Page 64 of Are You Going to Love Me

Fatima nodded with a smile. “Okay, we can get to the tea right after you and MB agree to attend at least two more home games. Y’all were the most viewed part of the game. And you got to admit, you two are the IT factor right now.”

twenty-three

. . .

“Ay, turn that shit up, Rudy,”Maximus’ raspy voice rumbled into the mic. He sparked his blunt, took a deep inhale, and blew the smoke out before the lyrics flowed out of his mouth. “Don’t forget who that nigga is. Trigger finger itching. Nappy-headed nigga with a curse. Ain’t no third eye, ain’t no church. Just mobbin’ out, Midnight in the dead of night. Don’t want them 3Ways by your way.”

“Ah shit,” Rudy winced as Maximus walked out the booth and reclaimed his seat. “That’s twenty in two days. Fuck goin’ on?”

“Shorty left him in the middle of the night and is ignoring all his calls and texts,” Keon grumbled. “Them fresh out relationships be putting niggas through it. Look at him, sick.”

Maximus cut his eyes at Keon. “I should kick yo ass, nigga, tellin’ my business.”

“Considering your business is the business I manage, it was my fucking business to tell. And you ain’t doin’ shit. You ain’t slept in two days.”

Maximus groaned and swiped a hand down his face and gripped the hairs of his beard. Sleepless nights weren’t foreign to him. Up until Eden ghosted him, he’d had something to occupy his insomnia. If Eden was trying to test him, he was unraveling. There was a lot he could do. Take a bid, a body, and his respect. Doing forced time without her wasn’t something he could do.

“Fuck you,” Maximus blew out, making Keon respond with the bird.

“You trippin’ on me when you should’ve pulled up on her days ago. You better get your shit together. Big Paper Magazine got you on schedule for a photo shoot and interview tomorrow. We got the gang on notice, security hired. Female lead for it booked.”

Maximus curled his lip up.

“Oh, he is gone,” Rudy joked.

“Ain’t even sniffed the pussy yet and he sitting in here curling his lip up at me like I told him Priya was going to be the lead.”

“The way he looked at you, you would have thought that you told him you were going to slap his momma with a bag of nickels,” Rudy added.

“Like I kicked his fuckin’ dog or some shit. He sleepy, don’t mind him.”

“Both you niggas need to leave me the fuck alone,” Maximus grumbled, texting Eden again.

Keon was right, and Maximus hated it. No taste, no whiff, not even a peek and Eden had him spiraling. If he were like this now, the moment they crossed that line, he would be coming off his cool every time the opportunity presented itself.

Maximus: You wanted the stalker, aight

That was the last text he was willing to send without action. Crazy? Irrefutable. Necessary for Eden to get it through her head that there was no longer a space in time that existed with him without her. It was like the moment he saw her on the prison-issued tablet, she had him hooked.

“Let’s run this shit back. I gotta have shit to the label in a month,” Maximus stated standing back to his feet and heading back in the booth. “Rudy, give me some smooth shit.”

After two days locked in the studio, no sleep and surviving on take-out and an Eden-shaped void, Maximus was pushing his truck toward the corner of Prince Avenue and 36thStreet. His hair was undone, his afro big, free, and floppy, his half-tattooed torso on display, blunt hanging out the corner of his mouth, and double-parked in the middle of the street. In true Trae Way fashion, he swaggered across the street to the awaiting representatives of Big Paper Magazine.

Maximus scanned the area and spotted two wardrobe trailers. Turning his body to Keon, who was two steps behind him. “Whoever they hired, send them home.”

“You su-”

“Send them home, we doing this shit solo,” he responded, the lack of sleep turning his otherwise cool demeanor into sharp and on edge.

“You not even going to see who this-”

“Send her the fuck home,” Maximus stated again and for the final time as he approached the group.

Keon palmed the top of his head and started over to the wardrobe trailer, where Eden was prepping for first looks. Had Maximus checked her social media this morning, he would’ve seen the street sign she posted over an hour ago.

Per the schedule, Maximus was set to interview first. With the pleasantries out of the way, he sat in the chair set up underneath the tent at the corner of Prince Avenue and 36thStreet. The interviewer, Miranda Smart, of Big Paper magazine, sat across from him with a flirtatious smile plastered on her face. For a second, Maximus scolded himself for being this gone off of a woman who could ghost him on a whim when there were so many willing to throw themselves at him. A weaker man would’ve hit all of them while waiting for Eden to come around. He wasn’t that man, regardless of his street credibility and budding superstar status. Why run the streets with fifty when he had the one?

“Trae Way MB, it's so nice to finally sit down with you and talk about your humble beginnings. Coming from Trae Way to the rapper to watch is big.”

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