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We stared at each other for one second, then cracked up. He wasn’t lying when he said my wig would be off once he was done. I couldn’t even be mad. Every wig he fucked up, he paid to get it fixed.
“I feel like you do that on purpose,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Nah. It’s you. Shoulda been dressed when I got here. Don’t blame me.” He laughed.
“Yeah, whatever,” I said, yawning. “We got a gala next week. Lily of the Valley Cancer Research Center. The Stuart family. It’s good for PR. I ordered your suit.”
“They want a donation or something?” he asked, eyes barely open.
“Uh huh. Non-profit,” I muttered.
“Let’s talk about that shit tomorrow, baby. I’m tired,” he said, pulling the blanket over me.
I tapped his chest, making his eyes crack open. “Nope. Get up. I need a washcloth. I’m sticky.”
He huffed, pulling the blankets off, then jumped out of bed. He leaned down and pecked my lips, then pulled back and stared at me.
“You know I love you, right?” he asked.
“Yes. I love you too.”
He pecked my lips a few more times, then went into the bathroom.
I had everything I wanted in life. My dream career, I was fine as fuck, I was rich as hell, a good ass, sexy ass, dick slinging, pussy eating, paid ass man, and it was all mine. Who said women couldn’t have it all? And in the morning, to avoid sharing all this shit with a baby, I was grabbing two Plan Bs. I loved Emery, but a nigga won’t catch me slipping.
Two days had passed since I found out I was bein’ sent home. I wanted to be happy, but nothin’ about the way it happened felt like somethin’ I should celebrate. Don hit me, Rue, and Coach did too, but I ain’t have nothing to say to nobody. I needed a minute to get my mind right. The gym was where I went to blow off some steam. Ni had been walkin’ around me on eggshells, tryna see where my head was, but I ain’t have shit to say to her ass either.
She was beside me in our home gym, walkin’ on the stair master, cuttin’ her eye at me every couple seconds. Mirrors lined the whole back wall, and half the equipment still smelled fresh out the box ’cause we barely touched it. I knew she was about to say something about how hard I was runnin’ on the treadmill. I’d been at this shit for a full fifteen minutes and didn’t plan to slow down.
Ni stopped her machine, then stepped down and stopped mine. She stood there, arms folded across her chest. “You’ve been quiet for two days, JuMarion.”
“You know why,” I said, turnin’ the treadmill back on.
She turned it off again. “But I want you to tell me why.”
“For what? So you can act like you really give a fuck?”
“I do care. You just don’t see it.”
“I ain’t tryna hear that shit, Niema.”
I walked around her, and she sighed, followin’ me to the weights. Before I could fully sit on the bench, she was in my lap. She rubbed her hands up and down my chest, settlin’ her weight on me.
“You’re going home. You get to be around your family. This is what you’ve been wanting for years.”
Ni knew exactly what to say when I got like this. It was the way she lowered her voice and tried to sound sweet and innocent. She knew which parts of the situation to play up, so it seemed like I was winnin’ somethin’. Always fuckin’ strategic. She’d been doin’ that shit too long for me not to know.
“That’s what you think this is? A reward or some shit?”
She rubbed my shoulders and smirked. “I think you can either spend the next three years fighting against what you already know or take the good that comes with it.”
“You sound just like that nigga.”
She rolled her eyes, then stood. “My father kept you alive. He put you in a position to have a life most people could only dream of.”
“My muva still dead, ain’t she?”
She opened her mouth to say somethin’, but she swallowed it. She knew to shut the fuck up talkin’ to me. I snatched my towel off the bench and headed toward the bathroom. Her footsteps echoed across the floor behind me before I made it through the door. Ni knew when to leave me alone, and she knew when I wasn’t really tellin’ her to. That’s what fucked me up. She was trained to know everything about me. But she learned some shit on her own. It was the one thing that kept me attached to her in ways I didn’t want.
