Chapter 1 #2
Already, there was some awkwardness in the air as Rose checked him vertically with one look. He didn’t let the man answer the question. Gannon was cool, but he wasn’t the kind of nigga Rose considered a friend. If he was in the thick of some shit, the nigga wasn’t on his contact list.
“I knew I’d find you mothafuckas where the bitches were.” He grabbed the bottle of champagne off the table and an empty glass and poured up.
Rose peered around while VIP turned up. Within a few minutes, Minx and her girl Luna made their way up.
Sweating and giggling together about the show they just put on, both were looking for refreshments.
Every weekend was a party. With how hard they worked through the week, both felt like they earned it.
“Minx, yo’ ass really should teach choreography, bitch. You got natural moves that some of these directors be looking for,” Luna told her as they cut through the slew of people to get to the section that Gannon kept reserved for them.
Minx laughed, stumbling along beside her. Pausing, something in the air shifted and her eyes darted around. When her eyes landed on her target, a full spread grin carved her face and she stopped in her stride. Luna followed her gaze and both of her thick brows lifted in shock.
“Damn, is that—”
“Ambrose Westbrook, in the fucking flesh,” Minx said for her, suddenly in a trance.
Skin flushed, heart double crossing her in her chest, her feet wouldn’t move.
It was odd, right along with the little flutter that developed in her belly.
Rose was the homie. He was family, but every part of her screamed some other shit right now.
He was one of those people she latched on to early in life.
Even though he was older than her, he looked out for her every day after finding her in that corner store.
It wasn’t hard, since Max basically brought him into her family.
It wasn’t some shit they said either. Rose spent holidays with the Wards and went on family trips when they took them.
His mother didn’t really pay any attention to him because she was so busy in the streets with her friends.
She binged for days, leaving Rose home with no food, sometimes no lights and water.
“How is it this nigga just keeps getting finer? And how is it in all these years you ain’t never touched that?” Luna nudged her, desperate for answers.
Minx on the other hand couldn’t keep one straight thought.
That hadn’t happened in a long time. Rose was out of sight, so she often tried to keep him out of mind.
That was going to be quite the task when he was standing right in front of her.
She told herself for years that they were just friends, and he said the same thing.
When he skipped town about a year ago, she knew that what she felt was more than that, but she kept it to herself.
Rose was a great friend, one of the best. So the thought of their friendship being tainted because of possible additional feelings wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.
Minx didn’t have many people in life that she was close to.
She cherished her friendship with Rose a hell of a lot more than he knew.
“Come on, let’s go say hi.” Luna tugged on her wrist all the way to the table, and Minx dragged her feet.
The minute Rose’s eyes landed on her, they lit up.
Seated around the glass table with Finn and Gannon on either side of him, she didn’t miss the irony.
The man she was currently involved with, seated with the man that changed her life.
Rose was on his feet to greet her the minute she moved in his direction.
Like everyone else in the room was nonexistent, he stepped past Gannon, and Minx fell into his embrace.
His arms hooked around her so tight she couldn’t breathe, but in a good way.
He held her like he’d missed her. Both of her arms draped across his shoulders and his dropped his chin into hers during the embrace.
His eyes closed briefly, holding on the aroma of her YSL perfume invading his nose.
The way they had each other hemmed up, one would have thought they were fucking.
Their body language spoke a language that most people were foreign to.
“You snuck back into town and didn’t tell me.” Minx slapped his chest as soon as they pulled apart.
Completely captivated by how pretty she Rose, he could only smile.
Gannon hung back, one leg crossed over the other, getting a view like everyone else.
He knew the two had history, and he knew it went deep, but Minx never really talked about it.
There were certain parts of herself that she didn’t share, at least not with him.
He always got the feeling that Rose knew all of her deepest, darkest secrets and desires.
Even right then, eyes probing her face for answers, Rose was communicating.
“Shit, you know how I move.” He shrugged, toungue naturally grazing across his juicy bottom lip.
It was sexy, something he did with women all the time.
Somehow, the vibe between them had changed within a year.
The Dolce and Gabbana dress clung to her like paint, and the body was for damn sure bodying as they say.
Calves and legs were showing the hell out in her three-inch Giuseppes on her feet.
Gannon reached out, both hands on Minx’s waist as he brought her down into his lap with some authority.
He was territorial, making it known who she was with.
“I seen ya ass out there cutting up. Don’t make me fuck nobody up,” Gannon said in her ear.