20. Pressure Mensah #2
Chanel had surprised me. The arrogance she walked in with had started to peel back, and underneath it was a woman I could actually hold a conversation with.
When I found out she liked horses, I took her ridin’ at a ranch on the edge of the city.
She showed up in all black, hair pulled back, looking more at home on that saddle than I expected.
For hours, we rode the trails, talked about shit that had nothin’ to do with the mansion or the competition, and she smiled more than I’d ever seen her smile before.
“You’re not as scary as people think,” she told me, grinnin’ like she was testin’ me. I just smirked and kept ridin’.
Khari Bell didn’t make it past this stretch either.
She was sweet, but it always felt like she was agreein’ with me just to keep the peace.
“Yeah, you right” was her go-to for everything, and it started to get under my dam skin.
I needed somebody with their own mind, somebody who can push back when I’m wrong.
If I wanted “yes” all the time, I’d talk to a fuckin’ mirror.
Lola and I had been kickin’ it more too.
She was playful in her own way, and I liked our back-and-forth.
We’d sit out by the fire pit, talkin’ about random shit like her favorite cities, the time she almost drowned as a kid and how goin’ to church saved her life.
But she stayed distant sometimes, zonin’ out mid-conversation or disappearin’ for hours.
It made me curious, like she was holdin’ on to somethin’ she wasn’t ready to share.
That mystery was part of what kept me callin’ her back.
Renae and I had a steady, easy vibe. She wasn’t loud, and she wasn’t over the top. She was just consistent. She’d check in, ask about my day, and really listen. She had this way of lookin’ me in the eye when I talked, like she was tryin’ to catch every word.
Nyah, though… she just didn’t bring much to the table.
Like all of ‘em, she had a pretty face, great body, but every conversation felt like pullin’ teeth.
After a while, I stopped tryin’ to force it.
Durin’ elimination, I laid the truth on her and told her it wasn’t working.
She nodded, smiled politely, and walked away like she’d already expected it.
Then there was Pluto. The more time I spent with her, the more I wanted to be around her.
She opened up about her little sister and the shit she’d been through, and I respected how she’d stepped into that role like a second mother without complainin’.
For some reason, she had me feelin’ like she would be a good mother to our kids if we ever had them.
She had this quiet strength that drew me in without tryin’.
We would sit on the balcony late at night, her legs pulled up in the chair, tellin’ me about the books she read to Zurie, how she made her favorite pancakes every Saturday, how she worried about her future more than her own.
At first, her being a virgin felt like a complication, but now I saw it differently.
If I picked her, I would be her first, and that mattered in a way I hadn’t expected.
I was gettin’ selfish with her heart, even if I didn’t say it out loud.
She was the calm to my storm, and I ain’t want nobody else touchin’ what I was startin’ to think might be mine.
And Kashmere… she was the one I had a hard time admitting I had already fallen for.
She got me in ways nobody else did. She challenged me and wasn’t intimidated by me.
She knew how to make a nigga laugh without tryin’ and give me space when everyone else was crowdin’ me.
While the other women was flockin’ for my attention, she’d be in the corner playin’ cards with one of the guards or curled up on the couch readin’ somethin’ with her headphones on.
But when we linked up privately, it was like the rest of the mansion didn’t exist. We’d talk for hours or say nothin’ at all, and it still felt like we had been together all day.
She had that blend of humor, sass, and depth that made me want more, and she was an amazing ass lover.
She didn’t just know what I liked but knew how to pull more out of me than I’d planned to give.
She fucked me so good, I found myself cravin’ her every night.
She had a nigga arguin’ with her over dumb shit and followin’ her around the mansion on some territorial shit.
That was the problem. I had lowkey fallen in love with her in three weeks, and the only way I knew to keep my head clear was to pull back from her sometimes, even if it killed me to do it.
By the end of it, I’d cut Soriyah, Jayla, Khari, Nyah, and Savannah, leavin’ me with the ones who could actually stand in my world without breaking.
Every woman still here had her own lane, her own way of challenging me, and I could feel the change in myself whether I wanted to admit it or not.
I was still in control, still callin’ the shots, but these women…
they was startin’ to leave their mark on a nigga.