Chapter 6
Trill-Land, Jungle Estate
When we reached the other side of the mansion, I started to realize real quick that this wasn’t just some room Renza stayed in whenever he came over.
The deeper we walked into his space, the more it felt like I had stepped into a whole different part of the house that was set up just for him, and it made me slow down a little without even meanin’ to.
His side was quiet, clean, and put together in a way that didn’t feel temporary at all.
There was a whole livin’ area set up before you even got to his room, with furniture that actually looked lived in instead of just bein’ there for show, and a small kitchen off to the side.
Everything matched, everything was in its place, and it felt comfortable in a way that made it clear he spent real time here.
By the time we got to his room, I was already seein’ why he wasn’t in a rush to get his own house the way I had been thinkin’.
His room alone was big enough to be somebody’s whole apartment, with a king-sized bed sittin’ in the center dressed in black sheets that made the whole space feel even more put together.
The bathroom was off to the side, wide open with a glass shower, and I caught a glimpse of his closet that looked deeper than most people’s bedrooms.
Renza didn’t say anything about none of it. He just moved through his space like it was normal, like this was just how he lived, and I followed him, takin’ it all in whether I wanted to or not.
He reached back and grabbed my hand, pullin’ me toward the bed.
I sat down, lettin’ my body sink into the mattress, and before I could even say anything, he bent down and slid my slides off my feet like he had done a thousand times before.
“Relax,” he said, settin’ them to the side before his hands wrapped around my foot.
His thumbs pressed into my arch slow, workin’ his way up and down like he already knew what he was doin’, and I let out a light breath because it felt good.
He looked up at me for a second with a smile sittin’ on his face. “See… this what you need right here.”
I leaned back on my hands a little, lettin’ him work, but my mind was still sittin’ back at that table whether I wanted it to be or not.
After a minute, I spoke. “I don’t think they like me.”
Renza didn’t answer right away. He just kept rubbin’ my foot, his thumbs pressin’ a little deeper like he was focusin’ on that instead of what I just said, and I could hear that light sigh leave him even though he tried to keep it low.
“I’m serious,” I went on, watchin’ him. “Soon as I asked Pluto what she do for a livin’, her and Toni got up and walked off.”
He still didn’t rush to speak. He just switched to my other foot, liftin’ it into his lap and startin’ all over again like he was givin’ himself a second before sayin’ anything.
“And then she asked me how long we been together,” I added. “Like she don’t know, or like you never ever mentioned me before.”
That made him look up at me, and the way his eyes met mine told me everything before he even said a word. There wasn’t any irritation there, and he didn’t look mad at me, but I could see him holdin’ himself back from reactin’ the way he probably wanted to.
It was a controlled kind of patience where somebody is choosin’ not to snap or say the first thing on their mind. I could tell he was tryin’ to keep things from goin’ left, even though I had already pushed us close to that line.
He stayed right there, lookin’ at me, and even without him sayin’ anything yet, I could feel that shift in the moment. Shit wasn’t light no more, and it wasn’t somethin’ he was about to joke his way out of.
“It ain’t like that,” he said finally.
I tilted my head. “Then what it is?”
He shook his head a little, lettin’ out a breath before lookin’ back down at my foot. “You don’t really be sayin’ much when you around them, baby. That’s all.”
I frowned. “So?”
“So, if you don’t say nothin’, they gon’ go off what they see,” he replied. “You gotta chime in, baby. Talk… joke and throw jabs back. They loud as hell, that’s just how we is, but if you open up, they gon’ open up to you.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, lettin’ out a small sigh as I leaned back a little more.
“I don’t know…” I muttered.
For a second, neither of us said anything, and I could feel him tryin’ to keep the mood from shiftin’ too hard. But it was already there.
“What she text you?” I asked, lookin’ down at him again.
That made him pause. His hands didn’t stop, but his expression changed just a little, and I knew he didn’t like that question.
“It was a reel, baby,” he said. “I told you we always sendin’ each other shit.”
“About what?”
He glanced up at me. “Virgo shit.”
I made a face. “What?”
He smirked a little, but it ain’t hit the same as his usual one. “Me and her both Virgos. Our birthdays five days apart in September, so we be sendin’ each other stuff about that. Baby, Pluto is pregnant by my cousin. It ain’t like that, if that’s what you keep tryna get at.”
I sat there for a second, then shrugged. “I guess.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips against my foot, holdin’ it there for a second before lookin’ back up at me.
“Baby, I don’t wanna fight tonight,” he said.
His tone was softer now, and I could tell he meant that.
“I just want everybody to get along,” he went on. “That way, we can all start movin’ together. Go on trips, link up more, do shit as a group. I liked the vibe tonight, and a nigga don’t mind doin’ it often.”
I looked at him, and I could see it in his face that he meant it.
But that just wasn’t where I was at.
“If it keep feelin’ weird,” I said, keepin’ my tone calm, “I don’t know if I’m gon’ be able to do all that.”
He went quiet for a second, his hand slidin’ down his face before he let my foot drop out his hands completely. That small shift in him made somethin’ in me tighten without me even meanin’ for it to.
It wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t dramatic, but it was different enough for me to notice because Renza didn’t pull away from me like that.
He was always touchin’ me and always findin’ some way to stay connected, even when we was goin’ back and forth.
So the fact that he just let go and sat there instead of keepin’ his hands on me made it feel heavier than it probably should’ve.
I straightened up a little on the bed, watchin’ him closer now because I could tell that whatever I said had landed in a way he wasn’t just goin’ to laugh off or brush past, and that wasn’t somethin’ I was used to seein’ from him.
He sat at the edge of the bed, lookin’ straight ahead like he was somewhere else in his head for a second, and when he finally turned and looked at me, I could tell right away that somethin’ about him had changed.
His expression wasn’t the same one I had been dealin’ with all night, and it wasn’t the one he usually gave me when he was tryin’ to smooth things over or keep shit light between us.
There was no playfulness in it, and there wasn’t no ease behind it either.
That alone made me sit up a little straighter without even thinkin’ about it.
“Reni… I wouldn’t bring you around fake muthafuckas. I don’t even hang around fake muthafuckas, family or not.”
I didn’t say anything. I just listened.
“I’m not tryna make everything a fight either,” he added. “And I’m not gon’ keep bringin’ you somewhere you uncomfortable. So, if you don’t wanna be around them, then don’t.”
I frowned a little. “That’s not what I’m sayin’.”
“But I live here,” he said, cuttin’ in before I could soften it. “So there’s gon’ be times I’m with them. I want you here too, but if you uncomfortable, then yeah… my back kinda against the wall, baby.”
I sat there for a second, lettin’ that settle.
“I get that,” I said slowly. “But if you had your own place, I wouldn’t even have to feel like this.”
He turned his head toward me with his brows pullin’ together. “What you mean?”
I looked at him straight. “You know what I mean. It’s one thing to come over here for a few hours, but stayin’ the night in a house full of people that don’t really… bond with me… I don’t know.”
He stared at me for a second. Then his brows lifted.
“So, you sayin’ I need to move out?”
I held his gaze. “I’m sayin’ if we gon’ be serious and spendin’ nights together, it should be at our own places. Not somebody else’s house.”
He didn’t respond right away, and that pause sat there longer than it needed to. It stretched out just enough for me to feel it settle in my spirit.
That’s when it hit me that I might’ve touched on somethin’ deeper than I meant to because Renza wasn’t the type to sit in silence when it came to me.
He always had somethin’ to say, whether it was a joke, a slick comment, or some way to flip the moment and keep it movin’.
That was part of what made him easy to deal with.
But this time, he didn’t do none of that.
He just sat there, quiet, lookin’ ahead like he was tryin’ to sort through what I said instead of reactin’ off it. That alone told me this wasn’t somethin’ he could brush off or laugh through.
The silence didn’t feel normal, and it didn’t feel light either. I could tell by the way he held himself that he didn’t quite know how to take what I just put on him.
I sat there, waitin’ for him to joke, to brush it off, or say somethin’ to lighten it up the way he usually would, but he didn’t do none of that.
Instead, he stood up from the bed, moved past me without that usual energy he carry, and came back just enough to press a kiss to my forehead, and even that felt different from how he normally touched me.
“I’mma go take a shower real quick,” he said, his voice calm, but it ain’t have that warmth in it that I was used to hearin’.
It was flat as hell.
I looked up at him, tryin’ to read where his head was at, but he had already turned away. He walked over to his dresser, grabbed a shirt, then reached in and pulled out a pair of briefs before handin’ them to me.