Page 115 of Are You Going to Love Me

Keon balled his mouth up trying not to laugh. “I can’t stand yo’ ass for real.”

“I might have someone for you,” Staysha shared.

“Who?” the table chimed.

Staysha smirked and looked at Eden. “Fatima.”

Eden, Maximus, and Keon looked at each other, then at Staysha. “Hell nah!”

“Why not?” Staysha asked. “Word on the Street posted Rudy out with some woman, it’s only a matter of time before she finally quits his ass.”

“So, you saw it and didn’t reach out to check on her?” Eden queried.

“Nah, I checked on her and she pretended like she knew, and she was okay with it, like she’s been doing. That nigga has been embarrassing her left and right.”

Maximus looked over Eden’s head at Brody. “Don’t you put your ass in the middle of that shit, nigga. Rudy might be small but his ass ain’t wrapped too fuckin’ tight.”

“Yeah, leave that shit alone. Rudy is an amazing DJ and producer, but the nigga is out of his fucking mind though. You get on my fuckin’ nerves but I don’t want to have to stomp a LordFarquaad nigga out,” Keon added, making Brody pat his chest. “Cut it out.”

“I knew you loved me, nigga.” Brody’s grumble was accompanied with a wink and kiss blown in Keon’s direction.

“Fuck you, nigga” Keon muttered. “Leave me alone.”

While the group went back and forth in harmless banter, Eden found the blog Staysha mentioned and fell into a rabbit hole.

thirty-seven

. . .

After three daysof being laid up with Maximus, it was back to work. Her light flow and spotting decided to disappear, too. But the absence of her cycle didn’t take away the tiredness and irritability. Typically, when she was on set or in her dressing room, she strove to be easy to deal with, a light and joy to be around. Right now, she was anything but.

She couldn’t shake it off, and it was her own fault. At night, while Maximus snuggled against her, she was scrolling down a rabbit hole of Word on the Street blog. All the way back to Maximus’ kickback, where pictures of them on his terrace were taken, and think pieces were written about it. Whoever was running the blog had been posting things about him and her since they were spotted together that night.

After days of consuming the useless content, the poison was doing what it was intended to do – bother her. The headline that danced in her head most of the night was @GardenofEden Jumps from Baller to Rapper: Anything to keep her lights on. The article mentioned her contract with MRA, portraying her as a hustling bitch from the other side of the tracks who used men for a come up. Even speculating that Eden slept with Mac’Roy when she stripped to get her contract in the first place.

None of it was true. But what did the truth matter when the lie had already made it around the world and back? Sure, she was used to her character being attacked but it wasn’t her anymore that she had to worry about ignoring the bullshit. Maximus was attached to her.

Eden: Who tf is running that blog?

Staysha: I should have never told you. Why are you letting it get to you?

Eden: Because it’s lies and bullshit

Staysha: It’s always going to be lies and bullshit. You keep rising above

Eden: So eloquent coming from the one who told me about it

Staysha: In regards to DJ Rudy, not you and Maximus

Eden: Can you find out who is running this bullshit

Staysha: I can, and then what? You going to stone them at the town square for saying mean things about you? You're elevating it's always going to be a hater spewing their bullshit

Eden: I just want to know who that’s all

Staysha: Uh huh. I'll look into it, but I still think it’s not going to change a thing

Eden believed in keeping her private life to herself. They could see her and Maximus hand-in-hand, hugged up or whatever, but what was happening in the world they were creating no one needed to be privy to or speculate about. Her love for him was genuine and didn’t need to be picked apart under a microscope. She wasn’t a project, despite popular belief.

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