Malakai maneuvered his way around our nauseatingly picturesque university town with ease, smoothly making his way down hilly avenues lined with gold-leaf molting trees, gently pushing the steering wheel with one hand as we drove past sprawling, gated, suburban houses. The way his other hand wrapped around the gearstick brought to attention just how large it was, emphasizing its sinews. I was definitely checking him out.
Malakai glanced at me quickly before bringing his gaze back to the road. “You good?”
It was then I realized I hadn’t spoken in about eight minutes. I pulled the sleeves of my sweater down to cover my hands more and folded my arms across my chest. “Um, yeah. I’m fine. Just a little cold.”
Malakai swivelled the temperature dial toward the red arrows, an action that served as a lesson to me about lying because my skin was actually prickling with heat.
I cleared my throat. “So. Where we going? McDonald’s?”
Malakai laughed and his hand wrapped around the gearstick again as he deftly maneuvered, glancing at me before kissing his teeth gently. “What you take me for?”
“You really want to know?”
A shadow flitted across Malakai’s face. He rolled his tongue in his mouth as he pulled into a road I’d never seen before. “Okay, let’s continue to withhold judgment. We’re dating now remember? That’s why I chose food for our first meeting. It’s universal. Best way to get to know someone is over a good meal. And I chose this time—late, with no warning—because I didn’t want to give you time to overthink.”
“How do you know I overthink?”
Another glance as we stopped at a traffic light. “You do a lot of that on your show. And it works most of the time but not for all things. So, I thought I’d give you a break from that. Late night text gives you no time to think. Means you have to go with your gut. You’re either in or out. And you’re here. Which means you’re in.”
My eyes explored the thrilling curves and angles of his profile, but I said nothing. This was alarming because I usually had something to say. It was my job to have something to say. I needed to have something to say. But he was right, there was some freedom, a rush, in deciding to dip out of campus during a weekday night. It was the same rush that came when I’d decided to kiss him.
Malakai’s profile broke and shined light as he released a small half smile. “McDonald’s? Really?”
“Everything else in this town shuts at eleven p.m. unless it’s a club!”
“Maybe in the part of town you know. Also, I would never take a girl out to McDonald’s. Big ballin’， baby, when I’m courtin’ you.”
I curbed the grin that immediately wanted to erupt. “Did you just quote Jay-Z to me?! Don’t do that. Also, you’re not courting me.”
“Big ballin’， baby, when I’m fake courtin’ you.”
A laugh leaped out of me and I brought my sleeve-covered fingers to my mouth in an attempt to push it back in, looking out of the window at the amber-and-dark-green blur of trees and streetlights that enshrouded large red brick houses with black gates—usually with two SUVs parked in the driveway.
“You’re not funny.”
“Too late. I already heard you laugh.”
“It was a cough.”
“Sounded like a giggle.”
I turned to him. “You were mistaken. I don’t giggle. There was something in my throat. Do you have a lozenge in the glovebox?”
“I do, but you’re not getting it. I want to hear you cough again.”
“Why, sicko?”
He paused as he made a turn. “It was a cool sound. I liked it.” His eyes were fixed straight on the road but his lips curved gently.
Heat rose to my cheeks as silence fell, but this time it was comfortable. I relaxed into it enough to notice that I had been into every song that had played in the car. New R&B mingled with old school R&B, and as Maxwell’s “The Suite Theme” flowed into Drake’s “After Dark,” I realized that I had expected that progression. I picked up Malakai’s phone from where it lay in the little holder between us and tapped it alive. Sure enough, the playlist was Brown Sugar Show Presents: Late Nights. I usually made them after the show for my own fun, before sharing them on our social media accounts. I didn’t know that anyone else actually listened to them. I made them because it was fun for me, selecting a mood and seeing where it took me. It was me at my freest, allowing myself to move according to my own rhythm, going with my instincts.