Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I bit my lip, fully expecting Copper to lose his shit at that, but he surprised me by laughing.
Crisis diverted, we finally got to the table and took a seat.
And they did, in fact, have appetizers already ordered.
Though, I’d learned something new that day.
You could order appetizers at a buffet.
Who knew?
The way the seating was set up, the family members that I’d already met were on one end of the long table, and I was on the other with all of the new ones.
Pops took the head of the table, leaving his girlfriend to take the seat to his right.
I sat down next to Pops, and Chevy took the seat to my left, while Copper took the seat across the table from me.
His eyes immediately landed on me, and he said, “I agree with the birthing hips.”
The way he said it, though, with such a look of complete lack of emotion on his face, left me wondering how to respond.
Chevy sighed. “Y’all are fuckin’ awful.”
“There’s a lot of fucks being spread around this table right now,” the elderly woman said. “Is this normal?”
“Who even are you?” Copper asked. “You must’ve not known Pops long, or you would’ve known better than to comment on the amount of fucks going on.”
“About an hour and a half,” the woman replied. “We decided to test out his blue pills after this, so he said he’d take me to dinner first. He forgot about your dinner date, though, or he probably would’ve saved the blue pill for tomorrow.”
Utter and complete silence at the table.
Then Keely, who I could just barely hear, said, “Thank God I’m not down there.”
“I’ve heard the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” I teased. “Maybe you should’ve cooked him dinner.”
“Don’t cook to impress him,” the patriarch’s date said. “Impress him with blow jobs. Men will eat three-day-old pizza, so they’re not gonna be falling all over themselves if you pack him a great lunch.”
I opened my mouth and then closed it.
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“Um,” Milena said quietly, being the closest to the rest of us, sitting on the opposite side of Copper. “That’s a very interesting take. Thank you for sharing it with us, Merna.”
The waiter finally arrived with our drink orders and said, “Please help yourself to the buffet. I’ll be getting you some refills throughout the night and taking away the empties.”
Oh, did I mention that Pops had required everyone to go to a buffet for dinner?
Apparently, they had the best early dine options in the city.
Who knew?
Everyone got up at once, and I volunteered to stay behind to watch everyone’s stuff.
Chevy ran his hand down the length of my hair and took off, as did the rest of the table.
Milena was the first one back with a modest single plate of food.
Merna was back second with so much food piled onto her plate that it was wobbling with each unsteady step that she took. There was no way she was going to be able to eat all that food.
I took that as my sign to go gather my own food, and when I saw all the options, I realized that I was going to leave this place stuffed to the gills.
Chevy passed behind me with two plates of food, each piled decently high.
“Wow,” I said as he passed.
Chevy shot me a grin and kept walking.
Keely followed up, and she had a regular plate with a regular amount of food.
Dima, on the other hand, had so much food on his plate that it looked like he would pop if he ate it all.
I looked down at my meager four pieces of orange chicken and small amount of noodles.
Should I get more?
I’d never been to a buffet before.
I had zero idea how much food I could actually eat.
So I got little tastes of everything, heading to the table with my food.
“That’s pitiful,” Merna said as she saw all my food. “You’re paying nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents to eat that?”
I shrugged. “I’ll get more if I like what I got.”
Everyone dug in.
Everyone was talking about everything, but I was most interested in the conversation that Chevy was having with Copper and Cutter.
“What time do we ride out tomorrow?” Copper asked, sounding distracted.
“Two,” he answered. “You bringing Reign?”
“No.” Copper paused. “I do need to talk to y’all soon, though.”
Cutter sighed. “I thought you weren’t going to get involved with her anymore?”
“I hadn’t planned on it, but things have changed,” he said. “But I’m not talking about it right now.”
I wondered if it was because of me and Merna, not being a full member of their family, that he was holding back on talking about it.
I decided to not let it bother me and tested all of my food.
After deciding on a plan of attack, I went back out, and this time returned with a full plate of food.