Page 91 of Are You Going to Love Me

“Bitches that run in these circles can be delusional,” Staysha huffed, making Eden snap her head.

“Can be? Let’s try,are.”

“How’s that going for you?” Fatima asked Eden.

Eden shrugged and took a sip of her drink. “I’ve booked two shows, and Staysha is finding me brands that let me have creative control.”

“I would’ve sued the shit out of them niggas,” Fatima huffed. “Especially Rico. His ass is coked up half the time, paying cheerleaders and staff to piss for him.”

“What’s new?” Staysha grumbled. “Both of them will get what’s coming to them. We do not fuck with karma.”

“Don’t and won’t. I feel like my character will speak for itself. There hasn’t been a thing I haven’t shared if I was asked.Stripper, fatherless, robbed niggas, motherless, and raised by the Queen of Trae Way. Shit, what’s in these drinks?” Eden huffed, looking down at her glass of rose-tinted gin, edible gold flakes, the dried orange slice, and rosemary sprig serving as garnish.

“Bitch, we’ve been drinking since earlier, you are drunk,” Staysha stated with laughter as if she wasn’t.

Fatima laughed. “Let me get on your level.”

Barely undressed from her day with Staysha, Eden sat on the veranda staring at the screen as Maximus dressed.

“How drunk are you?” he questioned.

“Very drunk. A lot of drunk, and it’s all Staysha’s fault. I have a question. You bought furniture and no window treatments?”

“What the hell are window treatments?”

“Blinds, curtains, things to make this big ass house feel like home.”

“Home? You trying to make it home.”

“Yeah, I mean for you. It’s your home,” Eden replied.

He smirked. “Heard you. You want to go shopping in those overpriced furniture stores for window treatments when I get back?”

Eden shrugged. “I don’t mind.”

“Aight. Finish telling me about your day,” Maximus spoke, wanting to hear her voice until she passed out. “Stay there?”

“Yeah, she’s knocked out in the guest room,” Eden answered. “Spa and a cooking class. I can probably successfully make Alfredo now. I heard that’s like a tier-two meal.”

“Ah shit, give you a year you’ll be making mac and cheese.”

They shared a laugh before Eden quipped. “Relax, that’s too much pressure.”

“Pressure makes diamonds, baby. Gotta keep growing and shining. I want to know how you got this lit?”

“We went to Uptown Sips, and I don’t know what Fatima puts in that shit, but everything is spinning.”

“Go get in the bed.”

Eden groaned as she untucked herself and trekked back inside, picking up the teddy bear in the process. In the California king bed, on his side, she looked at the camera. “Did you know Fatima and Rudy are in some type of open relationship?

Maximus scoffed. “He told me that bullshit one time. I ain’t with it. That shit always backfires. That nigga is going to be sick when she out with another nigga.”

“So let me ask you this. Am I supposed to possess you or experience you? Like am I just supposed to let you have your way.”

“Eden, you and I both know you ain’t going for that. I prefer both, heard me? I look at it like this: if I’m yours, I’m yours. I ain’t trying to fuck with your head or body in a way that’s going to cause you harm. I expect that same respect. It’s respect. The respect you hold for yourself and whoever you fucking with. If I don’t respect you, I'm not fuckin’ with you on no type of level. Heard me? Respect is a necessary foundation. At the end of the day, regardless of what happens, it stays.”

“I hear you,” Eden softly commented. Maximus’s words soothed her anxiety.

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