Page 156 of Are You Going to Love Me

Maximus motioned her back closer. “Tell me why not. Wouldn’t have anything to do with doubt, would it?”

Eden nipped her lip. “Is that really important right now, especially with everything we have going on?”

“Everything you got going on is important, E. From growing my seed to your career. If you good, I’m good.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “I think right now – after everything – I’m doubting what I bring to the table. Even though I know I am the table and all of that. The storm disturbed some things I let lie dormant for a long time. It turned over a lot of stones, and now I really got to step out there.”

“I hate to state the obvious, E. You been stepping out there. You been operating off of nothing but faith, and look how far you’ve made it. It’s time to jump out the window and land on your feet.”

fifty-one

. . .

“Ouch, E,”Brody hissed, as Eden zeroed in on his cheek. “You don’t have to be so damn rough. Damn. Talk so soft to be so damn strong.”

“I’m not being rough. You're being a little bitch,” Eden grumbled. “I don’t understand how you two are known gang members who have been shot and don’t take care of your damn wounds. Do you want this to get infected, Bransheer?”

Brody smirked boyishly. “I knew you liked me.”

“Don’t get your ass knocked out, nigga, with all that skinnin’ and grinnin’ and shit. And don’t be calling that nigga Bransheer,” Maximus corrected, entering the kitchen where Eden hovered over Brody’s face.

“Boy, shut up. I can’t have the head of security walking around with an ate up face,” Eden grumbled, placing a clean bandage on his face. “You won’t be gettin’ no sympathy pussy from these hoes running around looking like two face.”

“Damn,” Brody grumbled with a laugh. “You could at least go along with it. Give that nigga some heart palpations or something.”

“No, thank you, I sleep with him, and I don’t think I can handle him being mad at me so you’re on your own.”

“Here I was thinking you had him wrapped around your finger. You whipped up too.” Brody shook his head, thanked Eden, and looked at Maximus. “You ready, MB?”

“Yeah.”

“Where we going?” Eden asked, slipping her shoes on. “BGCs?”

Maximus cut his eyes over to Brody. “So all she had to do was bat her eyelashes at you, and you told her everything? And got the nerve to say some shit that I’m whipped. Nigga, you are too. Everyone but Keon following her directions.”

“Actually, Keon listens, too, but I won’t blow his spot up,” Eden spoke with a shoulder bounce. Maximus observed hershield. That guard she put up and had up when he first encountered her. The one used to protect her from any further trauma. She’d had it up since the shootout at Big Rod’s.

Brody continued. “Like you don’t? I'm not lying to her. Plus, if I get her order wrong from Big Rod’s, she’s going down there anyway. She might as well come with us. At least this way, she got two guns with her.”

“I ain’t strapped,” Maximus shared. The statement was loaded. Both Eden and Brody picked up what he was alluding to. Turning to Eden, he asked, “You sure you want to go back down there?”

Eden grabbed her bag and shrugged. “I can let trauma keep me in this house, or I can jump out the window, as you put it.”

Maximus nodded. There was something to be said about the way they pushed and encouraged each other, even when everything said they shouldn’t. They bounced back, they loved, they pushed toward the bigger picture. With Eden by his side, even the impossible was within reach.

“You gon’ listen?” Maximus prompted.

“Yes, I’m going to listen,” Eden huffed, rolling her eyes. “Can we go? I’m on a Staysha-assigned mission.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Maximus questioned as Eden switched past him.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Eden replied. “Can we not bleed all over my seats this time?”

“She got jokes,” Brody muttered, walking past Maximus. “You better put a baby in her or something. Put her ass up before some nigga tries taking her from you.”

Maximus tapped his hand on Brody’s chest. “For that reason, you keeping both eyes on her.”

“Wait...nigga,” Brody cheered, sharing their signature handshake. “Congratulations.”

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