Page 36 of Are You Going to Love Me

“You good?”Staysha asked from where she had perched herself on the vanity counter minutes ago. She studied how her sister cleansed her face, moisturized, and attempted to tame her mane. Nerves. Eden had always appeared confident even when the weight of life was so damn heavy. Staysha always admired that – how Eden carried such heaviness with such grace.

“Yeah,” Eden muttered, as she began detangling her curls, something she should’ve done last night while she was poring over her eight pages of lines. “Why?”

“You seem...antsy,” Staysha pointed as she motioned her over. “They said, wear your natural hair?”

“It’s going to be the easiest thing,” Eden said, moving closer to her sister. “The character has this big curly hair. I can make it like that if I can detangle and diffuse it.”

“Alright, so why the nerves. Like you haven’t been in front of a camera before.”

Eden sighed and bit her tongue. She’d been trying to eliminate the negative self-talk from escaping her lips since learning she got the role. However, it was just as poisonous if she let it fester inside.

“What was it Poppi used to say? Them quiet thoughts will kill you, say that shit and be done with it?” Staysha attempted, recalling their late grandmother’s words.

Eden smirked and then tears pricked her eyes. “That was it, word for word. You know, it’s days like today I miss her the most. When I’m feeling like I'm not enough or that maybe allowing myself to be sold this dream wasn’t the right thing.”

“As opposed to what? Still tricking and trapping in Trae Way? I don’t know about you, but you believing that dream changed my life. I know everything sucks right now but today might just be the realization that you are really that girl. Been that girl,” Staysha spoke as she tended to the right side of Eden’s hair. “I’ll be there with you.”

Eden released a sigh of relief.

“Don’t get too hyped. Keon asked me to come on full-time on MB’s team,” Staysha announced.

Eden stopped brushing her hair to look at Staysha in the mirror. “What does that mean?”

“That means that you’re going to have to be okay walking into rooms by yourself and trusting that you’re in the right place. Who knows, maybe a few years from now, you’ll have your own company.”

Eden smirked, recalling the deal Mama made with her. “Make something out of yourself and your sister.”

“What scares me is being without you, but I know you can’t be tied to my hip forever.”

“No, I can’t. The only thing is don’t go getting no new bitches that’ll use you as a scapegoat when shit hits the fan.”

Eden chuckled bitterly and started to finish her hair again. “You’re the only bitch I need to give and soothe the headache.”

“As long as you know.”

“Yeah, that you’ll get us into trouble?”

“Good trouble because we always have fun, don’t we?”

Eden offered Staysha a blank expression. “Can’t recall.”

“You’re right, I got us into some bullshit. Like when I was trying to finesse that undercover detective, and you had to spin around a pole.”

“I will forever be the worst stripper in history because I wasn’t stripping and I damn sure wasn’t letting them niggas touch me,” Eden laughed. “I literally shook some ass and walked around the pole.”

“Thank God that lying ass Natavia popped up when she did because we would have been broke.”

“More than we already were?” Eden asked in laughter. “Girl, we were broke as hell. Considering our grandmother was a queenpin who died with nothing to her name. Which is whywhatever you got planned has to work, I cannot go back to Trae Way as a resident. And I can’t spite Poppi like that. She wanted so much more for us.”

“Trust me. You had me, now I got you.”

Back in Trae Way, back at Midnight, back in the belly of the beast. Eden didn’t at all feel like this was the homecoming worth celebrating. Standing on the stage, looking at the pole and the camera crew set up, was a stark reminder that if none of this worked, this is where she would end up, again. The thought made her stomach lurch. Being one of the girls throwing up in the bathroom wasn’t how she wanted to start this day.

Eden took about four steps back before she was back to front with a warm being.

“Oh shit,” she hissed, jumping at the contact and out of the hold. As she spun around, she was face to chest with Maximus. “Trae-MB-Max- I... Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

Somehow, he still had a hold on her. His large hands barely holding her elbows. A slack smirk crossed his face, easing the fear grappling at her stomach. “Max is cool. You good?”

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