Chapter 21
Man vs. Mind
Love didn’t let up on me. If anything, I think he applied more pressure, or that could have just been how he moved.
We talked every day since the night that I met him. He checked on me, made sure I was okay, asked me what I needed, or what he could do to make my day better.
The nigga was chill, but you could tell he wasn’t to be played with. Just off the way, his voice would change when he was handling business. Every night, we talked until I fell asleep, and I would wake up to flowers being left at my door every morning. I didn’t know how timed it was perfectly.
My next off day, I was chillin’ around my place, picking shit up, lil’ shit here and there, loving the new peace I had, and the calm that I had created.
Once I was done, I moved to the living room, threw on a show, and was about to text the girls to see what we were going to get into for the day when Love’s name came across my screen.
I paused for a second, looking at it before picking it up.
“Hello?” I said low.
“Wussup, mamas, you busy?” he said. I could hear the wind in the background.
“No, not really; I just got out of the shower,” I responded low.
“Good, send me your address and get dressed, I’ma come scoop you.”
I smirked at my phone.
“I didn’t hear a question in that,” I said as I sent him my address.
“You’re right, you didn’t,” he said with a lil’ laugh. “I’ma see you in a lil’ bit.”
And he hung up.
I looked at my phone after he hung up, and a small smile came over my face.
That was different.
Most niggas didn’t step like that off the rip. The crazy part was that I liked it.
I walked back into my room, going through my closet for a second before pulling out something simple but cute, something that hugged me right. But didn’t look like I was doing too much.
After getting dressed, I fixed my hair, which was still styled from the night before, and did my makeup. I had just applied my lip gloss and sprayed my perfume when I heard a knock at my door.
I smiled, grabbed my purse and my phone, and walked to my door, taking a deep breath before I opened it.
I opened it, and there he was. Same calm look on his face like the night before. He was in all black again, chains shining. He smelled like money, and something else I couldn’t put my finger on.
His eyes moved over me slowly.
Not disrespectful.
Just… taking it in.
“Damn,” he said low.
“Damn what?” I asked.
He licked his lips. “You look too damn good, that’s all.”
Love reached out his hand, and I took it, and he led me down the hallway and hit the button for the elevator. We waited there in silence, but he softly rubbed his thumb over the top of my hand.
And for some reason, I didn’t pull away.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. We stepped in, and he let go of my hand just long enough to hit the button before taking my hand again like it belonged to him.
As we stepped outta the elevator, Love nodded at some nigga in passing, holding my hand tighter. We walked through the lobby, and he walked me out to his red Lambo.
I slid in, smoothed my dress down while he came around, and got in.
He pulled off smooth, not in a rush, and not doing too much. I leaned back, looking out the window, then over at him, at the same time he was looking at me.
We both laughed.
“How long have you been in ATL?” he asked me.
I tilted my head. “How do you know I’m not from here?”
He looked me up and down with a smirk. “This is my city, baby, and I’ve never seen you run through it.”
I laughed a lil’ bit. “I’ve been down here a month and a half, I think, from Cali.”
He nodded. “What made you move?”
I paused for a second while he looked at the road, and that’s about how I wanted to respond.
“I… just wanted a change. I love Cali, but I’ve been there all my life.”
He nodded and didn’t say anything else.
A short time later, we pulled into a building that was tall and almost looked like my apartment building.
He parked close to the front, hopped out quick, walked around, and opened my door.
He reached his hand out for me, and I took it, gripping it firmly.
We walked through the sliding glass doors and to the elevators.
Love pressed the button, and we waited with him, not even mentioning where we were or what we were doing.
The doors finally slid open, and we stepped in. Love pressed the button for the rooftop, still not opening his mouth.
The doors finally opened on the rooftop, and when we stepped out, my breath was taken.
Walked over to the hostess, he talked low where I couldn’t hear, and she led us past the bar, past some tables, and up on a platform that had a lil’ couch and table. Love led me in so I could sit first, and he followed behind me. As I sat down, I caught the view over the city, and it was amazing.
The waitress came over quick and Love ordered drinks and appetizers for us. He then turned and faced me.
“So…” he said low with a slight smirk. “Why did you lie to me?”
I laughed; I couldn’t help it.
“What?” I asked. “What did I lie to you about?”
“You lied about why you moved to Atlanta.”
I paused, holding his stare for a second too long before I turned to face him.
“And how you figure that?” I asked, my tone light, but my eyes watching him close.
But Love didn’t rush an answer; he just looked at me, slow. Like he was trying to piece me together without asking too many questions.
The waitress brought the drinks and left quick. We both took a sip, and he cleared his throat.
“After I asked you that question, you paused and looked off, which told me the answer was going to be bullshit.”
I laughed a lil’ bit and took another sip.
“I don’t think I can tell you just yet.”
“And why is that?” he asked.
I set my glass down slow, letting my fingers rest around it for a second before I answered him.
“Cause I don’t know you like that,” I said, keeping my tone even. “And I don’t know if you gonna stick around for me to be telling you my business like that.”
Love didn’t take any offense to it. If anything, his smirk got deeper.
“You don’t know if I’ma stick around, huh? In any situation that I’ve been in, I wasn’t the one that fucked up.”
“And what does that mean to me?”
He shrugged a lil’ bit. “Nothing much, just that you are gonna make sure I stay around like I’ma make sure you stay around.”
“How you figure?” I shot back.
He took a sip. “Because I go for what I want, I don’t back down, and I lock in.”
“Are you locked in on me?”
“I told you what it was gonna be,” he said quickly. “Once I know what you lied about.”
I laughed, picked my glass up, and took another sip.
“I was with the same man for seven years; I held him down; I loved him with everything in me,” I said calmly.
“He got locked up, and I was willing to wait, hold everything down for him, until I found out he was fucking somebody else for part of our relationship.”
Love nodded. “That still don’t tell me why you left.”
I chuckled low and exhaled. “I loved him too hard. I wanted kids, a house, marriage with him, and all of that was held up because he was fuckin’ somebody to get cheaper work.
He said he cut it off once I was on his back about marriage.
I knew that if I stayed, I would probably end up back with him.
He was all I knew, all I had there other than my family. ”
“Damn, baby girl,” Love said low. “You should be with a nigga that gives you life, not takes it.”
I let his words sit for a second, my fingers still wrapped around my glass while I looked at him.
“That’s easy to say,” I muttered.
Love leaned back a lil’, watching me like I wasn’t about to rush past what I said.
“Nah,” he said. “It’s simple… not easy.”
I glanced down, then back up at him with a smile taken in by everything he was saying, loving the way he talked and carried himself.
Then I thought about it. “If you’re that nigga, why didn’t you and your baby mama work out?”
“She cheated,” shot back. “Got pregnant, had me pay for her to get rid of it, thinking that I would keep her around after that.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s nothing to be sorry about. At the end of the day, she does have my son. I put her in a nice house, gave her a nice car, my son wants for nothing, while she begs me for everything, but she don’t get it.”
“That’s a lot to deal with,” I said.
He shook his head with a smirk. “No, it’s not. At the end of the day, I’m up, and so are you, after that nigga, and now you got a real nigga in your corner.”
I smiled and leaned a lil’ closer to Love. “I do?”
He closed the gap between us.
“You do, mamas,” he said before he kissed me.
Once he pulled away, he smiled as he licked his lips. The conversation continued. Love was funny and smart, but you could see there was another side to him. It started to get later in the night, we got some food, and kept getting to know each other.
After a while, the workers moved some tables, and a DJ came out.
Once he started playing the vibe, the rooftop shifted.
Some ladies got up with their girls dancing, some girls pulled their men on the floor and started twerking on them.
We people watched and talked shit, but when the DJ slowed it down, Love stood up, fixed his clothes, and reached out his hand.
With a smile on my face, I took his hand, and he led me to the dance floor. He gave me a slight spin and pulled me into his arms—close, tight.
“What’s wrong, mamas?” he asked. “You never been spun on the floor by a real nigga?”
That real nigga line hit me hard. It was almost like I heard Gio’s voice come out of Love’s mouth for a second.
I pulled myself into him, trying not to think about Gio.
“Nah, I haven’t, but I like it.”
We danced for what seemed like hours. People stared, smiled, and asked us how long we had been together.
He handled every conversation, every look with grace, telling people it was our first day, but damn sure wasn’t gonna be our last.
I smiled hard.
After a while, we went back to sit down. Love ordered us another round of drinks, and we started to talk about our high school days when a nigga rushed up to us.
“Love! Love! Can I holla at you real quick?”
Love looked at that nigga, and his whole energy changed.
He took a sip of his drink, and it was almost as if he looked past the nigga.
“I’m busy right now. You gonna need to holla at me at the store.”
The nigga looked back; I guess at his people, then back at us.
“Come on nigga, I know you keep that diamond tester shit on deck; I’ve seen you. Test my shit.”
He held out his wrist, and Love stood up.
“I’ma tell you this one last time, I’m on a date right now, you see me with my lady. You need to move on.”
Love went to sit down, and the nigga grabbed his left arm. Without hesitation, Love snatched his arm back and with his right hand slapped the nigga across the face so hard that it echoed. Everybody who was around and saw it cuffed their mouth, including me.
Love sat down, wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and the nigga walked off.
“Does that happen a lot?” I asked him.
“What? Me slappin’ niggas?” he responded.
I laughed. “No!” I laughed again. “People coming up to you.”
He shrugged. “Here and there, but when I’m with you, never.”
I blushed—hard.
“And why is that?”
Love looked at me while licking his lips and pulled in closer.
“Because… I told you I’m looking for a wife, and she don’t have to share my attention.”
Loved, then cuffed my chin and kissed me, hard—deep.
Sending a shiver down my spine. When we pulled away, he smiled at me.
“Are you ready to get outta here?”
I nodded, biting my bottom lip.
“Yeah, I am.”
Love stood up, grabbed my hand, and led me out once again.
We went back to my place. He rolled up while I fixed us some wine. After we put one in the air, Love kept staring at me.
“Can I ask you something?” he said. “Are you ready to get into something serious again?”
I took a hit of the blunt and passed it back to him.
“How do you know you want something serious with me already?”
He took a hit of the blunt and passed it back to me.
“To be honest, I feel like you held a clown ass nigga down. I want to show you what it’s like for a real nigga to hold you up.”
That nigga had me speechless for a second.
“Show me,” I responded quick.
And he nodded. “I got you.”