Page 25 of Dr. Bell

Chuckling, I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Just making sure you don’t mind me coming in here.”

Adir had outdone himself on Quilo’s room. There was everything in here that a growing teen needed. I didn’t even ask Quilo if he liked his room. Judging by the way he was sprawled out on his king-sized bed watching the large screen television plastered to the wall in front of him, he was in heaven.

“Don’t piss me off, Coco.”

I winced at the bite of his words. He rolled over until he sat up on the bed. The heavy deep breath he took seemed labored. I wondered if the weight of what he’d done had finally settled over him. He didn’t kick me out of his space, so I took it as a good sign and moved toward the bed to sit next to him.

“How have you been sleeping?”

He groaned and said, “Don’t start. I’m good, aight. If I wasn’t you would know.”

“How when we haven’t really talked in the last few days? You come to breakfast and dinner, but you barely say a few sentences to me.”

“Maybe it’s ‘cause I’m tryna get used to this place. Since we’re not going anywhere. You really about to have a whole wedding this Saturday, and you just met this man Monday.” He shook his head. “You’re supposed to date, fall in love,thenget married. This shit is strange.”

I smirked. “Oh, really? What you know about falling in love, huh?”

He hunched his shoulders. “I just know that marriage shouldn’t come before love.Especiallysince you don’t know this nigga.”

“I’mgettingto know him, Quilo. As untraditional as this is, I’m doing it to save us. And I know it sounds crazy but… I trust Adir.”

Quilo glanced at me. “You trust him?”

I nodded. “I do.” There was no point in lying. Adir had every opportunity to leave me and Quilo right where we were. Instead,he jumped in, rescued us, and brought us to live in his beautiful mansion with his sons. “There are so many other ways that this could’ve played out.”

We were both quiet for a minute. Then Quilo said, “Mama would be proud.”

Before I knew it, tears welled up in my eyes. Quilo rarely talked about our mother. However, I was pleased that he knew she would be proud.

“She’d be proud of you,” I told him as we embraced each other.

I left Quilo’s room and exhaled a deep breath after closing the door behind me. I stood there for a minute and said a quick prayer over my brother. Thishadto work. If everything fell apart with me and Adir…

Shaking the thoughts off, I left the hallway and went downstairs to Adir’s room. I wasn’t surprised to find him in the dimly lit room, on the sofa with a drink in his hand. Smiling, I crawled into his bed, propped some pillows up, and put my eyes on the television.

“Good night, Adir.”

“Night, Pretty.”

As I eventually dozed off, I thought about this crazy ass situation I was in. I was really married to a stranger. A fine ass, crazy stranger.

The next morning, I was at Dr. Bell & Associates preparing to get my blood drawn. Inside the glass waiting room, I looked around, astonished by the high-tech features. I’d worked in a level one trauma center all my career, yet I’d never seen a place as stylish as this.

One of the lab technicians, Davis, stuck his head inside the waiting room. “Ready?” he asked with a welcoming smile.

Smiling back, I stood and followed him to one of the draw stations. My butt barely touched the seat before Adir appeared.His eyes zoned in on me as he strutted through the lab dressed in his scrubs and white coat.

Lord.I swallowed hard because Adir was quite frankly breathtaking. He approached us, dapped Davis, then bent down to kiss my forehead. Next thing I knew, he plucked me out of the chair, then sat back down and brought me into his lap. My breath stalled while feeling his dick against my ass. He rested his hand on my quivering abdomen as I glanced at him over my shoulder. It was a crime how much bigger than me he was. My legs rested between his as his were stretched out to make room for me. Davis touched my arm, reclaiming my attention. The butterflies tearing up my stomach distracted me through the whole process of getting my blood drawn.

ADIR

AlliandIenteredPlatinum Ink & Smokes, bypassed the check-in counter, occupied booths, and private rooms until we reached the hallway leading to the back of the building. Heavily strapped security stood at the door to the left, blocking entrance to who was beyond that point.

“Let us through,” I stated.

They glanced at each other, then one of them turned the knob to open the door. My eyes roamed the interior of the makeshift club occupied by Hakeem and his crew. Several pairs of eyes focused on me as I neared the sofa where Hakeem sat occupied by a set of naked twins. On the other sofa was Marco. He raised up a little at our appearance.

“Chill,” Hakeem ordered. “It’s bold of y’all to show up here. ‘Specially when it’s blood due to me.”

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