Lord, I’ve watched you bless other women long enough, and right now, it feels like my own moment of redemption. If this is finally my turn, I promise not to fumble it… well, not immediately.
I held my hand out toward him. “The name’s Zonnique, and I’d bemorethan happy to take you up on that offer.”
He took my hand gently, then lowered his mouth to my knuckles and kissed them in a slow, deliberate gesture that made me blush like a little schoolgirl.
“Malachai Laurent,” he introduced himself, the melodic lilt of his accent wrapping around the words like a soft embrace. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh… the pleasure isallmine.”
My heart couldn’t stop fluttering, and I could barely contain my smile.
If Mr. Malachai plays his cards right, he might just become the distraction I need from this exhausting chapter of humiliating myself for a man who never planned on choosing me completely.
Chapter fifteen
"Merge"
Knox climbed into the passenger seat of my whip, wearing all black and smelling like expensive cologne.
The second the door shut, he glanced over at me. “Damn, nigga… yo’ ass look like you ain’t slept in days!”
Knox had been back from his anniversary trip for almost two weeks, but his ass ended up catching COVID trying to vacation somewhere tropical and overpriced where the water probably looked edited in real life.
On some real shit, I thought COVID had disappeared by now… apparently not.
Knox came back coughing, sweating, and sounding like a dying lawnmower over the phone, and I damn sure wasn’t stepping anywhere near him.
I loved my boy, but I also loved breathing regularly. Matter of fact, every time he tried to pull up, I started feeling imaginary symptoms immediately. I did my check-ins with him over the phone, and I also had a care package sent to his house, filled with medicine, soup, tea, water, expensive immune boosters heprobably ignored, and enough disinfectant wipes to sanitize a nightclub… but that was as far as my support was going.
But now that he was finally doing better?
Yeah… I needed my dawg.
“I haven’t,” I admitted, without shame.
That answer alone made him sit up straighter.
“Wassup?” he asked, his rough New Orleans drawl cutting through the low music. “Who I gotta shoot?”
A mischievous laugh left me. “In due time.”
“Ah, shit.”
I rubbed my jaw slowly before speaking again.
“Before we hit the club, I need you to ride somewhere with me.”
Knox’s brow lifted slightly. “Oh?”
“You strapped?”
Knox looked offended. “Nigga, asking me am I strapped is like asking birds if they fly.”
He lifted his shirt slightly, revealing the gun tucked into his waistband.
“I got enough artillery on me right now to start a small civil war.”
That pulled a real laugh out of me.
