Lookin For Trouble (Part II)

It had been a few days and I still hadn't heard from Trouble, which kind of bothered me. Maybe his phone was turned off again or maybe he found himself some trouble. Nah... he was too smart for that. Besides, if he'd really gotten into anything or something was really wrong he'd get word to me. I was sure of that. Maybe, after all this time he'd actually felt a sense of shame for what he'd done. Lord knows he'd done enough dirt in his life for it to finally get to his conscience. The thing is he always says he loves me. I know it's true. The problem is he doesn't know what to do after that. I'm a different kind of woman than what he's used to. I have my own place, my own car and my own money so I'm not impressed by his. Truth be told I have a bit more than him so I think he sometimes wonders what it is I see in him that makes me bother at all. Sometimes I wonder too. I think it's the easy comfortableness when he's around. He's not bad looking either - 6'4 with chocolate brown skin and hazel eyes... And fire. Gotta be careful with fire like that though because it burns.

But even still, I knew better than to go out looking for Trouble. He always came to find me. That's how things worked. His world was totally different than mine, but they always managed to intersect at different points. It didn't take long and didn't catch me too much off guard when the knock on my door came from him. Standing on the other side, he smiled a mile wide when I opened the door. "Hey Sweetheart," he drawled in that slow Texas way. "Good morning, " I said, standing there looking up at him with an eye of inspection and condemnation, my hand on my hip for emphasis.

"I'm sorry," he started, "can we talk about this inside?"

I hesitated for a moment, even though we both knew I was going to let him in. Standing there I watched for his eyes to change, to indicate he knew I was serious and he was too. "Sweetheart I'm really sorry, " he said again. I moved to let him in.

"Have you had breakfast yet?" he asked as he moved towards my kitchen. I replied that I hadn't, following him with my arms folded across my chest, annoyed that he was going to try and distract us from the conversation we needed to have. I watched as he pulled out skillets and pots. He was so comfortable there in my house. I couldn't believe his confidence. Or maybe it was arrogance. It was time I called a spade a spade. As he stood whipping up scrambled eggs I started in, "Where have you been Trouble?"

"Babe can we do this later? Like after we eat?"

"Trouble..."

He interrupted, "Baby look, I know you're hungry. I am too. We will talk about this, I promise you." I just stared at him, wondering why I was gonna let him win this. But I was hungry and he was already cooking. I sighed in resignation and he added, "besides, you'll argue better on a full stomach." Then he winked at me and I couldn't help but shake my head and smile. I walked away to let him finish cooking and went back to what I was doing before he decided to show up.