Chapter 9
Rose sped through the streets to get to his gym.
It was late, but he needed to do something to blow off all the frustration he had going on inside him.
Minx had thrown him off his square, and she was the only one that had the power to do such a thing.
His foot mashed the gas all the way to his destination.
It was after midnight, but he wasn’t surprised to find Nadia’s car parked.
The gym was twenty-four hours, and it brought in a pretty steady income.
Practicing boxers from all over came to spar and train inside.
Nadia was good at bringing in new people too.
She was fit and went to a lot of fights and such around town to keep up with who was who.
She threw contests and everything. Rose was pretty lucky that she knew the business and was able to keep it running even when he wasn’t around.
He shut off the car and hopped out with a duffel bag.
Entering through the side door, he spotted a few guys sparring in the ring and Nadia on the sidelines with a clipboard watching them. Spotting Rose, she lit up.
“Hey, didn’t know you were coming in.” She traipsed right over, an immediate smile coming to her lips.
Reading the agitation on his face, she leaned toward him with her eyebrows dipped.
“Everything okay?” Nadia pressed.
“I’m good. I’m gonna go hit the bag over here. Don’t pay me no mind,” Rose declared, nodding behind him.
“A’ight.” Nadia watched him go, head down.
He was very unlike Rose right now, so she knew that something was up.
She wasn’t going to prod. She’d let him work his shit out first and see if they could talk after.
Rose slipped his boxing gloves on and went to town.
For about forty-five minutes, he worked the punching bag until sweat dripped off him with every swing he took.
It cloaked his forearm and soaked his hair as he took in a deep breath and snatched the gloves off to get a taste of water.
“So who pissed you off?” Nadia asked, coming up behind him.
In leggings, a tank top and Nike runners, she sported her hair swept up in a messy bun and hiked a brow in question.
“It’s nothing. Just needed to work some shit out,” Rose answered, tipping his bottle to his mouth.
He guzzled the water and took a few more deep breaths.
“Nothing usually means something. And something is typically Minx. So… you want to talk about the princess? Or you want to keep holding whatever it is inside?” Nadia questioned, grabbing the bag from behind and keeping it steady in front of her while peering back at Rose.
His eyes linked with hers for a brief second before he lowered them to the ground and tossed his gloves to the floor. The sweat dripping off of him only made him sexier, and Nadia’s womanly parts all awakened, as usual. The nigga could be pouring water and be sexy as hell.
“I’m definitely not about to talk to you about her.
So you can shut that shit down right now, ma.
Quit making this shit into something it’s not.
We fuck from time to time when I’m around, you run this place for me, and I’m appreciative, but I have nothing else for you.
Find you somebody who’s going to be for you what you are for them.
What you asking, I can’t give you. I can’t give anybody,” he huffed and finished his water.
“First of all, I’m not some needy ass little girl, Rose.
I can get my own and keep my own. I don’t need you letting me down to do me.
I thought one day you might look beyond everything else and see me for what I have always been for you…
solid.” She remained deadpan, eyes locked on him.
“Minx takes from you. Over and over again. She leaves you emotionally depleted—”
“You don’t know shit about her… or me,” he corrected, backing away.
“I know that if you wanted to be with her, that’s where you would be,” she said dismissively. “It’s not that hard, Rose. Every time you have the choice… Minx is never it. That should tell you something.” Nadia nodded.
Her words infuriated Rose, mostly because she had a point.
Now Rose was thinking of all the times he pushed away from Minx.
How many times had he left her on stuck and taken off?
He was always the one walking away from her.
She had no idea how much of a sacrifice that was for him since he wanted nothing more than to indulge in her in every way.
Nadia’s bird brain ass was actually making sense.
“You right.” He sniffed and used a towel from his bag to wipe the sweat off.
Nadia looked like she was ready to lick it off with her penetrating glances. She took a couple of steps toward him, lust burning from deep within.
“So… tell me, Rose… what are you going to choose this time? Because I have shown you I can build with you. What more could you want from a woman?” She snuggled him, inhaling his manly scent mixed with the perspiration coming off him.
Her nipples poked through her sports bra.
Taking him in intensely, everything else faded into the background for her.
Rose was a man, so his dick reacted when she pressed her soft frame against his.
Nadia tossed one hand behind his neck, trying to draw him in.
Rose was so close he could feel her lips and she hadn’t even pressed them against his.
“Is this why you keep pushing me away?” Minx’s voice jarred them from their intimate moment, and Rose turned toward the door.
Dressed down in a Nike jogger outfit and matching shoes, hair pulled into a high ponytail that swung behind her she stood with her hands in the jacket pockets.
Disappointment crowded her face when she shook her head.
A frown instantly plagued Rose’s face, and his heart skipped.
She was fine, even on her chill days. Her style was simple, but it made her stand out.
Even now, she drew the attention of some of the men still in the gym.
“What you doing here?” he asked, his chest rising when he spoke.
Thunder rumbled, and a flicker of light shot across the sky outside the gym. A storm brewed outside and the high winds howled.
“Obviously making yet another bad choice,” Minx countered, brows knitting above her pretty ass eyes.
She wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry, even if that’s what she wanted to do more than anything.
“I’m sure it won’t be the last,” Nadia instigated, a comical smirk spreading over her face. “We were in the middle of something so—”
“Shut the fuck up.” Rose aimed a deadly set of eyes at her.
“Shut up?” Nadia repeated, brows going up, surprised. “You know what, Rose? You ain’t shit. You just like the rest of these niggas. In fact, there are a few out here better than you.”
“Then why don’t you go chase after them!” he barked back. “I gave you a job when you ain’t have shit!”
“And I’m holding this shit down for you.
I’m the only person in your life that ain’t trying to take shit from you, Rose!
But you so blinded by some nostalgic, childhood shit that you can’t even see that.
So fuck you! You want this shit to be strictly business…
no fucking problem!” she spat, grilling him hatefully and backing up.
He was damaged goods anyway. She knew that years ago, which was why they broke up.
Rose was just the kind of nigga you kept on deck.
He was fly, he was gangsta, and he got money.
His dick game was also A1, so bitches were always willing to come and fuck with him again, no matter how disrespectful the nigga was.
Nadia stomped off toward the office so she could get ready to leave.
Minx was already turning and heading for the door.
Her emotions were high, and she hated not having control over them.
Shit hurt, and she didn’t want to feel it.
The thought of being around Rose and never having him ate her up regularly as it was.
She wasn’t sure she would be able to survive if he stuck around.
The truth was, it was better when he was gone, because she didn’t have to think about it as much or run into him at every fucking turn.
“Where you going, Minx?” he called out, his voice firm, stopping her in her tracks.
“Home. I didn’t come here for this,” she replied, keeping her back to him.
“And what is this, hmm?” He used his towel to pat away any remaining sweat that he had from his workout and approached her from behind.
“It’s… abnormal. Definitely ain’t us. Things are changing, and I don’t like it,” she admitted.
Defeated, Rose remained silent. He didn’t know what to say. Usually, he had a comeback for everything, but tonight, he was mute.
“I’m gonna get out of here before the storm picks up.” She took a couple of steps forward, but Rose seized her wrist before she got too far out of reach.
She was so soft. The slightest touch between them electrified him, shocking his heart.
“I can’t lose you, shorty. That’s some shit I refuse to accept. Tell me what you need from me, Minx,” he pleaded.
“You said it yourself, Rose. You can’t give it to me.
I want what my parents have… eventually.
I know it takes time to get there, but… that’s the goal for me.
I want kids… one day. I want to name my daughter after my sister and have a son that looks just like you.
I’ve had those thoughts, even when I didn’t want to, for as long as I can remember.
I want you… Rose. I have always chosen you, and you have always pushed me in the opposite direction.
So I guess now it’s about accepting what is.
” She paused, standing tall attempting to block the hurt from knowing they would never be.
“I have to learn how not to want you. How to plan a life that doesn’t include you. ”
“What you mean… don’t include me?” He furrowed both brows, heart lurching in panic in his chest.