18. Princeton Brentley
Ihad spent most of the morning sitting through back-to-back meetings.
The first was with my lawyer about filing for full custody of Summer.
The second was with my security team about how the fuck Paisley had managed to get past them with a gun.
Then I had one last meeting with an important client that ran longer than expected.
By the time I finally left the office, it was close to eleven. I was ready to pick Summer up from Ozy’s house and head home.
I was in the back of the truck responding to a few emails when Nourah’s name appeared across my screen.
NOURAH: I’ve been thinking about everything. If the offer still stands, I’m ready to hear you out.
My eyebrows rose.
After the way she had shut me down yesterday, I was surprised as hell to see her name, let alone a message saying she wanted to talk. I read it twice.
Before changing my plans, I called Unc to check on Summer. He told me she and King were having a good time and that she had already started begging to stay another night. I spoke to her for a few minutes, and once she promised to behave, I agreed to let her stay.
That freed up the rest of my day.
ME: Say less. I can pick you up in an hour.
A little over an hour later, Nourah and I stood in line waiting to order our food. She went first.
“Can I have the smothered pork chops with white rice and gravy, black-eyed peas, and a large lemonade?”
The clerk entered her order before looking at me.
“Matter of fact, let me get the same thing,” I said. “But instead of a regular lemonade, I’ll take a strawberry lemonade.”
Once she gave me the total, I pulled a hundred-dollar bill from my wallet and handed it to her.
“Keep the change.”
Her eyes widened before a smile spread across her face. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.”
Nourah and I stepped to the side where everyone else was waiting for their food. It didn’t take long for me to notice a few people looking in our direction. Some of them were whispering and snickering, while others held up their phones like they were trying to record us without making it obvious.
Nourah looked around before glancing at me with a confused expression. Then a smile slowly spread across her face.
“Oh, looks like they’re looking at you.”
I laughed. “Nah, they’re looking at you.”
“No, sir. You’re the one with the famous brother and the million-dollar security company. They know exactly who you are. You better start acting like you know.”
“You know what? You might be right about that.” I shook my head. “It be so much shit going on that I forget about that sometimes.”
Before she could respond, one of the women who had been staring boldly walked over to us. She looked me up and down before placing her hand directly against my chest.
“You’re Ozy Love’s brother, right? And his security?” Her smile widened as she ran her fingertips across my shirt. “I would love for you to secure me.”
I grabbed her wrist and politely removed her hand from my chest.
“I’m with my lady.”
Nourah smirked as she stepped closer to me. “Hi. I’m his lady.”
The sarcasm in her voice almost made me laugh, but I managed to keep a straight face.
The woman looked Nourah up and down before rolling her eyes. She started to walk away, but one of her friends rushed over before she could get far.
“Wait a second.” The woman pointed at Nourah. “Aren’t you the woman who was with him at the Business Innovator of the Year ceremony? I saw the viral pictures online.”
Nourah’s eyebrows rose.
“Yes, that was me.”
“Girl, that dress you had on was fire!”
“Thank you. I actually designed it.”
The woman’s mouth dropped open. “You designed that?”
“I did.”
“Do you have a page or something? My birthday is in three months, and I need a custom dress.”
“I do.” Nourah said, “Look up Bodied By NouNou.”
The woman quickly typed the name into her phone before turning the screen around.
“This one?”
“That’s me.”
“I just followed you. I’m gonna send you an inquiry because I need you to make my birthday dress. Your designs are fire!”
Nourah looked flattered as a smile spread across her face.
“Send it through my site, and I got you, boo.”
The woman hurried back over to her friends and immediately started telling them that Nourah was going to make her birthday dress.
Our order number was called before either of us could say anything else. We walked over to the counter, grabbed our food, and headed toward an empty table in the back.
“Well,” Nourah said as we sat down, “I guess those pictures did more numbers than I thought.”
“Told you they weren’t just looking at me.”
We opened our containers, and steam immediately rose from the food. Everything smelled good as hell.
I watched Nourah open her plastic silverware.
“I’m glad to see you smiling and happy.” I said.
“I mean, that’s just how I am in general.”
“I know, but given the circumstances and all the shit that happened the other night… I’m glad to see it.” I paused before asking, “Did the police ever come to your door?”
“Yeah. They knocked on every door on my floor.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.” She shrugged as she pulled out her fork and stuck it into her food. “I told them I overheard some of the noise but didn’t know what happened. They took my statement, and that was it.”
“Cool.” I leaned back in my chair. “Well…I’m glad you came.”
“I’m glad I came too. I won’t front, whatever this is between us feels different. I like you, and it sucks that you have all this drama going on because, honestly, if your baby mama hadn’t shown up, we probably would’ve had sex.”
A laugh left me. “Not probably. I was definitely about to fuck the shit out of you.”
Her eyes locked with mine, and neither of us said anything for a few seconds. That same tension returned, filling the space between us as she stared at me from across the table.
Nourah finally broke eye contact and looked down at her food. She tore off a piece of pork chop, scooped up some rice, and put both into her mouth.
“Mmm,” she moaned softly. “A likely story.”
“You know damn well I’m telling the truth.”
She smiled but didn’t respond.
We both started eating, allowing a comfortable silence to fall between us. The bell above the restaurant door eventually chimed, and we turned to see who had walked in. Nourah’s entire expression changed.
She rolled her eyes.
I saw Carl entering with some niggas, laughing and talking. They all looked nerdy as fuck. Him and Nourah made eye contact for a moment, but both of them quickly looked away.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“Damn. You brought your new nigga to the same spot you used to eat at with your old nigga?”
Nourah burst out laughing. “First of all, you ain’t my man yet. And don’t think I forgot about you calling me your lady over there.”
“I had to let ol’ girl know what time it was.”
“Mmm-hmm.” She shook her head before glancing toward Carl again. “But yeah, we’ve been here a few times. I didn’t expect to see him, though, so that’s my bad. I really just had a craving for pork chops, and this is the best in town.”
I chewed my food and swallowed before nodding. “I ain’t gonna lie. This shit is bussin’.”
“Exactly. Your girl has good taste.”
“I thought I wasn’t your man yet.”
“You’re not.”
“But you just called yourself my girl.”
Her lips pressed together as she tried not to smile. “Anyway…”
I chuckled as she reached for her lemonade.
“Thank you again,” she said. “All those roses were beautiful, and so was the dress, but we have bigger things to worry about.” She paused and gave me the eye. “Sir, what am I going to do with you?”
“Whatever you want to do with me.”
Her eyes slowly moved over my face. “There’s a lot I wanna do with you, but that baby mama of yours?” She shook her head. “That bitch is crazy.”
“I agree.”
The amusement left my face as I set my fork down. “I wanna get full custody of Summer.”
Nourah’s ears seemed to perk up as she took another bite of her food.
“Full custody?”
“Yeah. Me and my baby mama have bumped heads plenty of times, and sometimes she acts like she ain’t got good fucking sense. But I never expected her to turn on me…so she’s dead to me.”
“How so?”
“If she wants to talk to me, she’ll have to communicate through my assistant or my uncle. Same thing with pickups and drop-offs. I’m good on her. I don’t wanna talk to her ‘bout shit.”
Nourah slowly nodded as she considered what I had said.
“Are you sure that’s the most logical thing to do?”
“I don’t want to take my baby away from her mama just to be spiteful. That ain’t what this is about. Paisley clearly needs to get some fucking help. Until she does, I don’t trust her to make the right decisions with Summer around.”
I paused and picked up my drink.
“I had movers remove all her shit. She’s at one of my private properties now, but she got a couple of days to figure it out.”
“That’s a lot happening at once.”
“I know, but it needs to happen. I should’ve done it a long time ago.”
I reached across the table and held out my hand.
Nourah stared at my hand for a moment before apprehensively placing hers inside it. I closed my fingers around hers and rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb.
“So…what do you want to happen with us?”
“I want you to be my lady, like I said. I wasn’t just talking out the side of my neck when I called you that.”
A soft smile appeared on her face.
Before she could respond, the bell over the door rang again. We both turned and saw Carl leaving with the same niggas he came with. He gave Nourah one last look on his way out.
She rolled her eyes at him again before turning her attention back to me.
“My main thing is moving too fast. I hate that shit because what if we move fast, and then we regret how fast we moved?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
She studied my face before slowly nodding. “You know what? You’re right about that.”
“I’m willing to take it as slow as you want. I’m ready to go as fast as you want, and I’m ready to go as deep as you want.”
Nourah snatched her hand away from mine and burst out laughing.
“Oooo, you nasty!”
“And you’re beautiful.”
Her laughter faded as her cheeks reddened.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“You’re welcome.”
She picked up her fork and returned her attention to her food, but the smile never left her face.
We sat there for a while longer, eating and talking about everything from her business to the plans she had for expanding. A few minutes later, she rubbed her stomach, leaned back in her chair, and unbuttoned the top button of her jeans.
“Ooh, I’m full.”
“I know you are. You damn near cleaned the whole plate.”
“And did.” She picked up her phone and checked the time. “I gotta get going, though. I have a few orders I need to handle at my office.”
“Let me come with you.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You wanna come to my office?”
“Yeah. I wanna see you in your element, the same way I want you to see me in mine.”
She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment as she stared at me.
“Okay,” she finally said. “Let’s go and that way we can talk about actually going on a date.”
I smiled as I closed my container.
She might not have officially agreed to be my lady yet, but I wasn’t worried.
“Wait, so the Italian restaurant wasn’t a date, and this wasn’t a date either?”
She smirked. “Nope. This was simply a session to get some straightening, and I didn’t know if I’d be throwing a cup of water, juice, or whatever the hell else in your face. Which is why I ain’t bother doing my makeup or putting on that nice dress you got me.”
“Damn, you a tough cookie, but it’s cool. I’ma crack yo’ ass though.”
She swatted at my arm as we stood up. “Boy, hush.”
She cut her eyes at me as we made our way outside laughing.