Page 80 of Love's Free Will

“Shit, you tell me. Ya’ll was lookin real cozy over here.”

She gave me thatplease stop asking me shit I don’t wanna lie aboutlook before shaking her head. “Hell no. You know I can’t stand him. Let’s not even do this.” She changed the subject fast. “Speaking of niggas—how you feelin’ about Royal and Instagram’s finest over there?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” I muttered but I couldn’t help turning around to look at them and when I did, I instantly regretted it as I caught ole girl watching me with a smirk.

Our eyes met then she leaned in and whispered something to Royal, giggling while staring straight at me. A soft smirk appeared on his face, his arms folded, jaw tense, but he didn’t bother looking my way. He didn’t need to; she had done enough for me to know she was talkin shit about me.

I know most people when dealing with petty situations followed Michelle Obama’s example when she said ‘when they go low, we go high’… but instead I followed in the footsteps of the late, great Eric Mays who said when they go low, we go lower.

I took a deep breath, then smiled wide and loud enough for the whole suite to hear:

“Niggas be downgrading and don’t even be ashamed. Couldn’t be me.”

The silence that followed waschef’s kiss. Tiffany’s giggle died mid-laugh and she looked over at me with a tight little smirk. When Royal’s eyes flashed to me, I sipped my drink, gave him my middle finger and winked.

Checkmate, bitch.

By the timeSerenity and the kids returned from their little tradition of seeing Creed before the start of the game, Creed was already putting on a show. Fast breaks. Slam dunks. Fadeaways with no effort. It was beautiful to watch, and even more beautiful seeing how proud his wife and kids looked up close. We were all on our feet at one point, clapping and shouting, caught up in the game and by half time he left the court with 20 points and5 rebounds already. We all knew tonight was going to be a good night for him.

During the halftime show, Royal walked up to the group and dropped his latest bomb. “Yo’, before I forget—I’m having the official listening party forConcrete Rosesin a couple of weeks,” he said casually. “At the LA Records compound. Y’all better pull up.” Everyone lit up.

“Say less,” Nasseem nodded. “I’m there.”

“Can’t wait to hear the final version ofPost Up,” Egypt added, eyes bright. “The rough was fire.”

Brodie gave him a dap, and Arielle leaned over to whisper something to Serenity that made her laugh. Me? I stayed quiet. Because the truth was… I was probablyrequiredto be there.

I helped write half the album. Produced most of it. Logan already hinted that I’d need to be there for press and photo ops. But that didn’t mean I had tolookhappy about it.

After halftime, I was in the middle of watching Creed drop another bucket when I noticed something strange.Thegirlwas gone, nowhere to be found. I didn’t even notice that she’d left sometime between half time and now. Not that I cared anyway. But then, that’s when he appeared—right next to me. Smooth as ever. Like I wasn’t just dragging him in my head for the past hour.

“Yo,” he said.

I gave him a once-over, then looked around. “You lost?”

He smirked. “Egypt and Nas comin’ to the crib after the game. Having a little kickback, nothin’ major. You should come.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You invite everybody else?”

“Creed and Serenity gotta get the kids home. Arielle and Brodie, too.”

“And Tiffany?”

He chuckled, low and unapologetic. “She caught a Lyft.”

I looked back at the court, lips tight. “Right.”

“So… you coming or what?”

I wanted to say hell no, But Egypt’s big mouth ass chimed in before I could reply. “Girl, we goin’. C’mon. You said you didn’t have nothin’ to do tomorrow.”

I gave her a death glare and called her everything but a child of God with just my eyes. She obviously didn’t care with the way she shrugged her shoulders and walked off.

Thirty minutes later after the game had ended, after we’d said our goodbyes to Serenity, Ari, Brodie and the kids, I was in the driver’s seat of my Lexus on my way home so I could change out of these uncomfortable ass clothes and go put on something else before I went to Satan’s lair.

21

ROYAL

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