Page 19 of The Big Catch

The way these fishing people put up their contestants was one hell of an incentive to want to compete. Since Gunner was the defending champion, they pretty much gave him what he wanted within reason. That meant that when he asked for a two-bedroom suite, they gave it to him. The competition was in Texas.

We’d been here since Sunday, and it’d been great. The competition started tomorrow; however, the participants and their co-anglers always came in days before the competition to get acclimated to the boat that they would be using. The fishing boats that were used in this competition were nothing like I expected them to be. These boats were huge.

Before we got here, Gunner and Toolie had Gabrielle and me on a boat every day to learn different things to help out. At first, the people over the competition were hesitant about allowing us to be on the boat with Gunner and Toolie because it was out of the norm for that many people to be on the boat in a competition. It was the competition branding and marketing team that thought it was a good idea. It further promoted the image of family and love to have the girlfriend of the champion on the boat as an assistant to him. The fact that we wereBlack was an added incentive for the industry as far as equality was concerned. It was something that never happened before. I wanted to buck the wholehis girlfriendthing, but I thought better of it.

I didn’t understand what a co-angler was until Gunner explained it to me. Toolie’s job was to basically fish with him and make sure he had what he needed in between time. It depended on the competition, but sometimes what the co-angler caught and the boater or angler caught were pointed together. In this competition, they were not. Gunner said that it was my job to keep him company in the front of the boat while Gabrielle kept Toolie company in the back. If we got bored, there was a television in the main cabin of the boat.

“Belle, you don’t need to wear makeup on a damn fishing boat. That shit is going to melt off your fuckin’ face. You’re beautiful without it,” Gunner argued.

We were in our bedroom in the suite. He asked me what I planned to wear tomorrow, so I showed him. I mentioned my hope that there would be good lighting in the bathroom for touching up my makeup. “Gunner, we’re going to be on national television. I’m not trying to look bad.”

“Adabelle, short of being a crackhead junkie, there is nothing that you can do to look bad. You’re beautiful just like that… fresh face chilling with no makeup on.” I mumbled that he was just saying that, and his response shut me right up. “Why the fuck wouldn’t I think my girlfriend is beautiful? My woman is thick as fuck, beautiful, got good pussy, and contrary to popular belief got a good head on her shoulders. She can be a lil mean though.”

My mouth wanted to say something, but my mind was stuck on his reference to me as his woman. He wore a sexy smirk that made me want to jump on him. “When did I become your woman? I don’t remember having that conversation.”

His nostril widened; his left brow dipped while the right one rose. “We definitely had that conversation. It went like this. Hey, you’re coming with me to my competition. See? We had the conversation.”

I gawked at him for a beat before I roared with laughter. “Are you serious right now? Holden, that’s not how it works.”

The smile on his face was absent. He was dead serious. “That’s exactly how it’s going to work, Adabelle. Tell me you don’t want to be my woman. I would hope you don’t go around letting random niggas dick you down raw. Speaking of, we might want to talk about your birth control situation.”

“Gunner, we’ve been fucking for how long and you’re just now thinking about birth control.” All I could do was shake my head at him. Desperate to change the subject, I conceded to not wearing makeup tomorrow.

He laughed at my deflection. It was a good thing that I had enough sense to get on birth control after the first time that we had sex unprotected. All I needed was to be irresponsible and get pregnant. That would be the cherry on top of my fucked-up year.

“Don’t think I didn’t miss that you didn’t tell me that you didn’t want to be my woman. I’ll take your silence as acceptance.” He walked over to me from where he stood in the bathroom doorframe. His arm wrapped around me, his hand gripped my ass, then he pulled me into his body. His lips locked onto mine passionately. My tongue requested permission to enter his mouth. He gave it access.

My body shivered to his touch. When our lips disconnected, I felt it in my soul and pussy. “Let’s get in bed. We have to be up early.”

Sleep didn’t take long to find us after we got into the bed. Like I did every night, I wrapped my body around him. This was the best way to sleep.

Morning came way too quickly. Gunner woke me up with dick, and I still was grumpy. When we got to the competition, I understood why the branding firm was alright with Gabrielle and me getting on the boat with our men.Our men.I’d accepted Gunner as my man. The wives and girlfriend that came to the competition were either like the old me or homely as fuck. No matter how they were, they had no interest in getting on the boat with their men.

When it was announced that we would be joining Gunner and Toolie, we got the nastiest stares and hushed conversation. My best friend and I dressed for the occasion with a fashionable flair. Oh, and color me shocked to find out that anglers had groupies. If you thought Black groupie bitches were savage, then you hadn’t met a sour cream groupie. A bitch was out here with a shirt that readI want my pussyfish on your line. Her ass had the nerve to yell out Gunner’s name. Gabrielle passed her Sparta foot strength over to me because I tried to kick that bitch in her throat.

Gunner enjoyed that bit of toxicity in me. It was a blessing that the inside of the boat was air-conditioned because it was hotter than a preheated oven. We were three hours into the fishing day. So far, Gunner had caught eight bass and Toolie five. From what my man told me, the number of fish you caught was often dependent on the size of the body of water. The larger the body, the less fish versus the smaller the body the more fish. Gunner said this lake was smaller compared to others that he’d fished in.

“Baby, do you want a beer?” I asked when I came from the inside of the boat to the platform.

I already had the beer in my hand just in case he said yes. He had a rule that he limited himself to a beer every two hours. The only other thing that he drank was water. He glanced down athis watch, then looked over his shoulder from the seat he sat in. “Yeah, baby. Come here.”

I giggled at him pulling me into his lap when I tried to give him his beer. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be watching out for the bass. You better be quiet before you scare the fish away.”

“Not going to happen unless I had a bullhorn or something. Sounds above water aren’t forceful enough to breach the surface tension of water.” He kissed my neck again. “I could fuck you right here, and you could do all that yelling you like to do. It wouldn’t make a difference to the fish.”

My hand slapped his arm. “Shut up! I don’t yell. I simply express my excitement boisterously.”

His head fell back with laughter. Toolie yelled from the back of the boat that we were loud. “Mind your girl, and I’ll mind mine!” Gunner yelled back.

Toolie and Gabrielle were in the back of the boat, doing their own thing. I stayed on the platform with Gunner for another hour before he told me to go downstairs to take a nap. These competitions could be anywhere from six to eight hours, and we were only almost five hours in.Let me take a catnap.

I groaned at the feeling of something on my face. I waved my hand to smack whatever it was away. Gunner came into view when my eyes finally opened. “What are you doing?” I asked with a groggy tone.

“Wake up, baby. They’re about to announce the winner. I want you next to me,” he asked.

I shot up from the bed. “Why did you let me sleep that long? Did you catch more fish? I’m sorry.”

I felt horrible that I stayed asleep longer than I planned to. I’d been his woman all of one day, and I was already fucking up. I refused to do the same things that I did in my earlier relationship. I wanted our relationship to last.

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