Removing the perfectly rolled blunt from between his lips, Roman let smoke out of his mouth, feeling his already low eyes daze some more. The music blared loudly throughout the club, but he could hardly hear it since he was in his own world.

Isaiah ended up getting him to come out the house tonight-only because Roman didn't have anything else to do and he would've been home alone had he stayed in. All he seemed to do lately was go to work, so he figured he deserved this night out.

He had already taken four shots of Hennessy and was finishing up his first blunt, and things were going good so far. He had never liked getting out of his body too much, so after he finished this blunt, he would probably be done with both the drinks and the weed.

"I brought the bitches!" Duello, one of Isaiah and Roman's younger friends, yelled out at the same time that a few girls entered the section.

Roman chuckled at his antics, seeing how drunk he was as he basically fell off of the couch he was standing on while trying to get to one of the girls. It was only a matter of time before his baby-mama showed up, and Roman couldn't wait to see her beat his ass.

"There go yo' crazy ass bitch right there." Isaiah tapped his leg before discreetly nodding his head towards a woman that was headed their way.

"Hey East," She ran her tongue over her bottom lip before pulling it between her teeth. It was obvious she was trying to be flirtatious, but he wasn't really paying any attention to her.

He was familiar with the woman named Layla, but had only really had three encounters with her. The first was meeting her at one of Isaiah's parties, and on both of the other occasions, she'd given him head. She still greeted him every time she saw him, even though the last time she gave him head was almost two years ago. She just didn't give up.

Roman honestly didn't even know why he'd done that with her when he had, but didn't care too much about it either since it was so long ago. He hadn't had sex in years and she just happened to be there on the drunken nights that his hormones got the best of him, but he never let it get farther than oral.

"You good?" Isaiah made sure to ask since he was about to head to one of the private rooms with another girl that had came with Layla, and Roman just nodded his head. He could handle himself while drunk or sober.

"If you finna sit here I don't wanna hear you say nothing. Just be quiet and look pretty." He told her, relighting the end of his blunt at the same time that she sat down in his lap.

"Okay." She wrapped her arms around his neck, but left herself some room so that she could kiss on it. His left hand traveled to rest on her ass, exposed in the fishnet suit she wore.

Layla wasn't too annoying, she was just very persistent. Roman knew the kind of girls she hung with-the type to wait until a man got overly intoxicated to have sex with him and wind up pregnant to get some of his money, older women who had been stripping for years, young girls who wanted a piece of the fast life and etcetera.

He didn't know what her plans were with him, but she'd sure as hell been trying for a while now. He wasn't going to have sex with her though-ever, so she could get that out of her head now.

Like he'd stated before, she looked pretty and her presence didn't bother him, so he wasn't going to make her leave or anything. It wasn't like he had something better to do anyway.

"It's so many niggas you could fuck wit' in here. How you always finding yo' way to me?" He blew smoke out of his mouth in the opposite direction from her face.

"You just stand out more than they do."

"Corny. You sound like a fuck nigga." He chuckled, ashing the remainder of his blunt. It was a roach by now and had begun to burn the tip of his fingers.

Layla smiled, leaning her head down to put it in his neck again. She sucked the side of it, expecting to feel him growing hard underneath her, but he didn't. She was trying to get him to take her to the bathroom or back to his car or something.

"Watch out," He tried pulling his head back, feeling her arms snake around his neck again. He wasn't in the mood to do anything right now.

"Layla," He spoke in a warning tone since he'd already told her to move and she still hadn't.

"I can't suck dick right or something? Let me take care of you just one more time." She reached inside of his jeans and grasped the length of his dick in her hand, feeling how big he was even on soft.

"Don't make me tell you to move again." He grabbed the wrist of her hand that was touching him, and she hissed at the pain he was causing from his rough grip, immediately letting him go.

He pushed her off of his lap with a little more force than he'd intended to, and she had to stop herself from falling on the ground. He tucked his gun further on his waist, stepping around her to leave the section altogether.

Not bothering to tell Isaiah that he was leaving, Roman pulled out of the VIP parking lot to the club as soon as he got in his truck. He wasn't completely sure why he was as upset as he was, but did know that he no longer wanted to be at the club.

Sex hadn't been his thing in such a long time, and sexual advances like what Layla just pulled really made him uncomfortable. He knew any other man would've folded in his position-she wasn't ugly and she had a perfect surgery body-but he wasn't into that. He knew he shouldn't have let her sit with him since that was probably what made her think that was okay.

It wasn't like he was upset with her, he just didn't want to have sex. The whole thing aggravated him and now he regretted coming out in the first place. He also could barely see while he was driving intoxicated, so that was pissing him off further.

Spotting a familiar place, Roman made a right turn to pull into the parking lot of HuggaMug cafe.

He didn't even want any coffee.

For some reason, he wanted to see if Angel was working. She'd been on his mind since their last conversation and he couldn't figure out why.

Emerging from his truck, he saw that the parking lot was empty, which should've been expected at three in the morning. He wondered if she ever thought he was a creep for continuously coming to the cafe at such early times.

"Is that you, Roman?" He heard her call from the back once the door bells jingled.

"Yeah. It's me." He answered, going to sit down in his usual booth instead of walking to the front counter.

He laid his head down on the table since it felt heavier than usual, and the aftermath of being drunk began to kick in. The headache came out of nowhere, and it felt like his surroundings were pulsing.

"Are you alright?" Angel's soft voice made him slowly pick his head up, and she caught sight of his red eyes. This time, he looked to be a mixture of high and tired.

"Mhm. I'm a lil' drunk." He told her truthfully, and she nodded to show that she understood.

"Want some water and a sandwich, maybe?" She suggested with a concerned expression, knowing coffee probably wouldn't help with anything. Sugar would only make him feel worse.

"Please." He rested his head in the palm of his hand, and she nodded again. When she walked away to go back to the kitchen, he laid his head on the table once more, feeling as if he would fall asleep at any moment.

Without even realizing, Roman actually did doze off for a few minutes while waiting on Angel to come back with a hot breakfast sandwich for him. She didn't appear in front of him for another ten minutes or so.

The sounds of glass softly hitting the table made him conscious again, and he sat up to see two breakfast sandwiches and a small plate of beignets in front of him-this time with only a little powdered sugar, and a tall glass of cold water to wash it all down with.

"You don't have on any scrubs today." She referred to his choice of clothing, curious about where he'd come from.

"Yeah, I ain't have work today. I went out with some friends." He chuckled at her observation while gesturing her to sit in front of him, so she did.

"Did you have fun?"

"Nah." He answered truthfully, and Angel nodded yet again.

"You don't look like you had any fun. You look terrible, actually. And you smell funny." She told him, in case he hadn't realized already. Some people weren't susceptible of their own odors and she didn't appreciate that.

"So I stink?" He rose an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged in a way to say 'kind of', earning a laugh from him.

"I went to the club. I probably smell like strippers, weed and liquor." He named the things he'd been surrounded by, chuckling at the expression on her face. She was so pretty.

"You're slurring your words. Can you hear yourself?" She curiously asked, and he shook his head no because he really couldn't.

"How much did you have to drink? Did you drive here? Do you know that's illegal?" She followed up with more questions.

"You talkin' too fast mama I'm not hearing everything right now." He mumbled, using a straw to drink from his cup of water.

"I should call the police on you. You could get a DUI, Roman. You shouldn't be driving while intoxicated." She frowned at him, watching as he laid his head tiredly in his hand.

"What you want me to do? Apologize?"

"I don't like your attitude." She folded her arms across her chest, and he smiled, sitting up more vertically in the seat.

"You got the heat on in here?" He pulled his hoodie off, feeling like the weight of the room was on top of his body, causing him to quickly grow hot.

"No. You're just drunk. It feels like this everyday." She helped herself to one of his beignets, sure that he wouldn't mind her taking one. Technically they were hers anyway since he hadn't even paid for them.

"Do you want me to call you an Uber, Roman? Sometimes the drivers aren't all that good but I don't want you to drive like this." She referred to him still being drunk.

"Nah. You wanna drive me?"

"I don't drive. I wouldn't drive you even if I did. Stranger danger is a stupid phrase, but it's true. It just isn't correct grammar-stranger danger. That's two nouns. It doesn't form a real sentence." She told him, being as informative as usual.

"You cute as hell."

"That doesn't make any sense either. Hell isn't real and even if it was, nobody has ever seen it. How is something cute as hell, if you don't know what hell looks like? What if it's ugl-,"

"Angel just tell me thank you. It was a compliment mama." He cut her off, his brain beginning to fuzz from her ranting.

"Oh. Why do you keep calling me that? Mama?" She asked, resting her face in her hands.

"I don't know. Just a nickname I'm used to. I'll stop." He wiped his mouth off with a napkin, finishing up his second sandwich. He could feel himself slightly sobering up already.

"No, it's fine. How are you feeling now?"

"How are you feeling now?" He mocked her voice that was much softer than his own, and she rolled her eyes at his mockery. He laughed at the way she annoyingly looked at him, picking up his water again.

"I'm fine now. I think I was assaulted a minute ago but it's cool 'cause she probably feel the same way." He randomly revealed, and she immediately frowned her face up.

"What? You hurt somebody?"

"No. I didn't hurt nobody. She wanted to fuck me, not the other way around." He pointed at himself for emphasis, realizing that maybe he wasn't sobering up like he had previously assumed.

"Oh. Who, do you have a girlfriend?" She asked with curiosity. Now, she wasn't as aware as most but she could've sworn he'd been flirting with her.

"Nah. My babymoms died when she had our daughter. It was some random stripper bitch at the club. I guess she ain't that random since we done did some shit, it was my fault. I ain't mad at her." He continued to reveal information that he wasn't intending to, and Angel just listened.

"You be having sex?" He returned a question to her, and she shook her head no.

"Me either. I don't feel right doing it no more 'cause it make me feel guilty. I feel like I be cheating on my baby-mama and her ass been dead for almost eight years." He chuckled, though it wasn't humorous at all.

"What was her name?" Angel wondered aloud.

"Samaiya. I named my daughter after her; Kaiya. M-A-I-Y-A, and K-A-I-Y-A." He spelled their names with closed eyes, leaning his head against the wall of the booth.

"Do you miss her?"

"Mhm. We ain't do nothing but argue when she was here but she loved me and that was enough for me. Sometimes I be hating her now though 'cause she got me raising Kaiya without her." He rubbed the bridge of his nose as if that really frustrated him.

"You still have help?"

"Yeah, my lil' sister and my Nana. I ain't doing it by myself but I'm still doing it without Samaiya. And I be feelin' guilty 'cause I get to see my baby everyday; I seen her first steps, her first word was dada, I watched her eat solid food for the first time and I took her to her first day of school. Maiya ain't get to be there for none of it."

Angel's face slightly frowned up once she watched him wipe his, and she realized that he was crying.

She didn't know how to respond or how to help him, but whenever she was sad, her sister or Nana would come hug her. Since she wasn't sure on if he was comfortable with hugs or not, she reached over the table to clasp her hands with his.

He rubbed the back of her hand in appreciation, fixating his gaze on her soft pink manicured nails. She seemed so well put together with her nails, hair and lashes. Roman liked that.

Another thing he liked was how she just sat and listened to him without judging or disregarding the way he felt, even with him being as drunk as a Mexican uncle on Cinco De Mayo. He wasn't sure if he'd remember this tomorrow, but he hoped he would.

"Sometimes people have a way of blaming themselves for things that are out of their control. I'm sure it wasn't your fault that she passed. You shouldn't feel guilty. If anything, you should be grateful that you got to stay. You have the opportunity to be a father and I'm sure Samaiya is thankful that you're still doing it even while she's not here."

Her voice was so soft, Roman could barely focus on what she was saying because he was too infatuated with the natural tone she carried. He'd definitely had one too many drinks.

"I don't want her to be grateful. I want her to be here with me but we can't all get what we want, can we?"

"We can't. So you have to settle with what you have, whether you like it or not." She told him, her frown finally disappearing from her pretty face.

Roman laid his head on the table in a form of defeat, and she knew that he was still silently crying to himself because she could see his shoulders move every few moments or so. She wished she knew how to console him better.

Emotions made her feel weird-her own and others as well.

"The next time you see me, just pretend this didn't happen, aight?" He chuckled, slightly slurring his words again.

"I won't make any promises." She said back, and he gave her a thumbs up which caused her to smile. He had an awkwardly positioned thumb.

"Roman," She called his name after a few minutes of silence.

"Hm?"

"Why did you come here after going to the club instead of going home?" She asked with curiosity.

"I don't know. I wanted to see you." He answered truthfully with his head remaining on the table-and he still wasn't sure why he even wanted to see her. They'd only had one real conversation before this.

"Oh, okay. Is there someone you could call to let them know you're safe?"

"I'm grown. I don't need to call nobody Angel." He spoke sarcastically, briefly laughing once he heard her smack her lips.

It went quiet again, and Angel never removed her gaze from him. He was interesting to her; a male nurse covered in tattoos with a deceased baby-mother that he ranted about while drunk, while also admitting to wanting to see someone as ordinary as herself during a time like this.

She watched as his breathing pattern changed, and she realized that he was falling asleep.

"Oh no. No, don't go to sleep in here Roman you'll get a crook in your neck. Come on." She stood up from the booth, finally taking her hands out of his to gesture him to stand up too.

"Why you don't wanna hold my hand no more?" He asked after she'd picked his head up from the table, and he caught her off guard once he then rested it on her stomach.

"You need to go get in your car so that you can take a nap." She kept her arms at her sides because she wasn't sure what to do with them, waiting for him to stand up.

"I don't wanna take a nap. I wanna stay in here with you. That's aight?" He mumbled, snaking his hands around her small waist. The touch made her mildly uncomfortable because it was too foreign for her liking, so she took a step back from him.

"Shit. I'm sorry." His low red eyes were apologetic, realizing that he had gotten too touchy. He didn't even notice the way he was previously holding her.

"That's okay. Can you stand up so that I could help you to your car?" She asked, stepping back further to give him some more room.

As soon as he stood up it felt like he would fall over, and Angel had to catch him because he actually started to daze as if he would faint. He tried not to touch her since it was obvious he had made her uncomfortable the first time, but he had to drape his arm over her shoulder or else he really would fall.

She held around his torso, walking slowly with him towards the front of the entrance while listening to him talk about whatever it was that he was talking about. It was hard to understand him due to the way he was slurring.

"You gon' leave me?" He mumbled, being placed in the passenger seat of his Cadillac Escalade V truck with Angel's help.

"You can come back inside after you take a nap if you want. I'll make you coffee, okay?" She reclined the seat back for him, which didn't help much because he was so well built.

He didn't respond, and Angel looked up to see that he was already fast asleep when he hadn't even been in the truck for a full two minutes.

Shivering from the gust of wind that blew, Angel noticed just how cold it was outside and she hoped he wouldn't get sick while sleeping in this. She wanted to turn the heater on for him, but didn't want to invade his privacy by going through his pockets to find his keys.

Luckily, she caught sight of his push to start button that crunk up the truck with just a light tap. The heater automatically came on, and she pulled her cardigan off to cover him up some more just in case the heat didn't do him enough justice.

She made sure to lock his doors from the inside before closing the passenger one, and then she headed back in the cafe to get back to work.

I done changed Angel face-claim three times already. At first I was gonna make this an age gap book so I was gon' use Maraye, but I changed my mind and went with Bernice. No age gap this time lol