Now, how thefuckdid she know that? That wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the article that she sent me.
Laila
Hell yeah!
June
Sorry, Lord, but yes! You don’t get to play in my girl’s face and think shit gon’ be sweet.
Laila
Stupid ass nigga! And while we’re on the subject, why the fuck is his name spelled like that?! I bet his mama thought his name was cool with just one L!
Mona
He only has one because he needed more room to take more Ls in life… You know what? Y’all are right! Fuck him! I’m glad he shitted on himself, and I hope he never heals right! I hope they stomped his dick off too! Weak ass nigga!
I started typing then stopped no less than five times, remembering how tense and concerned Chase was when I told him what happened with Malcom. I noticed that since he had been back, he seemed more relaxed than he had been since I’d known him.
Like he got all his frustrations out by stomping that nigga out like a roach in the corner… with a pair of pointy toed shoes.
My brain didn’t even compute that he had finished his shower and walked back in the bedroom with only a towel around his waist.
“What?” he frowned, looking over at me. That’s when I realized that I was just staring at him. I should have asked him about Malcom. Should have asked him if he was responsible for beating that man to a bloody pulp, but I didn’t, because at that point, I didn’t care. What Mona said before—I felt safe with him, and happy—was the absolute truth. That man risked jail time and a forty-million-dollar contract to make sureIwas protected, and while I wanted to light his ass up as his former attorney, as his woman… I just wanted to suck dick until he needed a saline drip.
So, I didn’t ask any questions.
All I could do was flip the covers back, invitingly.
“Come back to bed.”
CHAPTER 23
PEER PRESSURE
“You nervous, bruh?”The mischievous grin on Tahmir’s face made me crack up. The two of us became friends by default because our women were attached at the hip. Once we were face to face, I realized that I knew his ass. His friend Seven was cousins with Rome, so we had been around each other in a group setting before. He was a little crazy, but cool, and it was always cool to have a familiar face around because Johnathan was driving me fuckin’ crazy being in New Dawn with Jocelyn.
“Hell yeah,” I laughed as we strolled the aisles of the grocery store, picking up all the random shit Amaya and Mona requested. I honestly thought they sent us on this wild goose chase just so they could talk shit about us freely. Mona said some bullshit about making sure Amaya’s edges were laid and they sent us to the store to get cocoa butter, onion powder, and paper towels. Shit that I knew for a fact that Black woman already had a surplus of in the house.
“You’ve met her people before, they cool?” I asked. Amaya’s people were having a barbecue and after her parents found out that I’d been laid up at her house for countless weeks, my presence was mandatory. That was fine with me because I wanted to be wherever she was. I was already trying to prepare myself forthe ache I knew I would feel when I had to head back home in two weeks for training camp, but we would make it work.
“Just their Aunt Nell & Uncle Brian, but yeah, they were funny as hell. Mona pretty much grew up with her aunt and her parents, and they’re cool… but they made it clear that I better not fuck up.”
“Okay, bet,” I said, throwing a bag of grapes in the basket for Amaya—they weren’t on the list, but I noticed that she was running low that morning, so I made sure to grab her some. Tahmir looked at the basket, then pulled out his phone like he forgot something.
“Aye man, I’m about to order these earrings for Mo. You got a plug out here, or do you just have all her stuff shipped from L.A.?” he asked.
“Stuff?” I asked frowning. “What you mean?”
“Like her gifts and shit,” he said casually.
“Nah, we don’t really do that,” I shrugged.
“What you mean?” he asked with a smile that had absolutely no happiness behind it.
“We just… don’t really do that… I mean I buy groceries and shit, and I’ve been sneaking on her phone and paying her bills. Oh, I bought her some grass the other day.”
“What, you mean like weed?” he asked with a raised brow.
