Joe's POV

A few hours later, I wake up and realize I'm still in her bed. I look over to my right, and I see her standing next to the bed, in her underwear, holding my gun. She wasn't pointing it at me, but she was pointing it outward towards the window and I got a little nervous because she doesn't know how to hold a gun.

I quickly scoot over to her side of the bed and stand up behind her. I was going to show her how to hold it correctly but before I could even say anything, she spoke.

"Guns used to scare the shit out of me." She says

"Guns aren't scary." I step closer to her and reposition her hands so she's holding it properly. "The people holding them are what makes them scary."

I raise her arms to the correct height, and lower her shoulders.

"At one point I felt as if I needed to get one to defend myself from Aubrey, especially after he tried to drown me." She says

"You don't ever have to worry about protection as long as I'm around...but if you want, I can take you shooting to get you over that fear."

I catch her looking at me through the mirror on the wall. I drop my hand and place it on her stomach, as I kiss her neck.

"Put it down and come back to bed." I step back from her as she puts it back on the nightstand.

She turns around and puts her arms around my neck.

"You say it like something is about to happen." She smiles

"We going back to sleep." I laugh.

"Right." She laughs. "I forgot you're celibate."

"I'm not celibate."

"Oh you just have a boujie dick." She gets into bed and I put the blanket over her.

I laugh, "I don't have a boujie dick, I just don't give it to everybody. We had this conversation." I round the bed and I climb in. I put the blanket over me and I reach over to her head, rubbing her scalp.

"I was having a lot of sex. Like a lot. I had to step back and look at my life. Sex was a huge part of my life and I wasn't really happy. Removing that made time for a lot of other things, important things. My mom was having financial issues and my sister was starting to have problems with her boyfriend. I felt they needed my attention. I was the primary man in their lives. So I had to make a decision, women or my family. I chose my family." I say

"You didn't want a girlfriend?"

"Nah, I was wild. I was fucking everything with legs. I had a bad relationship with sex, women, and drugs and I wanted to change. So I did."

"I love that you made a decision like that."

"And I make a decision every time I wanna share that type of intimacy with someone. I choose to go there with you and I choose to wait because you're not ready." I say

"Are you?"

"I don't know. That's a lot to take on. I don't have the best track record with commitment. But this isn't about me, you have things you need to get over."

"You're so patient with me."

"It's what you need. I know what we have and I want to keep this between us because this ain't for anybody else. I value this. I love when you fully open up to me and let me in. I like to watch you. You sit on the patio and stare at the water for hours. I don't bother you because I know you're trying to figure your life out, just like I had to."

She doesn't say anything.

"I'm saying that to say this, I want to protect this. Right now, if I decide to have sex with you, I know it will complicate things. I think we should try to remain as normal as possible and not let our feelings or sexual contact interfere with our day-to-day lives. There's definitely sexual tension and we've already established that something is happening between us but I think we should take things slow."

"I agree." She says

"But right now. Enjoy the moment." She lays on my chest and we fall asleep.

********

Shawnie's POV

The next morning, I woke up to Mercedes' voice. Omg, why?

"I don't know what this is, I'm fine with it and I don't mean to break it up but Chris is in the living room."

I jump out of bed. "WHAT?" I throw on my robe.

"Yeah." She says calmly, smiling. She looks over at Joe as he sits up in bed.

"What does he want?" I ask

She shrugs. "I don't know but he ain't here to see any of us."

"Joe, he can't see you in my bed." I panic

Joe slowly stands to his feet. "Yeah...I know."

I start picking up his clothes that's on my side of the bed, and I quickly rush them over to him.

"Hide in the bathroom." I say

"Hide?" He repeats. "I'm a grown ass man. I'm not about to hide in the fucking bathroom. Have you lost your mind?"

"Joe, you can't be here right now." I say pleading with him.

"Fine." He goes into the bathroom and I close the door behind him. I spot his phone and gun on the nightstand so I can grab the phone, carefully pick up the gun and hurry them to the bathroom. I hand them to him as I hear, knocking on my bedroom door.

Mercedes turns around and answers it.

"She was asleep." She says, covering for me and then she walks out the door. Chris walks in smiling. 

"H-Hey!" I say trying to hide my nervousness. I looked down, noticing my robe was still open and I quickly closed it. I'm happy to have underwear on.

"What's up?" He closes the bedroom door.

"What are you doing here?" I ask

"Well, I was in Arizona and I heard you were in Vegas. I have the day off, so I thought I'd swing by for the day." He explains

"That's nice." I smile. "But you couldn't give me a heads up?"

"I texted you last night." He says

"No, you texted me some cryptic message that I didn't know what you were talking about." I lean on the dresser.

"It wasn't a cryptic message. I was saying the opportunity has presented itself."

"What do you mean by that?" I say frustrated.

"Remember we had a conversation about how the opportunity has never presented itself for us to actually try to rekindle something because when I was single you were with Drake and when you were single, I was with someone."

"We had that conversation months ago. I barely remember what was talked about." I say

"I just said exactly what we talked about." He says, laughing and looking at me funny.

"Okay Chris but what does that mean?"

"You have filed for divorce and I am not with Jasmine anymore."

"What?" I say confused.

"Yeah, she called me crazy and she said not to contact her anymore."

"What did you do?" I ask

"I'm on tour. I'm out. I'm enjoying myself." He smiles

"So you were just being your usual self?"

He shrugs

"I thought you were going to give you guys a fair shot."

"I did. And I was. But, she refuses to come out with me. I've asked her a bunch of times to just come out and see the show. She said she'll wait till I get to California. I don't wanna get into a therapy session about all of this bullshit. I just want to spend time with you."

"Chris but you can't just pop up."

"I texted you." He says

"But I didn't respond because I never got the text that you were coming."

"It's all good. It's not that big of a deal. I saw you filed for divorce. I was giving you a little space and wasn't going to ask about it, not that I really care much. I saw the pictures of you and Odell, that shit is comical. I'm not gonna get into all of that bullshit either but I'm back. So whatever you got going on, you need to shut all of that shit down, at least for today because you mine now." He smiles and steps closer to me.

"Chris, it is not that simple." I say

"What the fuck you mean, it's not that simple? Go get dressed and let's do some shit together. I'm hungry too. Unless you wanna get some started right now, I mean you're already naked underneath that robe." He tugs at my robe.

"No. Stop!" I snatch away from him.

"Damn." He looks at me shocked. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing. I just—I don't think you should do that."

"You've never had a problem with it before... you ain't even self-conscious about your body."

"It's just too early for this. I'm still buzzing from last night."

"Aight. Well get dressed so we can go eat." He starts walking towards the bathroom. "I'll start your shower."

"No—Chris!" I grab his arm. "I got it." I say

He stops in front of the door. "What's up with you? Stop being weird." He reaches for the door.

"YOU CAN'T GO IN THERE!" I yell, trying to catch him before he opened the door but I was a second too late. He opened it. I just leaned back on the dresser and covered my mouth. I was so scared. Omg, he's about to go apeshit.

He takes a step back, and then he looks at me. "The fuck is he doing in here?"

"I—Chris—." I was cut off my him speaking again.

"The fuck you doing? Hiding?" He says to Joe.

Joe steps out of the bathroom fully clothed. "Yeah..." he looks at me. "I'm hiding." He says sarcastically then he looks back at Chris.

"Let me explain." I say

Chris looks at me. "What's going on?"

I look at Joe. "Take your time. Ima let y'all handle that." He says then pats Chris on the shoulder then steps over to me and pulls me into a side hug, massaging my head. "Holler if you need me." He says then walks out of the room.

"What was that?" Chris asks

"Chris..." I walk over to the bed and take a seat. "Um..........I don't know how to say this."

"Just say it." He says

".....Something is happening and I don't know how— I don't understand exactly what's going on between Joe and I. I've been trying to process this for a while and maybe in a bit of denial as well. But, somewhere, somehow, I think we've developed something. I guess we've been spending so much time together that we have..... we have...um..there's something between us."

"I don't care. NO. Fuck that." He says

"I'm having trouble trying to understand this myself—." I say

"I'm just fucking with you......" He bursts out laughing. "I already knew."

"You knew? How?"

"I saw this coming a long time ago, back around your birthday. He was asking me questions he shouldn't have been asking. I knew something had to have been up but I didn't want to say anything." He says. "Then that shit happened in San Francisco, I knew there had to be more to the story."

"But nothing was going on." I say

"You were oblivious to his feelings because you were occupied with Drake." He says

"So you're not mad?"

"I'm not mad. Even though I saw this coming, I'm still a little hurt because I love you so much." He sits down next to me. "Don't be hiding shit from me. I'm a big boy. I can take it."

"I was scared to tell you. Chris, you're unpredictable. I don't know what you're going to do sometimes."

"I want you to be happy. I rather you be happy with me but I see we're past that point." He nervously smiles. "Is it serious?"

"No. We're not getting into anything. He wants me to take my time and recover."

"You should, because I know you ain't over me and your divorce hasn't even been processed. Take your time. If he cares about you like that he'll wait."

"He says he will. He wants me to have fun and live my life."

"Sounds like he's going to be waiting for years." He says

I laugh, "No, he just wants me to be sure."

"So to be sure, but we need to see if we're finished with each other for real."

"I agree with you. But Chris, what if we're not meant to be together? I keep saying that. Our relationship wasn't the best of times."

"I was involved with drugs. It altered my thinking and I wasn't making the right decisions. With the cheating, I felt like I was losing myself. I wanted to control something and I could control that."

"I controlled you?" I ask

"Not at all, but as ready as I wanted to be for you, I wasn't. You had everything I needed and wanted but I still cheated. I don't have an excuse for that. I just like to party and be around females. Shit happens. As far as being with you, nothing was wrong with you. You didn't do anything. That was me, and I want to try with you again because I did you wrong and you stayed by me. I know we both were dealing with things and we didn't address but we have now. Years later. I believe we can be what we want to be to each other."

I sigh, "I just wanna have fun, Chris. I don't want to be in another relationship right now."

"We don't have to be. We can just chill."

"We can do that, but if I start dating, I don't want a repeat of when Aubrey and I were dating. You were a psychopath."

"I won't. I think we have an understanding this time around." He smiles. "So, let's hang out. Ima take you to eat and we can decide what's next. I only have today. So hurry and get dressed."

"Okay." I say and I stand up to walk into the bathroom but he stops me.

"But hold up!"

"What?"

"Why was he in here and you're naked underneath that robe?"

I sit back down on the bed next to him. "Oh..."

"You fucking him?"

"No..." I quickly answer.

"He ate yo pussy didn't he?"

"No, why do you always think that?" I laugh

"Cuz you rather get head then have sex. He had clothes on and you didn't."

I laugh again. "That's true, but no he didn't do anything. I just had a robe on. You know how I sleep."

"Yeah, right. Why he get to eat it and I don't?"

I laugh, "Are you serious?"

"Yes. It's mine and I don't get to have it." He makes a sad face.

"You sound like a toddler. I didn't let him eat my pussy Chris."

"Is he better than me?"

"Why do you always ask that?" I laugh

"Cuz I know I'm the shit." He says. "Aight...You know I'll get it." He bites his bottom lip. "I can't wait for that shit."

"I'm going to go get dressed. Wait outside."

"Why?"

"Because I know your tricks. You're going to wait until I get naked and get in the shower and then you're gonna venture your way into the bathroom."

He laughs. "Aight. Hurry up."

He gets up and walks out of the bedroom.

I kinda took my time, but I hurried it up a little bit to get dressed. I think the talk between Chris and I went very well. better than I thought it would. I think he took the news about whatever Joe and I have going on pretty well. I think he was very mature about the situation, but I definitely know he still wants something with me. I agreed with everything that he said as far as things go between him and I but right now I'm just not in that headspace. I need to focus on my divorce and once that's done, I can move onto the next situation.

I don't plan on getting involved with anyone. I just want to be single for a while. I came to the realization that I've pretty much been in a relationship my entire adult life and I just wanna date around and have fun. I want to get myself together mentally and make decisions for myself. The right decisions. Decisions that I could be proud of.

*******

I walk out, completely dressed and ready to go for the day. Chris was sitting there, talking to Mercedes and Dori. I have no idea where Joe and the twins are.

"I said hurry up, meaning within like 30 minutes, maybe 40. You took an hour. I am hungry as fuck and you got me over here starving"

I roll my eyes.

"You haven't been with her in so long you forgot how long it takes her to get dressed. That was actually very good timing for her." Mercedes says

"Right. You're with the model and you're trying to tell me it only takes her 30 minutes to get dressed for the day." I say

"I don't know how long it takes her to get ready. She doesn't live in my house. We may make plans that night before and I tell her what time and most of the time she's ready." He says

"Well, I'm not Jasmine, nor am I a model, but you should be happy I'm ready to walk out right now."

"That's true."

"Oh! Let me take a shot first." I say hurrying over to the mini bar. I pull out a mini bottle of vodka. Open it and down it. "What the hell. One more." I say and grab another.

"Shawnie, it's early." Chris says.

"It's not early, it's 2. We were drinking earlier than that yesterday at the pool party." I laugh as I drink the other.

"True." Mercedes says

"So what are you guys doing today?" Mercedes asks

"I have no idea. He just popped up today and said that he has the day off, so we're going to go eat." I answer

"Are you going to call Odell?" She asks

"I don't know. I told you I didn't plan on talking to him like that." I say looking at her sideways. Why the fuck is she asking me that in front of Chris.

"But you should." Dori chimes in.

"I'm standing right here." Chris says

"I see you standing there, but you have a girlfriend or whatever and Shawnie's single. Just because she's single doesn't mean you're single." Mercedes says

"I'm not single." I say

"Bitch, you're damn near single. I need to hear your hoe stories." Dori says

"Hoe stories?" I say confused, and laughing.

"Yes. I want you to fuck the Super Bowl winner and then some other NFL players, some sexy ass actors, the NBA players, entertainers, even Chris-fucking-Brown..." she smiles at Chris. "....and we gotta throw some politicians in there, too." She says

"Damn. And you are literally trying to turn me into a hoe. I've only had sex with four men in my life."

"At least double that. Bitch you're about to be a millionaire. You can fuck me if you want to."

"Dori, you'd love that." I laugh

"Shit! I'd love that too." Chris says

"Hell yeah I would! I wanna know what's got Drake and Chris acting so crazy over you. It gotta be that." She laughs

"Fuck yeah." Chris grabs me by my hips and pulls me to him.

"I'm not gonna rule that out. We do make out every now and then." I say pushing Chris off of me.

She laughs.

"Y'all do? What have I been missing?" He says shocked. "Dori, you are coming with us." Chris says

Everyone laughs.

"Let's go. I've been preparing myself and getting myself into the mindset that we're going to be photographed together and they're going to create a story that you and I together, in the midst of me filing for divorce, so you know they're going to assume we're getting back together. But I'm okay with them making up whatever story they wanna make up. That's something that I cannot control. So let's just go."

"Wow. You had this realization overnight?"

"Pretty much. I need to be prepared for everything and everyone coming at me because clearly I am the bad guy because I filed for divorce from Drake."

"If they knew the real story, they wouldn't say that."

"Yeah, but they don't know the real story so they're going to make up their own real story. I'm just over all of this shit. Let's go so I can get a drink."

"Aight. I got you." Chris puts his arm around me and we leave.

What did you think about this chapter???