Chapter 2
Two
Brixton Isaac Ellis
I kissed my teeth as I declined yet another call from my ex-girlfriend, LaShontae.
I opened my text messaging app and opened the newest text from Raymond Holmes, Lil Fifty’s manager.
Raymond: We just wired the payment.
Before texting back, I logged into my bank app and checked the pending deposits. Sure enough, there was one in the amount of one hundred fifty thousand dollars. I then went back to my messages.
Me: Received.
My usual price for writing a song was fifty thousand, but because he asked for full reference tracks for both songs and he wanted them within the week, I added another fifty thousand.
Lil Fifty was a pretty big rapper from New York. He had a nice flow, but his pen was trash, and that was where I came in. He had gotten himself involved in a rap battle with Young Vibe. Vibe had dropped two tracks already, and it had been almost two weeks since then.
Fifty knew he couldn’t go on without responding, so his team bought me a flight to New York so that I could come up with something for him to record.
I had been in the songwriting business for the last few years, and it was a lucrative career but one that I no longer wanted to be a part of after the week I’d had.
I hadn’t spent time around Fifty before this week, but after getting to know the dude, I low-key wanted to renege on my agreement to give him the songs.
He was a fraud who had never lived the life he rapped about.
Before I flew in, I was under the impression that he wrote his own raps but wanted input on how to make his diss tracks better.
As it turned out, he wanted me to write for him.
That made me wonder how many of his songs he actually composed himself.
Because I couldn’t respect a rapper who didn’t write their own raps, I usually only worked with singers.
This was a favor for a producer that I had a lot of respect for, so I did it, but I could promise that it would be the last time I worked with Lil Fifty.
I was pretty sure the tracks I provided him with would win this battle for him, but I didn’t feel good about a lame getting clout off my pen.
Just as I was about to set my phone down, it chimed again.
Tae: I’m tired of you acting like this is 100% on me. You have to understand the position you put me in, Brixton. You leave me here for weeks at a time and barely check up on me when you’re gone. I got lonely and made a mistake, but I regret it and I freaking miss you.
Shaking my head, I deleted the message. The only thing keeping me from blocking LaShontae was the fact that she had no one else. Both her parents had passed away, and she was the only child.
Her last parent died when I first started making money from songwriting.
LaShontae was my girl at the time, but I couldn’t say I was in love with her.
To be honest, I kind of felt obligated to take care of her since she had no one.
When I moved my pops and me from our hood to Jai City, I took her too, and that was about four years ago.
Our relationship was cool, but she just didn’t do it for me.
She had held me down through a lot, though, so I was rocking with her.
That was until I got word that she was smashing some no-name rapper from the city whenever I wasn’t in town.
When I asked her about it, she couldn’t even lie.
She just cried and begged me to forgive her, but there was no coming back from that.
Because I had a heart, I bought her an apartment and hired some movers to get her shit out of my house. That had been three months ago, but she was still trying to make her way back to me. It wasn’t happening.
She started calling again, but I ignored it and checked the time.
This flight back to Jai City was supposed to board in about an hour, but the people sitting across from me seemed to think our flight was about to be cancelled due to the weather.
I hoped that wasn’t true because I was ready to be in my own crib.
New York was cool, but it was a little too busy for me.
Jai was a big city, but it still had a down-south vibe. It was the perfect home for a nigga like me.
LaShontae called yet again, and I was about to power my phone off, but the sweet sound coming from behind me made me freeze.
It had been over a decade since I’d heard it, and it was a little more mature now, but there was no mistaking that laugh. Dylan .
“You think you know me. Maria called and threw my mood way off. I hate my life,” she said, giving me further confirmation that it was her.
Dy’s silky voice was one of a kind. I had missed hearing it and couldn’t believe that out of all the airports in the world, we ended up in the same one, sitting at the same gate with our backs pressed against each other.
“I’m ready to quit, too, but . . . then what ? You know me, Wilde. I need a backup plan secured before I tell Maria to kiss my ass.”
I chuckled as I shamelessly eavesdropped on her conversation. Just that quickly, I was ready to tell whoever Maria was to kiss Dy’s ass myself. I wasn’t feeling the strain in her voice as she spoke about this person.
Damn .
Dylan Ivie.
She was my first girlfriend and the only one I ever wanted, to be honest. I had been in love with her since we met in third grade, and if the funny shit going on in my chest was any indication, that hadn’t changed at all.
From elementary to middle school, we had been in the same class every single year. We had always been friends, but when we got to eighth grade, everybody’s hormones started running wild.
Niggas wanted girlfriends, and Dylan was the prettiest girl in Fox Hill , so naturally, everybody was trying to lock her down. Luckily, she only had eyes for me, and the feeling was mutual. The bond we’d always had only strengthened that year, and my young ass really felt like she was my one.
That was until her momma got married to a doctor from Jai City and moved my girl an hour away from home. Dylan’s mother was strict, so she wasn’t allowed to have any social media. Her stepfather bought her a cell phone, and I had a landline, so for a minute, we were able to stay in touch.
When my mother traded the house phone for a cell phone, though, that was it for Dy and me. We lost touch, but I never forgot about her. As I listened to her talk to her friend, memories from back when flooded my mind along with hella questions.
Who took her on her first real date?
What nigga in Jai City took my girl’s virginity?
Fuck . . . was she married?
“Girl, I know. Maybe it’s time for you to stop turning every man you meet down and go on a date. My busy ass can’t even afford to date right now, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend the holiday alone.”
Those words had a nigga smiling. I didn’t know about her friend, but Dylan already had a Valentine. She just didn’t know it yet.
“We regret to inform you that your flight has been delayed for the next two days due to the impending snowstorm.”
The gate agent announced the cancellation, and I smiled. Minutes ago, I was anxious to get home, but now, I was glad to have more time in this airport. I was glad to have more time with Dylan.
“Exactly. Anyway, I guess I’m coming back home. Let me get out of here before the storm comes and they lock down the airport,” she said.
There was movement behind me, so I stood and made my way around the long row of seats. When I laid eyes on her, I couldn’t help but smile.
She was bending forward, trying to pull up the handle of her suitcase. I had yet to glimpse her full face, but what I could see was even more beautiful than I remembered.
Her full lips were turned upward in a pout, and her thick lashes hid her pretty eyes.
As she struggled with her suitcase, I allowed my eyes to trail her entire body and felt a mixture of anger and desire as I admired her.
She was still petite, but her body had matured in the best way.
I couldn’t help but wonder who helped her fill out like that.
She looked even better than I remembered, and that was really saying something.
Ready to make my presence known, I spoke up just as she unjammed her handle.
“I thought I was trippin’, but it really is you. Wassup, Doll?”
I watched as the hand she was using to tug at her suitcase stilled. Slowly, she straightened up and met my gaze with wide eyes and a hanging bottom lip.
Fuck.
She still looked just like my nickname for her.
In third grade, Dylan was obsessed with dolls.
She was pretty as hell even then, so the girls in our class hated on her a lot.
My homie Marcellus and I were her only friends in the class, and every day, she would bring a doll for each of us to play with during recess.
As a kid, I lived to make this girl happy, so instead of playing tag and everything else with the homies, I was usually sitting on a bench somewhere, chilling with Dy.
I always thought her love for dolls was funny because, to me, she resembled one.
From those large, round eyes to her perfectly shaped, pink lips, she had always been perfection.
For a minute, we stood there, just staring at each other. I didn’t know about her, but I was taking her in. It had been way too long since I’d gotten a chance to admire her pretty ass, and now that she was in front of me, it was all I wanted to do.
This was the girl. No matter how many women had been in my life since we lost touch, no one could ever top Dylan Ivie. Not even LaShontae, and she knew it, too.
Dylan closed her mouth then opened it again. She did that a couple of times before she finally delivered a reply.
“Brick.” As my name fell from her lips, she covered her mouth with both hands, causing her purse and phone to fall to the floor.
Without hesitating, I walked over. Bending down, I picked up her things. When I stood again, I caught a whiff of her scent and had to force myself not to grab her up right then. She always smelled good as hell.
“You good?” I asked as she took her things.
She cleared her throat then nodded. “Yea-yeah, I’m good.
Oh my God, Brick. I can’t believe it’s you!
” she said loudly before falling into my chest. I immediately took advantage of the opportunity and wrapped her in my arms. Burying my face in her neck, I greedily inhaled her cotton candy scent.
She smelled as good as she looked, and that had me bricked up in the middle of the airport.
Lifting on her toes, she lifted her arms, and I bent down a little more so that she could wrap them around my neck.
“Damn, girl. I missed you,” I said, holding her tighter.
“I missed you, too.”
We stayed that way for quite some time until, finally, I pulled away.
“Since we both ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon, . . . you got a minute to catch up witcha boy?” I asked her, smirking. There was no way we were parting ways just yet. I wasn’t taking our reunion lightly or for granted, so I needed more of her time.
She blessed me with that pretty smile of hers and nodded.
“Of course.”
“Lead the way, Doll.” I grabbed both our suitcases and followed her away from the gate. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it happen, but if I was about to be stuck in New York for two more days, they were definitely going to be spent with Dy.