“Better than what? Living my life?” She gave him a dumbfounded look. He had the game and her fucked up.
“Yo, you really are playing with me.” Jio couldn’t believe his baby was misbehaving. He planned on punishing her in the bedroom when they were done with this childish ass argument. Jio thought it was all fun and games, but Nina was two seconds from breaking up with him.
“I AM NOT!”
Her voice echoed through the apartment.
Jio stared at her hard. Her chest rose slowly and her eyes were glossy. But he didn’t care. All he could think about was Kobie’s hands on her body and how she looked like she was enjoying it.
“You got everybody talking about you. That’s not cool.” He was disgusted.
Nina laughed in disbelief. “So that’s what this is about? Your ego?”
She added, “And Jio, who is everybody? Your friends?” She knew that’s who he was referring to.
“It’s about your reputation that you seem to not care about.”
He was really trying to turn this around on her.
“Oh please.”
“No!” she shouted. “You don’t get to disappear and then come in here acting as if I owe you loyalty you’re not even giving me!” He was delusional and she was no dummy.
The room went still until he stepped closer. “Watch how you talk to me,” he warned.
“Or what? Because you don’t watch how you speak to me, so why I gotta care about your feelings?”
The words came out before she could stop them and the look on his face told her that he was shocked by her speaking her true thoughts. She couldn’t take it back now, and to be honest, she didn’t want to. Nina had been far too kind and way too patient. It took ten seconds to pick up the phone and check in to hear her voice and at least make sure that she was okay. She wasn’t a needy woman. Nina wasn’t tripping that they’d skipped a few date nights or the lack of sex, care, and intimacy over the past few weeks. No, that’s not what this is. She was an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ type of woman, and Jio literally going days and weeks without communicating with her wasn’t going to continue to be acceptable. If he was looking for someone to control when it was convenient with him, he needed to find a new chick. The same energy he was using to wash his ass and smoke, because she knew he wasn’t going days without smoking, could be the same amount of time he took to speak to her or stop by for ten minutes. Nina had to put her foot down and implementboundaries and non-negotiables in order for him to respect her, or Jio could kindly keep it the fuck moving.
“Playing with me is off the table. I need you to understand that.”
Nina’s breathing shook but she stood her ground.
“I’m not playing with you,” she said quieter now. “I’m trying to comprehend what exactly you want from me.”
Because the threats were no longer a turn-on for her. Nina wasn’t moved by him growling at her like an angry pit bull. No, she wanted him to use his words to speak to her like the adults they were. She needed him to say what it was they were doing and what he expected from her. Nina was very clear on how she wanted to be treated and that was with decency and respect. Jio was going to lose her if he didn’t get his shit together.
He believed it was Kobie in her ear and that was on his stupid ass because he had nothing to do with it… yet.
Nina looked up to him with those big, pretty eyes that captured his heart way back when. For the first time ever, Jio didn’t have an answer. He didn’t know what he wanted from her, but he wasn’t trying to let another man have her either.
FIVE
“I GOT TOO MUCH MOTION, I AIN’T GON’ RACE YA.” JOHNNY CINCO
The smell of hospitals made his stomach turn. It was almost as bad as the smell of blood, but that was something that he’d gotten used to over the years.
Jio checked the time on hisMarcelleas his jaw ticked. He was trying his best to hold onto the little bit of patience he had left, but man, it was hard….
Finally, he saw his brother exit the rehab facility with a Gucci duffel bag hanging off his shoulder. In one hand were his discharge papers, and in the other was a cigarette that he’d been itching to light.
Jio honked the horn and hollered out the half-cracked window.
“Bro, let’s go. You don’t have time to hit that.” Jio hated cigarette smoke too. Slick looked like he wanted to fall out about not being able to smoke, but oh well. Jio had shit to do and they needed to get a move on.
He made his way to the truck, and after throwing his bag in the back seat, he hopped on the passenger side.
“What it do,” he greeted his brother with his usual saying.
