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Ilove you.

We need to talk.

It’s not you; it’s me.

Those common phrases were known to evoke emotion and increase anxiety. I now knew another three word phrase that had the power to make a man speechless as he squirmed in his seat—What are we?

Normally, I would go with the flow of time spent with a man, but things with Houston were… different. He treated me like I was his and he was mine, but we hadn’t committed to each other yet. That would have been the typical situation-ship except for one thing—Houston didn’t want me dating anyone else. In my younger, naïve days, I would have confused his possession for love. Now, I knew that wasn’t the case. I knew a man could want to possess you simply because he didn’t want anyone else to have you, and it would have nothing to do with love. So what was it?

What were we?

How did he truly feel about me?

What did he want from me?

Instead of driving myself crazy trying to figure it out, I decided to ask Houston his intentions with me.

As I stared at him, waiting for an answer, I realized his silence said it all.

A quiet chuckle escaped me as I checked the time on my timepiece. The Ferragamo watch was a gift from my ex. He said it was to remind me that we had all the time in the world. Our expiration date came quicker than he expected when I found him on a date with another man.

“I’m gonna go,” I announced, standing.

When he didn’t stand to leave as well, I stared down at him as my head tilted. We were sitting on the side of my bed talking after I finished getting ready for tonight. My sister wanted to do a double date with her fiancé, and initially, Houston agreed. Now that he’d heard one other couple was coming, he had reservations. I realized he wasn’t going to bother to come after I got out the shower and found him still in my bed. Me asking him why he was no longer coming led to that dreaded question of our relationship status, and now, I regretted asking. Not because I no longer wanted the answer, but because trying to get it had ruined my mood.

“Get out,” I demanded softly. “I don’t want you here when I get back.”

Sucking his teeth, Houston wrapped his hand around my wrist and used it to tug me down onto his lap.

“Presly…”

“I want you to leave, Houston.”

“Why?”

“There’s no reason for you to be here.”

With a scoff, Houston looked around my room, as if the space was foreign to him. “Why not? It wouldn’t be the first time I was here without you.”

“Yeah, but I’m still confused as to why you aren’t coming with me. We’re supposed to be going on a date.”

“A double date,” he clarified. “Oh, wait. A triple date.”

“And what’s the problem with that? It’s not like we haven’t hung out with my sister and her man before.”

“Yeah but, I just don’t want to, so I’m not going to.” Gently, Houston pushed me off his lap and grabbed his clothes off the bench in front of the bed.

“So the reason you are making me go and be the fifth wheel after you agreed to coming with me is because you just don’t want to?”

Houston released a long sigh and ran his hand down his face. “Yeah. You shouldn’t want me to do something I don’t want to do. My energy gon’ be off, then I’ma have to hear your mouth about that.”

“Or, you could just have good energy seeing as you’re spending time with your girl. Or whoever the hell I am to you. This means a lot to me. My sister is about to marry this man and leave the city with him. I need to spend as much time with them as possible.”

“I’m not stopping you from doing that. I’m just saying I’m not going to do it with you.”

“Fine.”

I was over the conversation and him, so I went into the bathroom and covered myself with my YSL perfume in preparation to head out. By the time I was done, Houston was fully dressed and slipping into his shoes. I waited until he was done to leave my room with him following behind.

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