Page 108 of Are You Going to Love Me

“Get back in the bed,” he directed.

“You done yelling at me?” Eden retorted.

“I wasn’t yelling at you, baby. I just – I don’t like the idea of niggas touching you and I don’t know. I get you can handle your own, but I’m here.”

“I understand that Maximus,” Eden huffed, tired and wanting to be held so she could drift off to sleep. Reclaiming her space in the bed, she huffed again.

Maximus climbed back in, positioning her leg over his. “Tuck your foot back.”

“Say please,” she quipped, her little attitude threatening to turn his tired body on.

“Baby, please tuck your foot back where it was,” he grumbled.

Eden grunted as she did what was asked of her.

“My bad for yellin’,” he muttered.

“Don’t do it again. My momma did a whole lot of yelling and insulting me. I don’t like it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for her. She was a trash ass mother. Only Poppi knew the effects of what that did to us.”

“How’d you handle it then?”

“Poppi would always catch it and play music to calm my mind. She was into all the oldies. Miles Jones, Hayla Johnson, Mr. Hayes. After a Miles Jones record, being able to vent, get it off my mind, and some fresh air, I was as good as new. Now, a Trae Way MB record can do the trick, too.”

His chuckle was weighted. “You a fan now?”

“Mmhmm, probably the biggest. Listen, I know you’re going to have to do what you have to do, and I’m never going to stop you, I just ask that I don’t see it,” Eden shared.

“I can do that. But niggas might get it worse if I know you ain’t watching.”

“If you got to come off of your cool, I know they deserve it.” Eden kissed his chest. “Thank you. I haven’t been called a black bitch since my mother left us.”

“She called you that?”

“Religiously. I guess I looked too much like my daddy.” Eden shrugged. “When I say she was really a terrible mother, that’s putting it lightly. It’s a shock that Staysha and I are as intact as we are.”

“You had Poppi and each other.”

“Heavy on each other. For a long time, I swore it was going to be me and Staysha together forever as old maids. At least me.”

“You know them niggas was chasing behind you.”

“You, in fact, have been the only nigga to chase behind me. I had a boyfriend in college, but he was trash.”

“I got to thank that nigga for fumbling the bag.”

“I feel like you probably would have snatched me from him,” Eden laughed, then yawned.

Maximus pulled her into him more. “Without question. I would have looked that nigga in the eyes and pulled you. Then dared his ass to step.”

“To be so quiet to the world, you are really out of your mind,” Eden teased.

“Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not. With you, I get peace. I don’t need to withdraw or be anything other than me. When I do pull back, you somehow know how to pull me center again. That shit has got to be divine.”

“I don’t know how I know, I just know.”

---