude Tony, you threw my shit outside, not the other way around."

"You and I were done long before that, Princess." Antonio spat back.

Leila blinked at him. She felt her body begin to shake.

"What the hell does that even mean?" She said, trying not to raise her voice and failing.

Antonio sat unflinchingly. Leila huffed and willed herself to calm down.

"Look, aside from telling you my news, I just wanted to know your reasoning for throwing me out the way you did. I know my name wasn't on the lease and so technically I have no right to be there, but I thought you would at least be man enough to break up with me to my face." She spat.

Antonio replied with a blank face.

"The fact of the matter is, you were too damn busy flying to and fro to take care of your man, you were gone to God knows what state and I wasn't about to wait around to ask permission to be done with you Princess. I wanted you out, so I threw you out. For all I know, you could have been fucking someone else. I've seen what you can do behind the bedroom doors, how was I to know if you were being a freak solely inside of those sheets? I didn't know if you had joined the mile high club without me."

He smirked at the glare she was giving him and added the nail in the coffin: the part he knew would send her right over the edge.

"Plus, I needed to make more room for Cindy's stuff." He didn't elaborate more on that, and to be honest, he didn't really need to. Leila got his message loud and clear.

She gasped as if someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water on her. She was blinking more rapidly as she felt the stinging of moisture in her eyes. The realization that this was the girl who Antonio had cheated on her with, the cause of countless arguments between the two of them, hit her with so much clarity it shook her. A laugh of disbelief escaped her lips.

"I can't fucking believe you." She whispered, talking more to herself than to him.

"Well believe it baby. I've moved on, and you're just mad because for once something isn't about you." He replied with a smug grin.

The waiter came by with their drinks, and Leila wished like hell that she had ordered something stronger to take the edge off. She was incredibly tempted to rectify her order, but she both couldn't and wouldn't endanger her baby.

"You're an asshole, you know that? Is that all you think this is? Me being upset because something isn't about me?" She scoffed, "I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I should have listened to all of those people who told me you weren't worth shit," She paused to control the tears that were attempting to escape, then continued.

"I came here to tell you big news. Good fucking news! I tried to have a positive attitude even after you did all of that horrible shit to me and for WHAT? For you to come in here and try to hurt my feelings when you were the wrong one in the first place."

Antonio took a sip of his drink, and held his hand up to silence her.

"Okay, why don't you just tell me what the big news is since you keep hinting at it?"

"I'M PREGNANT!" Leila yelled, a little louder than intended. She looked around in slight embarrassment, but shook her head in indignation anyway.

Antonio's face fell. If Leila wasn't so pissed off, she might have started laughing, but she was too worked up, and was trying desperately not to cry instead. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out so he closed it. Obviously that wasn't what he was expecting.

"Oh what? You don't have a horrible remark this time?" Leila taunted, grabbing her glass of water and placing the coolness of it against her forehead. She needed to get out of there.

She stood to her feet.

"I swear to all that is holy, you better get your shit together and present me with the world's best apology within the next 48 hours or so help me God Antonio, I will take your ass to court and sue you for child support so fast your head will spin. I wanted to make this work between us, maybe even hold onto some small shred of friendship, but I'm not entirely sure that's possible now. I'll be going." She gulped hard. Her eyelashes were wet with the tears she finally allowed herself to shed.

That last statement seemed to be effective.

"Wait, Lei, just hold up a second. I need a moment to process this." Antonio finally said, also standing to his feet.

He looked at Leila searching her eyes for some sign that she was joking.

"You're really pregnant?" Antonio asked, his tough guy façade suddenly nonexistent.

Leila nodded and wiped away a tear. How could he be so cold toward her after all the time they spent together as a couple? How could he ever claim he loved her?

Antonio sat heavily in his seat at the table.

"Oh Princess, I'm sorry." He said, having the decency to sound pained.

Leila sniffled, then stared straight ahead before she spoke again.

"Thank you for your apology, really. Just know that nothing can ever be the same again, though. I'm sorry you felt neglected, but you can't just treat someone like you treated me if you really loved them. It's evident you didn't love me in the first place. I would never let anyone fuck me while we were together. Not ever. You have broken my heart for the last fucking time, Antonio." She said, putting emphasis on the word 'never'.

Antonio looked down at the table at a loss for words. He felt terrible.

Leila took in Antonio for one last time. She would miss him, even after all of this, she would. But there was no way they could ever be together again, not in the romantic sense anyway. Not when he was so cruel to her. He ran a hand over that short cropped haircut of his that she had loved so much and then ran his hand down his face. He looked so incredibly sad that she almost allowed herself to forgive him and rush back into his arms. But she couldn't do that.

"I'm sorry Lei." He said, looking contrite.

She looked him up and down, trying hard to push down her second surge of anger.

"I'm sure you are." She spat.

She walked briskly out of the bar, leaving him with the bill, and his thoughts.

***

C o i l i n

Coilin felt like a creep, but he knew that if he went home, he would lose his courage and change his mind about asking Leila Cruise on a date. So instead, he was parked outside of Denise's house a little ways down the block, waiting on the opportunity to see her. It just reached nightfall, he'd been parked there for a little more than an hour now, and was beginning to worry that one of the neighbors would call the cops on him before he got a chance to talk to her. He would have a hard time explaining to Nisey his being arrested waiting outside of her home, when he just left her office not too long before.

Coilin decided it would be best to leave, but not before he wrote a little note on the back of a receipt from his wallet, and slid it underneath the knocker on the door. It read:

Leila, I stopped by but you weren't here.

I know it's tacky to leave a note, but I would really love to take you on a date sometime.

If you ever want to, call me at 312-067-4512

-Coilin

He was just turning away from the front door when he quite literally ran into Leila who was wiping tears from her face furiously. She looked up and yelped before realizing who it was.

"Oh my God, Coilin, you scared the shit out of me!" She exclaimed conspiratorially.

Coilin breathed a sigh of relief at finally seeing her, but that relief was fleeting as he assessed her mood. She was crying, and although it was very creepy for him to be there, he doubted her tears were brought on by his presence. He confronted her.

"Why are you crying?" He asked, concern written all over his face.

"It doesn't matter." Leila said with disdain. She looked away and bit her lip, obviously trying to keep herself from bursting into tears again. When it seemed that she had control over her emotions, she turned her head back to him and arched an eyebrow.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him.

Coilin inhaled and exhaled deeply.

"I wanted to ask you something but you weren't here, so I left a note." He muttered as she walked to the door and pulled the receipt from the knocker.

"You left me a receipt?" She asked in a confused tone.

"On the other side." He murmured.

He held his breath and watched nervously as Leila read his message and then looked up at him, this time with both eyebrows raised.

"You were gonna ask me on a date... on a receipt?" She asked, making it obvious in her stare that she was judging him.

Coilin blushed.

"It... It didn't seem like such a bad idea when I wrote it." He muttered again, avoiding eye contact.

When she didn't seem like she was going to say anything else, Coilin babbled on.

"I've been waiting here for a while now and figured you probably wouldn't be back anytime soon."

Leila's eyes were as big as saucers as she stared up at him.

"You waited here to ask me on a date?" She repeated.

Coilin mentally chastised himself for his slip up and nodded slowly, trying to gauge her opinion of his actions. He was nervous, and from what he could tell, so was she. She bit her lip nervously, and he could slowly feel his brain become clouded by lust. Leila was still wearing that cute little dress she had on earlier in Denise's office and still looked beautiful, despite her now flushed tear-stained cheeks. In fact, the flushed color of her skin made Coilin wonder if her skin turned that color after a good fucking.

"Well that's... sweet." Leila said softly, a small smile appearing on her face.

Coilin breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

"I'm glad you think it's sweet and not creepy."

"Oh, I never said I didn't think it was creepy." Leila replied quickly, her smile covering the entirety of her face now.

Coilin laughed heartily at her response.

"Touché." He responded after his laughter died down.

Leila looked down at the receipt-note in her hand and tears filled her eyes.

"All joking aside, this is really sweet Coilin. Thank you."

He reached to wipe away a resurfacing tear and lifted her chin up to look into her eyes.

"Seriously, what's wrong?" He asked softly.

"It's nothing, I just... I met up with my ex-boyfriend tonight and it was horrible." She murmured, shaking her head and looking away.

Coilin felt his chest tighten at the thought of some asshole guy making his woman cry. He quickly reminded himself to keep calm, not wanting that old temper to flare again. He swallowed the desire to find this ex-boyfriend of hers and break his legs. Coilin backtracked. He was in no position to already be claiming Leila as his woman, they hadn't even kissed yet, let alone gone on a date, plus he wasn't even sure if she wanted to go there with him.

Who was he kidding? Based on the way his body and heart responded when he was around her, Coilin couldn't argue with the way he was feeling about her. He cared about her deeply, and wanted the best for her.

"What's his name?" He questioned, his voice cold and unforgiving.

Leila looked at him, no doubt surprised by his sudden change in tone of voice.

"And why do you want to know that?" She asked incredulously.

"Obviously someone needs to teach that boy how he should treat a woman." Coilin said sternly.

"And you're going to be that person?"

"I don't see why not." Coilin replied heatedly. His temple pulsed as he longed to give this mystery man a beat down.

"Look, I appreciate your concern, but it's not like you're my boyfriend or anything. You don't have to take care of me." She said, rolling her eyes.

Leila had effectively put some space between the two of them, shifting on her back foot so she leaned away from him, but that didn't stop Coilin from advancing. He took a step forward so that he towered over her smaller frame and looked deeply into her chocolate irises. Due to their close proximity, the electricity in the air became more potent. He felt his semi-erect penis lurch at the look in Leila's eyes. They were half-lidded, her mouth parted slightly. It was as if she was in a trance.

"I still care about you. And I don't want to see you shedding tears over some asshole, okay? You're too special for that." He said, his gaze flickering to her pouty mouth momentarily, then back to her eyes.

"Do you understand that?" he asked, lowering his head toward hers. Her lips seemed to be magnetized to him, because he couldn't help but feel the pull her mouth was initiating.

Leila only nodded.

He lowered his face some more so that his lips were hovering just above hers, and sighed softly. His tongue snaked out across his lips as he realized that he was moments away from kissing that full pillow-y mouth he fantasized about for the better half of the week. He felt her shudder beneath him, although they weren't touching yet, and felt a surge of pleasure wash over him at the thought that he had ignited that arousal in her. He closed his eyes and touched his lips lightly against hers before delving into the most sensual kiss.