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A few hours later.

I had drifted off to sleep after he fucked me stupid again. I woke up to him kissing me on my cheek. I popped my eyes open and saw his smiling face. He was fully dressed.

"Where are you going?" I ask

"Me and my brothers have some business we need to handle. I shouldn't be gone too long."

I pout. Damn how is he gonna leave me.

"Is it going to be like this all the time?" I ask

"No, but I can get called at any time if they need me. Truth is, there's no guarantee..." He says. "Just know, the majority of the time it's always important."

I nod my head. I feel like it's gonna be like this a lot and I don't know how I feel about it. I do know there are some illegal dealings but I don't know if it's all illegal and hopefully he keeps me in the dark about a lot of stuff because I feel like I don't wanna know about what he or his family is doing.

"I tried to get out of it but they're on their way to pick me up." He says.

"It's fine." I say

"I know it's fucked yo for me to leave like this but I don't have a choice." He says.

"I said it's fine. I'll manage." He knows I'm disappointed.

"I had some things delivered for you. I don't know if you have any clothes or anything so there's a few things out in the living room. Whatever you don't want we'll send back."

"I brought some things with me." I say

"Well now you have more." he smiles. "If you wanna go anywhere, I'm leaving my fob. I'm parked in the garage, on the 6th floor furthest away from the elevator." I look over at the nightstand and see it, the double R's very visible. Next to it was a credit card.

"And the credit card?" I ask

He smiles again and shrugs. "For fun. Entertain yourself by collecting some things to fill up your new closet."

I look at him confused.

"The penthouse is still open and he said I could rent it out if I want. So you wanna do it?"

"Uh...I guess. Yeah!" I say. I don't know how I feel about all of this either. Everything is moving super fast. I literally went to sleep for a couple hours and now all of this is going on.

"Buy some things for the house. Whatever you wanna do. Start picking out one decor." He says

He leans in and kisses me on the lips. "Only thing that I ask is that you be here when I get back. Make yourself at home."

I nod my head. He checks his phone. I could see he was looking at the find my app.

"Aight. Give me a couple of hours." He says before leaving the room.

I laid there for a few minutes before heading into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for the day. I had my travel size skincare routine in my purse, along with the hair care and basic makeup items. Of course I had a change of underwear. I knew I wasn't going home last night. I was prepared for this.

After my shower I went into the living room where there were a few racks of clothes. Some of everything. There were at least three racks of everyday or casual clothes and two racks of formal wear and one of lingerie. Shoe boxes were stacked up next to the racks. There were also a few handbags laying on the sofa and accessories laid out on the coffee table.

"Damn!" I say aloud. "He knows how to treat a girl right!" I say looking at everything.

I looked through all the clothes and picked out a simple, all baby pink, Nike sweatsuit and Air Force ones. Yeah, I could've picked something else but I rather stick to what I'm comfortable with. I believe Jey knows what I like, which is why this was an option. He's so thoughtful.

What's a little more interesting is that he knew my size for everything. I have no idea how he even knew any of this. It's interesting that he either took notice or went through the trouble to find out my size.

For the next few hours I didn't really do much. I wasn't about to spend this man's money and I wasn't about to walk into a scary car garage by myself where he parked his car furthest away from the elevator. I just hung out around his hotel suite. I went downstairs to grab a small bite to eat and came back upstairs. I called my mom, spoke to her for a while. I asked her if she wanted her car and she came to retrieve it. Once I was done with my mom I called and talked to Danielle for a while. The conversation was interesting. It wasn't one I enjoyed as much but I understood where she was coming from. I guess.

"So how're things on the west coast? Still moving?" Danielle asks

"Yes, that's still the plan."

"So are we breaking the contract with the condo?" She asks

"Yeah, I only have a few months left on the lease. Did Kevin get all of his shit out of there?"

"As far as I know. I told him I wasn't coming out again so he better get everything. I also told him if he leaves anything, I'm throwing it away."

"Good. I don't want him to try to use that as an excuse to come back."

"How's everything going with your new boo?"

"Everything is so perfect between us. He actually just left. He's already talking about our future together." I say

"What marriage? Why the fuck would he even be talking about that? He is still married to someone else and the fact that he's entertaining another marriage after his divorce hasn't even taken place yet, is a bit of a red flag. Neither one of you guys should even be trying to get serious when he is still legally married." She snaps

"We're not talking about marriage, just a future together."

"Which if all goes well, includes marriage and kids. Y'all aren't ready for that conversation. It's still new." She says. "I mean, I get it, it's not like everything is just supposed to stop because he's separated from his wife. But damn, don't be so open about it. I personally think he should not have gotten involved with you if he was still married, I understand being separated, but he's still married. The fact that you're involved with him upsets me but I know you said you felt like you needed to pursue this, so I'm standing with you but I don't agree with it."

"Well, things are great between us and as soon as the divorce is final, we'll be able to live how you really want to live."

"So what's going on with that? Has he given her the papers? Are they filed, what?" She questions.

"As of right now, he's still working on it. All I know is he's going to meet with a divorce attorney."

"So what's the hold up? He wants you right? He's been separated for a while. If he is so unhappy with his life, and in his marriage, a separation for two years isn't going to do anything. This is something that he should've done a long time ago before he even met you. I understand since he met you now he wants to get the process going but the whole situation just doesn't sit well with me."

"I told you before there is a lot that has to do with his family and he's just trying to get all of that situated before he slaps her with divorce papers. From my understanding, if he just gives her the papers, it's gonna blindside the family. So he has to have a conversation with them before he does anything."

"So why hasn't he held the conversation?" She asks. "I think it's completely dumb he has to run something like this by his family but I guess every family is different."

"I don't know. I think he's trying to ease into the situation. I know he's said he's brought it up about him and his wife being separated to them, and they basically lectured him on loyalty and worked it out with his wife. I think he's just nervous about throwing everything at them at once, which I understand."

"Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me. I swear if I wasn't pregnant I would tell them myself, or better yet take you by the hand so we could let his wife know what's going on behind her back." She says

"But it's not behind her back. He said he told her that he was seeing someone. They've been separated for like two years. I know she doesn't expect him to not see anybody while he's separated from her."

"That goes back to what I was saying in the first place. Even though they're separated, he is still married, and he needs to take care of his business. This situation is just going to make things worse and the fact that you guys have been carrying on like this, scares me. We don't know what type of woman she is."

"Listen, we know what we're doing and I appreciate your concern but just let us live. We're happy. I just want you to be happy for me without always talking about the negative in the situation. I know how this looks and I know how bad it is but I'm trying to work through it. I already know what I have to do if this goes left and I'm completely ready to leave if I have to. You don't have to worry about that. But we're not there yet, if we get there I already told him, I'm out. Now I gave him three months to get this straightened out. If he doesn't do it, then that's it." I explain. "Trust me. I got this."

"Aight...Ms. I got this. When three months are up we'll see how done you'll be." She says

"I love you." I say, trying to smoothly end the conversation.

"Uh huh. I love you too. What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Just waiting for Jey to come back."

"And where did he go?" She asks

"Family business to handle. I didn't ask."

"Do you think he's lying about any of this?"

"No I don't. I actually believe him. I know how stupid I sound but I think everything's okay."

"If you say so. I'll shut up until I see or hear something else I need to complain about."

I laugh. "I appreciate your concern, really, I do. I know you love me."

"I do and I want what's best for you. I don't know if he's it."

"It feels like it." I say

"And I believe you believe that. As I said before, just be careful."

"I will. I'll talk to you later."

We end the call.

I just sit there and think. Am I making the right decision to follow through with this? Well I know I'm not because I'm seeing a married man but once everything is done, would sticking by him would've been the right decision? I just don't know and I can't tell the future. I wish I could see into the future because that would save so much time, but that's not an option, so I'm going to continue to follow my heart and stay, because I feel this is right.

***********

Jey came back a few hours later. Don't know what he did and I didn't ask. Not my business.

He walks through the door smiling. He had two small, red, shopping bags in his hand. I was sitting on the sofa with the tv on. I wasn't watching it though, I was on my phone looking for home rentals.

"I'm happy you're still here." He says walking over to me, leaning over the back of the soda and kissing me on the cheek.

"You told me you wanted me to be here when you got back. I'm here." I smile.

"I'm so happy you follow directions." He says, jokingly, sitting the bags on the table.

I laugh. "When you're good to me, I'm good to you and I listen. You haven't given me a reason not to."

"I dig that." He leans in and kisses me on the lips. "What you do while I was gone?" He sits down on the sofa next to me. "Did you miss me?"

"Of course I did. I didn't do much. Went downstairs to the cafe and got a little sandwich. Talked to Danielle and my mom. She came and got her car."

"Oh, so you can't leave if you wanted to, huh?" He says

"Uh yeah, Uber." We both laugh.

"I just mean, you're with me with me now."

"Yep." I say

"Speaking of that." He sits up and goes into his pocket and pulls out a key. "I met with the guy next door, the place is all ours." He places a key in my hand.

"You're giving me a key?" I say confused.

"Yeah." He says

"So we're really going to be living together. Like really living together?"

He laughs for a second. "Yeah."

"Oh. "

"What? You thought I was playing?"

"A little." I say. "I thought I would just stay over for extended periods of time but go back to my parents house when I wanted."

"Nah, I told you I wanted you with me, I mean WITH me. I want you to cohabitate with me. My place is your place. That's the reason for me even checking out the penthouse, because I wanted you to be comfortable staying with me."

"Understood." I say thinking about it. This is a big decision. I would have to literally move in once I move my things from Atlanta. That's a big deal.

"Having second thoughts?"

"Kinda. So once I move from Atlanta, I would move in here with you?"

"Yeah."

"I feel like that's a huge leap from where we are right now. I know we're trying to figure things out in the process of actually getting this... Relationship on track but I don't think I'm 100% about that decision yet."

"I feel that and I want to do everything on your time. Okay, you're not comfortable with moving in with me right now. I completely understand that. Why don't we just look at this being somewhat of a trial run and when it comes to the time when you want to move everything here, when it's time for you to really relocate here, then we'll take it from there." He says

"Okay. I can do that."

"And I promise I won't pressure you." I nod my head up and down. "So let's go check out the place."

"We can, but what you got in them bags?" I already knew it was something for me.

He laughs and reaches for them on the table. "I got us some matching diamond Cuban link bracelets." He gives me one bag and keeps the other.

I look in the bag but I have two boxes in mine. He watches me as I open the smaller box. It's the bracelet and I love it!

I open the other box and I just laugh.

"You got me the chain to match yours?"

"You like it?" He asks

I nod my head taking it out of the box. "I love it!"

"I can't have you walking around with nothing on your neck. Since we made things official, I thought I'd get you a little gift."

"I love it!" I give it to him to put it on me. "You like when I buy you things?"

I turn around to look at him. "I like it. Why?"

"Because I'll continue to do it. I'll spoil you rotten if you let me. I'll continue fucking you good, let you do whatever you want... The only thing I ask in return is that you give me all of your loyalty."

"Of course. You already have it." I say

"I hope so, because I already love you. I'm blowing up my life because I want to be with you. I don't want all of this to be for no reason."

"It won't be. I promise."

"Aight...now that we have that understood, let's go see this new space."

He pulls me to my feet and pulls me into his arms. "I'm gonna make you so happy."

I don't say anything, I smile and kiss him on the lips then we go to our new place.

***********

**A MONTH LATER**

It's been a month since we've been hanging out and honestly, I have no complaints. Everything has gone very smoothly between us. No complications whatsoever. Where together 90% of the time and the other 10% is when he's handling business with his family, with his kids, or when I'm with my family. Once we're done, we come back together to our cozy penthouse and just relax with each other.

I like the little life we've shared the last month. Everything feels so easy with him and I love that. Even when he's gone and I haven't talked to him for a couple hours. I'm never worried about where he is or who he's with. I never feel like he's lying to me about his whereabouts or when he's with his family. I just don't have to worry about that with him and it's refreshing.

I adore the simple life we've built over the last month. Being with him feels effortless, and I cherish that feeling. Even when he's away for a few hours, I never worry about his whereabouts or company. There's a genuine trust between us, and I never doubt his honesty about his family time. With him, worrying feels unnecessary, and it's incredibly refreshing.

Jey and I have been getting to know each other for the last month, and it's been such a rewarding experience. We've shared stories, laughter, and even some quiet moments that have deepened our connection. I feel like we're building something special, something worth investing in for the long haul.

I'm excited to see where this journey takes us and to continue discovering more about each other as we navigate through life together. It's been a month filled with joy and comfort, and I look forward to many more moments like these with Jey by my side.

I rest not to think about the hot pink elephant that's always in the room. Although everything is good between us, it's always in the back of my mind. I'm counting down though. He has two months left to get everything going. I'm really sticking to my word..no matter how much I like him.

One night, Jey and I decided to get dinner from this place I haven't been to since I lived here many years ago. It's this place called Black Bear diner. Being home brought back a lot of memories, but being at this place brought back so many from my high school years.

Jey and I were finishing up our meal. He was pretty late, around 11. We were having a late dinner because his business meeting ran late and he didn't want me to eat without him. Cute, I know. There's been a lot of that going on lately.

We had a really good conversation which is something we never have issues with. I think our connection is pretty solid. It's just pretty much the early stages and everything just feels right right now. I can't wait until we're actually a few months in and we get closer and really get to know each other better. Then we could really see if this is what we both want, but as of right now, everything is perfect. Especially this last month, it's been flawless. That low-key scares me because if this turns out well, it'll be a good thing but this is almost something that never was.

We were sharing a slice of chocolate cake after our meal. It was so cute. He was being so affectionate, kissing my shoulder and cheek whenever he felt like it. He couldn't keep his hands off of me. He was acting like he was when we were in Chicago and it has been very consistent this last month. I loved every bit of it. He was also being attentive, giving me his undivided attention. I'm not sure he took his eye off of me for longer than a few seconds, and he didn't look at another woman at all. All of this was new to me. I'm not used to being treated like this without having to beg for attention. Not that it was a problem but it kind of bothered me that he was like this towards me because what woman wouldn't love this? I was curious, and I thought we would have to eventually talk about this, so I brought up his wife.

He was basically kissing on my neck while I was finishing up the cake. I put the fork down and gently grabbed his face, making him stop.

I smiled. "Were you this affectionate with your wife?"

He looks at me like I'm crazy, then takes a sip of his water. "What you mean, was I this affectionate with my wife?"

I sensed a little attitude with that.

"I just mean you're very into me, you're super affectionate, loving, caring, and you can't keep your hands on me. You're too perfect. I just don't see how someone could fall out of love with that." I say

"We just grew apart. We've been together since high school. Things just became more of a friendship than anything."

"Do you think she still loves you?" I ask

"Probably. I love her as the mother of my kids, but nothing else. If you're worried about us getting back together, I won't let that happen because I have you. I love you." He says

"No, I'm just curious. I love how affectionate you are. I don't want that to ever change." I place my hand on his.

"It won't, and I'm so attracted to you too. I feel like I have everything I need in you." He says

"You're sweet." We share a quick kiss. "Do you want more kids?" I ask

"Honestly I'm cool with what I have but if you wanted one or two, I'd give them to you. Do you want any?" He asks

"I don't know. I haven't seriously thought about it nor have I found someone I would want to have them with. I would like to be a mom one day but no time soon."

"So no nuttin in you?" He smiles

"If we're going to do that we have to have a discussion." I say

"What's there to talk about? Yes or no. It ain't like I haven't done it before."

"And I freaked out about it. If you want it to continue, I need to get on the pill because I want a planned pregnancy. Plus, I don't even know if that's what I want yet. So yeah, a discussion."

"I get it. I never had to have that conversation. I was married. We got pregnant right away."

"Understandable. I'm not married to you. So you will be pulling out and I'm getting on the pill just in case."

"It's been a month, we have time. We'll talk." He assures me .

"So it's been a month we're still kind of getting used to each other. We're basically still getting to know each other. I've picked up some things, but I wanted to know, what's your love language?" I ask

"Fucking." He says

I burst out laughing, "I believe that." We both start laughing. " I've picked up on that as well. I think you like to be needed as well."

"I do." He says. "But not in a bad way, I'm not codependent or anything. I just like when my woman likes to be around me. I love when she's all over me."

"I can tell we both like to show affection and intimacy." I say.

I saw Jey turn around to look out of the window. That caught my attention because this was basically the first time he actually shifted his attention from me. When turned around, he kind of slid his keys towards me, but I didn't say anything.

"....I like fucking too." I say to try to regain his attention. "Having sex with you is a new experience for me..." he still doesn't turn back to me. "The best sex I've ever had." I say but his focus is still elsewhere. What the hell?

"If I tell you to go to the car, I don't want you to question me, I just need you to get up and go." He says. I instantly get scared.

"Okay, what's wrong?" I start to turn around and see what he's looking at but he stops me.

"Don't look. Just wait." He says while still looking.

I feel a wave of numbness go over my body. What the fuck is going on?

"Should I be worried?" I ask

"No baby," he says in a calm tone. "Everything is fine just—do me a favor and calmly get up and go to the car." He says, avoiding turning to me.

I don't hesitate. I grab my purse and the keys and stand up. It took everything in me not to see what was going on but I figured I could see once I left. I was a little scared.

I went out of the side door of the restaurant. As I'm walking out, I see three guys, three big guys, walking in the front entrance.

One of the guys had a few single braids or twists on his head, beard, and was about a shade darker than Jey. Another one was lighter in complexion but a little shorter than the other two. His hair was up in a bun and he wore dark sunglasses. He looked somewhat younger too. He looked similar to the third guy, he hung back a couple feet from the other two guys. He was the biggest of the three, very muscular. His hair was in a bun as well, he had a pissed off expression on his face.

I don't take any chances. I walk over to Jey's car and I get in on the passenger side. I watch as the three guys walk over to Jey. Jey displays a big smile on his face like he's happy to see them, then he shakes the guys hands. It looks like they were having a pretty casual conversation until I see the one guy with the twists grab Jey by his shirt, making him stand up.

The younger looking guy with the bun tells the other people around them to move. I only know because they clearly looked scared. Some people just got out of the way and some left the restaurant.

Jey starts talking with the big guy, he looked even more pissed than he was when he walked in. He started yelling at Jey and then he punched him in the stomach. I screamed as Jey fell to his knees.

"OH MY GOD!!" I yell, covering my mouth.

I look over and see a man with a bald head staring directly at me. He was about 20 to 30 feet away from me, so I don't know if he was actually looking at me because Jey's tints are so dark, but I sure felt like he knew I was here. He was standing next to another guy. This one I've seen before. He was at the show I attended a month ago. It was Jey's father. I remembered the blonde hair.

They both were leaning on the front of a blacked out suburban truck. Jey's father wasn't looking my way, he was looking into the restaurant. I see the bald headed guy hit his father on his shoulder getting his attention, then he points in my direction. His father nods and looks away while the other guy starts walking towards Jey's car.

Oh shit!

*

To be continued...

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