Page 122 of Are You Going to Love Me

He swayed his head. “Everything is cool right now.”

“Is there going to be a point where everything isn’t cool?” she quizzed. “You’d tell me right?”

“If I felt like shit was about to get sticky, I’d send you away until it was settled. Everything is cool right now. I don’t know what’s in Ocean City waiting on me, so I’d rather be moving with twelve niggas than one.”

Eden stared at him, detecting some untruths in the tone of his voice, but pressing him right now wouldn’t yield either of them anything but attitudes and tensions on a weekend that was supposed to be full of good energy. She put a pin in it, choosing to revisit it when they got back home.

“Okay.”

“E,” Maximus spoke, making her turn to face him full on. “You’re good. I'm good. Don’t worry about that shit this weekend.”

“You make it sound so easy when I can feel you. But I’m not pressing you about it. Let me just put this on the table. If you’re lying to me, you’ll be in here by yourself.”

He grunted. “Threatening to leave me when something don’t settle right with you ain’t how we finna move, baby.”

“You’re right. Being untruthful or telling me half-truths when I feel something is off isn’t how we’re going to move either. Let’s go before we hold up everyone.”

Maximus watched how she aligned her suitcases and started toward the stairs. “That attitude gon’ have us late for real because I’m going to fuck it out you.”

“You won’t because I’m not going to let you,” she sassed, switching out of the room only for him to catch her by the waist and pry her hands from the suitcases. “I got it.”

“You can be irritated as you want, you ain’t taking the suitcases down the stairs. Go ‘head with that.”

Eden rolled her eyes and sashayed away from him and down the stairs. She didn’t say much from the house to the airport. The team was loaded up on the JoyCloud jet and ready to conquer Ocean City. Maximus, Keon, and Brody were toward the front of the jet, going over the plan one last time before touching down.

Staysha found herself settled by her sister, holding her hand out for Eden to take. “What’s wrong with you?”

Eden shrugged, taking Staysha’s hand. “Everything and nothing. You ever felt like a nigga was lying to you? I mean, looked you in your face and lied?”

Staysha groaned. “He wouldn’t lie to you.”

Eden raised her brows and pressed her lips together. “But he did. Why do we need all this security? Why is everything so fuckin’ secretive? Going in other rooms to answer the phone. Talkin’ low and shit. He did that with his brother, I stayed out of it, but this is different. This feels...like it’s going to wreck our world, Stay.”

Staysha squeezed her hand. “I think if the man told you everything is alright, then there isn’t anything to worry about. When we need to worry, we will. Until then, we kick back and relax.”

“Mmm,” Eden grunted. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“Contrary to what you think, they don’t tell me everything. Enough of that,” Staysha commented. “What’s happening with this glow?”

“Recovery for a cold, I guess. Did Heavenly Linen reach out to you with the contract?”

“They did and you did that shit. And you were worried about not being able to do things without me.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, it’s scary as hell jumping off the porch. But it feels good to direct my future without someone hating in the background. Filming starts in a couple of months, so things are about to pick up.”

“The first of many. TV roles are great, but I can’t wait to see your silver screen debut. As the main character, not the walk-on character that people overinflate. That’s going to be some amazing shit. That girl from Trae Way is taking everything that belongs to her. Let Mama eat her words and let those bitches you left in the club choke, too. Her sister, too,” Staysha said.

“You know, I was thinking about how everything has played out since the last time we saw her, and I’m forever okay with never seeing her again. Like if I see her on the street, I’ll walk past her like she’s dust.”

“I hear you. She is essentially. I would talk to her just so she could see that she didn’t win.”

“And that’s where we differ. You want people to watch you win, while I want them to lose their sight when it comes to me and anything I have going on. Her and her sister can both go to hell,” Eden huffed. “Anyway, tell me what’s happening with you. I’m over talking about them. They don’t deserve the attention.”

“I’m fine. Keon is launching a management company. Brody has twelve new bodies to manage, and he has no idea how to do it. Maximus is a handful. When were you going to tell me that he beat Pusha Peezy’s ass and then took his studio?”

“I wasn’t,” Eden said with a smirk. “I didn’t see anything.”

Staysha giggled, allowing herself to sink further into Eden’s side. “True Trae Way shit. Like that time Poppi beat them niggas in broad day and when the police came by to question us we just looked at them and blinked like we were mute.”

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