A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER
Rico's phone buzzed against the desk.
He glanced down at the screen and immediately smirked.
"What's up, Baby Mama?"
The smile in his voice must've carried through the line because Monica laughed.
"Look at you sounding all happy to hear from me."
"I ain't say all that,” he shot back.
"Mhm."
He leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up on the edge of the desk. "What you want Ms. Hunter?"
Monica was quiet for a second.
Not long.
Just long enough for him to know she hadn't called for a reason involving Essex.
That made him sit up a little straighter.
"I just wanted to check on you."
Rico frowned. "Check on me?"
"Yeah."
The answer came easy. Too easy. And somehow that made him trust it even less.
He stared out the window beside his desk. "Why?"
Monica laughed softly. "You always this suspicious?"
"Depends on who I’m dealing with."
"Wow."
"I'm serious,” he said.
"I can tell."
The teasing faded. Neither of them spoke for a second.
Then Monica sighed. "Okay. Maybe I wanted to see if things had gotten weird after the other night."
There it was. The real reason.
Rico rubbed his jaw. "Nah. I’m good."
"You sure?"
"Not really," he grinned. "But yeah... I’m good."
That pulled a laugh out of her too and for a moment it felt normal.
Dangerously normal.
Like they were two people having a conversation they had no business having.
"I don't want no drama, Monica." The words came out lower than before. There was more honesty in his tone.
Monica didn't respond right away.
When she finally spoke, her voice had softened. "I know."
"Nah. I mean it. I don’t want no fuckin’ issues behind this shit."
"I know."
"Everything already complicated enough."
Monica was quiet. Because she knew exactly what he meant.
Mona.
Essex.
Their unexpected night of heated sex.
All of it.
"I ain't trying to mess up your life, Rico." The sincerity in her voice caught him off guard.
Not because he didn't believe she meant it, but because a part of him wanted to.
He closed his eyes briefly. "See, that's the problem."
"What?"
"I don't know when you telling me the truth and when you telling me what I wanna hear."
The words hung there.
Longer than either of them expected.
When Monica finally laughed, there wasn't much humor in it. "That's fair."
"Yeah, I know it is."
"Can't even argue with that, huh?" Rico nodded to himself.
"For what it's worth..." She started.
He waited.
"I wasn't playing the other night."
Something shifted in his spirit as he stared at the paperwork on his desk without actually seeing any of it. "Monica..."
"No, let me finish."
Her voice was gentle now, almost cautious. "I know I gave you reasons not to trust me. More than a few. But I'm not trying to create problems for you." She paused. "And yeah... I still think about you sometimes, other than you being the father of my baby."
The confession landed quietly between them.
No manipulation.
No performance.
Just truth.
Rico leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. That was exactly what he had been afraid of hearing.
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"
Monica laughed. "I don’t wanna be smiling in Mona’s face while secretly wanting to be with her man.”
“Secretly wanting to be with her fiancé you mean.”
“Oh,” she grinned. “Fiancé.? That’s cute. But you got that.”
Rico knew she had leverage and him saying that word only made it worse.
"What I'm saying is... I don't want things to be weird between us,” she said.
Rico was quiet for a second then he shook his head, not knowing if he was coming or going. “Aight Monica, if you say so.”
Monica smiled. “So, we good… Like really good?”
"Yeah." He glanced toward the window. "We good."
The conversation settled for a moment before Monica cleared her throat. "Do you have a lil’ time to stop by?"
There it was. Now that was the real reason she'd called.
Rico closed his eyes and laughed under his breath.
"If not, it's okay," she added quickly. "I can catch you another time."
The memory of two nights ago immediately flashed through his mind.
And that was the real problem, because against his best wishes, he wanted to go.
"I got some business to handle this morning," he responded instead.
A pause.
Then—
“Understood,” Monica said.
The disappointment was there, but she hid it well.
"I'll catch you later though."
"Yeah,” she softly said.
"Aight."
The call disconnected.
Rico stared at the screen for a second before tossing the phone onto his desk. "Fuck."
The word came out with a laugh.
Because Monica was becoming a problem.
Not because she was causing drama.
But because she wasn't.
The woman he kept expecting to slip back into old habits kept showing him somebody different every time they talked, and he didn't know what the hell to do with that.
He grabbed his keys and pushed back from the desk.
The sooner he got out of here, the sooner he could stop thinking about her.
"Aye, Bruh!" he said, stopping by Monty’s office.
“Hold on,” Monty said to whomever he was on a call with. “What’s up, Bruh?”
“I’m out— headin’ to the crib and lay up under my fiancé.”
Monty pleasingly nodded. “Handle yo’ business,” he smiled. “We’ll catch up later.”
“You don’t need nothing before I go, do you?”
"Nah. Just go take care of my sister. I thought she was gon’ have my niece on my birthday."
Rico smirked. "She’ll be here before we know it. I just can’t wait to see her."
“Me, either,” Monty smiled.
Rico headed down the stairs and pushed through the lobby doors and nearly collided with Candy coming inside.
"Whoa—" he let out.
"My bad,” Candy laughed, stepping back a little.
The sight of her immediately caught him off guard.
She was dressed cute as hell holding a Red Lobster bag in her hand.
"Hey, Rico."
"What's up?" He glanced at the bag. "What you got there?"
A smile spread across her face. “Lunch for my man."
"For who?"
She looked at him like he'd asked the dumbest question in Georgia. "My man, boy."
Rico laughed. “Oh, that nigga," he joked.
"He rushed out the house this morning without eating." She lifted the bag slightly. "So, I figured I'd bring him something before he got too busy."
He smiled, not because of anything Candy said. But because she looked happy.
Happy happy.
The kind of happy that came from loving somebody without reservation.
The kind of happy that didn't know what the reader knew.
Didn't know what Rico knew.
Didn't know what Monty had spent the last forty-eight hours doing.
“Hold up,” Rico said, turning back to the doors. “I'll tell him you—"
Candy instantly stopped him. “Nope.”
Rico frowned, “nope what?"
"I want to surprise him." The grin on her face widened. “Plus, he’ll probably see me on them cameras, anyway.”
Rico looked at her then back at the door. For half a second, he considered letting Monty know she was there, anyway.
Still smiling, Candy simply walked past him. She wasn’t looking for permission to visit her man, and she didn’t need him patrolling her visits.
“You right.”
And just like that, the moment went straight over his head.
“Good to see you Candy,” he said making his way to his ride. He didn’t want it looking too strange, so he just went with it.
"Tell my Sis I said hey."
"Will do."
The lobby doors closed behind her.
Halfway across the parking lot, a thought suddenly hit him. Monty was on the phone when he walked out.
Damn.
His hand went straight for his phone. Quickly, he pulled up Monty's contact. His thumb hovered over the screen.
Then—
His phone lit up.
Rico frowned. Mama
Without thinking twice, he answered. “Hey Ma, what’s good?”
And just like that, the warning he didn’t know Monty desperately needed never came.
Candy sat behind the wheel of her car with tears clouding her vision as she stared through the windshield.
She had made it all the way around the corner from Bank's Realty before pulling into a parking lot and stopping.
Her chest felt tight and every attempt she made to calm herself only seemed to make things worse.
The conversation she had overheard continued to play repeatedly in her mind, refusing to give her a moment's peace.
Who in the hell was he talking to?
The woman's voice had sounded entirely too comfortable. Entirely too familiar.
Candy swallowed hard as another thought entered her mind.
This nigga was tripping. Like really tripping. He was so laid back enjoying the conversation that he didn’t even notice she’d made her way in the building and up the stairs.
But the more she replayed the conversation, the more certain she became that she had heard exactly what she thought she heard.
“I meant it when I said I love you.”
Disappointment settled deep inside her spirit because she already knew how this would end.
It didn't matter what explanation Monty came up with.
It didn't matter how convincing he sounded or how sincere he looked while telling it.
Every answer from this moment forward would feel like a lie because she no longer trusted him.
At all.
"Why the hell didn't you walk your ass back in there and ask him who he was talking to?" she muttered to herself.
Frustration overwhelmed her as she slammed her hand against the steering wheel.
The horn sounded briefly before she jerked it away.
Tears streamed down her cheeks while she sat there questioning her own actions.
She knew exactly why she hadn't gone back inside.
A part of her was terrified of hearing the truth.
The other part knew that if Monty looked her dead in her face and lied again, there would be no coming back from it.
Candy leaned her head against the seat and tried to gather her thoughts. Going back to the office would've been easy, but controlling her temper would've been impossible.
After several minutes, she finally put the car in drive. She needed time to think before she confronted him. Going home seemed like the smartest option. She needed a chance to calm down and process everything before she exploded.
However, the moment she pulled out of the parking lot, fate had other plans.
His Tahoe suddenly passed in front of her.