Page 85 of Are You Going to Love Me

“You can.”

“This wouldn’t be if she didn’t fuck up. Think about it, if she were at home waiting on you, would you have sat down for four years and gotten your head right?”

“Probably not, if we’re being real. I probably would’ve died in the streets. Alone. You tellin’ me there’s a blessing in the setback?”

“Yeah, while trying to make myself believe it, too.” Eden huffed, cutting into the French toast. “But I did get some good news yesterday.”

“What’s that? Tell me.”

“I got a regular acting role, no audition.”

“Hell nah, why you ain’t lead with that yesterday?” Maximus asked, excitement for her exuding from him.

Eden shrugged shyly. “I didn’t want to mention it and have it snatched away from me, I guess. I had so many deals on the table and in the snap of a lie, they were all gone. Thank God Poppi taught me how to stack for a rainy day because I’d be screwed right now.”

“You know when I see that nigga again I’m laying his ass out,” Maximus gritted.

“I know.”

“Good. But on some real shit, you deserve all the good shit coming your way. Because you’re good, E. Your heart is pure and that’s some rare shit.” He hooked her chin and kissed her lips. “Eat. You’re going to need to build your strength back up.”

Eden took a bite, and her shoulders sank. “What am I supposed to do when you go off on shows and tours? Whose supposed to feed me like this?”

“Depending on your schedule, I'm trying to have you right there with me.”

“Compared to being away from me and tracking my every move?”

“I ain’t that damn crazy, but you got Joy360?” he questioned.

They both fell into laughter. They ate, cleaned up, and ended up on the living room couch, tangled in one another.

“You know what you haven’t done?” Eden softly spoke, her hand on the leg he had stretched over her lap.

“What?”

“All this music you’ve been working on, I haven’t gotten one file in the middle of the night.”

“Oh, you trying to hear something?”

“I’m always trying to hear something. I’m kind of a fan.”

“Heard you.”

He picked up his phone and scrolled through a few tracks before hitting one so it could play through the space.

“Walk it how you walk it, baby. Talk it how you talk it, baby. Movin’ like an OG raised you, baby. Gave you game and you ain’t forget it, baby. Trae Way bitch with a Trae Way switch. Runnin’ through 30thin some fly ass drip. Said she shy but got a nigga in a vice ass grip. Must be Poppi’s girl. Got me set trippin’ like this.”

Eden listened to the words before looking at him like she could suck him off the bone. “I’m not trying to be arrogant or anything. But did you write a song about me?”

Maximus didn’t say anything. Only smirked.

“Max,” Eden gushed, still listening.

“Running niggas like Poppi taught her, bouncing back like Poppi daughter. Big light on her. The type to have niggas hustlin’ for her. Walk it how you walk it, baby. Talk it like you talk it, baby. Pushin’ like Poppi taught you, baby. Hood hooked on your product, baby.”

She knocked his leg off of her lap so she could crawl into his lap. Peppering his face with kisses.

“You like it?”

---