10. Ozyris Brentley
Noree was the kind of woman I’d want to date if I were looking to date, and even me thinking like this right now was out of character, but maybe it was the way she wasn’t all over me or holding her hand out, begging and asking for shit like everybody else around me.
She seemed solid. The kind of woman to bring home to your mother.
She thought I was gone try her when she first got to my room. I could see it all in her face when she was standing in that doorway, looking pretty as hell.
She’d changed her dress and put her hair back, and them lips were glossed up, looking kissable. This dress, unlike the other that I had to discreetly admire from across the table, was more chill, but her body looked almost ten times better in it, which was hard to say.
But she stood out there and made me tell her what it was first.
Ain't nobody ever did that. They be so excited to be around me. She asked. Stood right there, all nervous, and asked me straight up if I was tryna sleep with her, and something about that shifted the whole night for me.
I respected that more than she probably knew.
Now she was sitting on my couch with her legs crossed, and I couldn't stop looking.
"You want another one?" I asked, nodding at her glass.
She looked down at it like she ain't realize she finished it. "Umm. Is that a trick question?"
"Nah, that's a real one."
"Then yes." She held the glass out, and I took it, letting my fingers slide over hers on purpose. She noticed. Her eyes shot up to mine real quick, then went right back down, and she picked at the hem of her dress.
I laughed and poured us both another. Tequila for her, brown for me. I ain't gone lie, I was already three deep and feeling good. Usually, I was counting down, waiting for the part where I can be by myself again. I wasn't counting down with her.
The shit I was feeling didn’t make any sense. Noree…she walked and talked different.
I had been around models, video girls, and actresses my whole career, and none of them ever smiled at me like she did.
I came back and sat down closer than I did the first time. Handed her the glass. "Aight, so tell me something about you that even Google wouldn’t tell me if I looked you up.”
"That's random."
"It ain't random. I told you I wanna know more about you."
She took a sip and hummed. "I don’t know, Ozy…I’m boring for real and a homebody when I’m not at work,” she said, looking up, really trying to figure out something she could tell me.
“So how you end up here then?”
“My sister applied to the contest. I didn’t even know she was doing it, but the crazy thing is she told me the night of your concert, my birthday. Neither of us expected me to actually win the next day. I’m still shocked.”
"So, I owe your sister then."
She looked at me over the rim of her glass. "You do."
I sat back and let my arm go across the top of the couch behind her.
“And happy belated. Now I gotta get you a cake or something.”
She laughed. “You really don’t.”
I pulled out my phone and shot a quick text to Ky to have that handled for me.
“I insist. And did you at least enjoy the concert?”
She smiled wide. “I did. I was in the front row, so I saw it all. Did you really sleep with that man’s wife?”
I shrugged. “I probably did.”
“Damn…you cold.”
“Nah, I’m real. He should’ve been fucking her better. I meant that shit when I said it.”
“I guess so then, huh?” She smirked.
There was a silence, nothing too crazy, before she cleared her throat and said, “Are you close with your siblings? I only have one sibling, my sister Nourah, and we’re very close.
I think I read you have one sister, and the tall guy with the braids who popped in for a second…
uh, MB? He’s your brother, right? The security? ”
I nodded and laughed a little. “Yeah, PB is my brother.”
She apologized for getting his name wrong, but I wasn’t trippin’.
“My brother and I are close. My sister, not so much. I really used to look up to her, but now I’m disappointed in her.”
“Damn, well…why is that?”
I sighed. “The drugs got her moving differently, and the only time we speak is when she’s asking me for money. She don’t give a fuck about my well-being, but it’s cool. I’ve learned to live with it, though.”
I ain't talk about this. Not in interviews, not on no podcast, not with any other woman, not even Gin. But Noree was sitting there looking at me with them soft eyes, and it just came out.
"She been on drugs since I was like twenty-four.
In and out of programs. I got her in the best facilities money can buy.
I mean, the ones out in Arizona where it looks like a damn spa, and she'll do good for four, five months, and then she's gone again. Then the crazy thing is she has a son who only has her, so I just hope she gets her shit together…for her son.”
The room got quiet again.
Then she set her drink down on the table and said, "Oh my God. Ozy, I'm so sorry."
And before I could tell her it was cool, she leaned over and put her arms around me.
First time she touched me all night. Her whole body pressed into me, her chin at my shoulder, her hands on my back. I could smell her perfume in her hair.
Honestly, I ain't know what to do with my hands for a second, so I just brought one up and rested it on her back.
She held on for maybe five seconds.
When she pulled back, her hand slid down my arm, and she looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I don't even know if you're a hugger. I just—"
"You good." My voice came out lower than I meant it to.
She sat back, but she ain't move all the way back to where she was before. Her knee was touching my leg now. She ain't seem to notice, or she noticed and ain't care, and either one was fine with me.
"Enough of that sad shit, love. What's the worst thing a kid ever said to you in that classroom?"
She blinked, then busted out laughing at how hard I switched it. "You just gone change the subject like that?"
"Yeah, I’m smooth like that."
"Okay, Ozy." She shook her head, still smiling. "The worst thing? Okay. I had a little girl look me dead in my face and say, 'Ms. Noree, my mama said you too pretty to not have no husband.'"
I damn near choked. "She ain't say that."
"She did! In front of the whole class! And then another little boy said, 'My daddy said the same thing,' and I had to go in the hallway and gather myself."
I was cracking up. "So, the kids be running they mouth ‘bout you at home."
"They have full conversations about my personal life. Meanwhile, I’m over here like, damn, where the hell is my husband at? Hubby gotta be hiding from me at this point.”
"That's crazy." I refilled her glass without asking this time, and she ain't stop me. "But they were right, though."
She paused with the glass at her lips. "What?"
"Your students." I looked at her. "You are too pretty to not be married.”
She ain't say nothing. Just took her sip real slow, eyes on me the whole time.
"You be saying stuff like this to everybody?" she finally asked.
"Nah."
"Mm-hmm."
"I'm serious. I don't usually be talking this much." She got more comfortable and turned her body toward me, her knee up on the couch. "I ain't gone sit here and lie to you like I'm some choir boy. The women I deal with don’t do a lot of talking.”
She laughed, but her eyes were soft. "So, what's different…about me?"
"You made me tell you what it was before you came in the room."
"Because I wasn't about to let you think you were getting a taste…and I do mean a taste.”
I chuckled and laid my head back on the couch, looking over at her. I licked my lips, then said, “I look like I eat pussy?”
She gave me a look. “You better eat pussy. What you mean? That’s all you be singing about in your songs, and if you don’t, then you’re a fraud, and I’ma snitch.”
“Damn, shawty, not you the feds and shit. You gotta dip.”
“Nope.” She playfully rolled her eyes. “Unless you’re lifting me up yourself, I’m staying sat.”
“Aight, I like that. And see…that's exactly why." I pointed at her with the hand holding my glass. "That's it right there. Your vibe is different.”
She got quiet for a second, and then she smiled that smile again, the one that took over her whole face.
We sat there and just talked. I put some music on real low, some Isley Brothers, and we kept sipping until the bottle was doing more talking than either of us.
Somewhere around two in the morning, I noticed her yawning behind her hand.
"You tired, love?"
"No," she said, yawning again mid-word.
"You a lie."
"I'm not tired. I'm just resting my eyes for a second." She was already leaning back into the cushions. "Keep talking."
So, I kept talking. Told her about an old song I couldn't finish, the one I said I wanted her opinion on in the first place, and how the hook felt fake to me and I ain't know why.
She was saying something about how maybe I was writing it for who I used to be and not who I was now, which was probably the most accurate thing anybody said to me…ever. I turned to tell her that, and she was out.
Head tilted toward my shoulder, mouth barely open, one hand still curled around her empty glass on her lap. I took it out her hand real careful and set it on the table. She shifted, and her head came the rest of the way down onto my shoulder, and she sighed in her sleep and got comfortable.
I ain't move her.
I sat there with the music still going while this woman I’d just met today was sleeping on me. I ain't even try to fight it. My eyes got heavy too and the next thing I knew I was outta there.
BANG, BANG, BANG.
I jumped out of my sleep and blinked a few times. The living room was lit up, bright as hell, sun coming straight through them big-ass windows because I’d forgotten to close the curtains before falling asleep.
Noree was still asleep on me, curled up now with her legs tucked under her and her arm across my stomach.
I eased out from under her as slow as I could and put a pillow where I was.
She frowned in her sleep, but she ain't wake up. She was pretty even while sleeping, but I ain’t have time to dwell since somebody kept banging on my shit.
BANG, BANG.
"Aight, damn," I mumbled.
I ran my hand down my face and went to the door, opened it, and it was Ginger standing there in a pink and purple yoga fit, hair up in a ponytail.
"Good morning," she said, stepping forward like she was coming in.
I put my hand on the doorframe and blocked it. "Nah."
She stopped and removed her AirPods like that was about to make her hear better. She looked at my arm, looked at me, then tried to look past me into the room. "Excuse me?"
"I'll come by your room in a second."
"Why?" she said, and her face was all screwed up. "Ozy, why can't I—"
I sucked my teeth. I hated repeating myself. "Aye, let me get myself the fuck together, Gin. You trippin'."
And I closed the door.
I shook my head, then turned back around into the room.
Noree was up. Sitting up on the couch with her arms stretched over her head and her back arched, one sleeve of her dress halfway down her arm. She caught me looking, dropped her arms, and smiled.
"Good morning."
I smiled back. Couldn't help it. "Good morning, love.”
She stood up and started pulling her dress down over her hips, and I ain't even try to hide it. My eyes went from her feet all the way back up. Slow. The morning light looked good on her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep here…uh…what time is it?"
"Shit, I ain’t even sure where my phone is."
"Okay, well…let me go get myself together for the day. I guess I'll see you later."
"Yeah." I walked her toward the door. "My video shoot is at twelve-thirty, and all y'all gon' be in attendance." I paused. "Well, the ones that's left."
She laughed because she knew exactly what I meant. There were six winners when this thing started, four left now.
Her eyes lit up. "Do you mind if I invite my sister?"
I shrugged. "Yeah, I'm cool with that. She gotta sign all the paperwork and shit with my team, but she'll be good."
"Thank you." She was grinning hard now. She turned to walk out, and I said it before I could talk myself out of it.
"Aye. I had a good night with you, Noree. I ain't gone lie."
She looked back over her shoulder at me. "Me too."
Then she was gone, and I stood there in the doorway watching her walk away. My security, Raoul, tried to act like he wasn’t looking too. He was standing to the left of my door.
As if on cue, I heard, “So that’s why you made me leave? ’Cause that fat bitch slept over?”
I looked to the right to see Gin’s crazy ass standing in the cut and another security guard, Kenny, who immediately jumped into action.
“Is everything okay, boss?”
“Yeah, shit straight,” I responded, then sucked my teeth at Ginger. “Watch yo’ fucking mouth and get yo’ dumbass in here before you wake the whole hallway up!”
I walked inside, her right behind me, as I headed to my bedroom and straight to the bathroom. I whipped my dick out, immediately having to take a piss, as she stood there, arms crossed, lips tooted up, mad for no reason.
“Did you fuck her?”
“I didn’t, but that’s also none of your business. Why you came to my room in the first place?”
She rolled her eyes. “I wanted to see if you wanted to work out together. Normally, I would’ve done it by now, but I had a Zoom meeting at seven-thirty and threw my clothes on as soon as I was done, but clearly, you were occupied.”
I flushed the toilet, then turned the shower on, dropping my pants. Her eyes roamed all over me, but I wasn’t even ’bout to go there with her this morning. Fucking her came with too much.
I took off my shirt and threw it to the floor as well.
“Nah, I got too much shit to do today, but I’ll take a rain check.” I stepped inside the shower and went to grab my rag. I looked back and saw her tryna take her clothes off.
“What you doing?” I asked, annoyed as shit right now.
“I’m about to get in with you,” she said, her top now on the floor, titties sitting up perky, a confused look on her face.
I shook my head and shut the shower door. “I’m good, Gin. Go get your workout in. I’ll see you at the shoot.”
She was supposed to be playing the lead girl in my music video, so I had to see her later anyway, but her petty ass said, “You know what? Fuck you and that video! Find another lead, ’cause I sure as hell won’t be there.”
She grabbed her top off the floor, threw it back on, and practically ran out the bathroom.