Page 105 of One Good Reason

“That’ll work.”

Things got quiet in the room. I was trying to figure out when I wanted to break the news about the application to her. Surely, I wouldn’t do it before Monday, but I needed to bring it to her attention before she found out on her own.

“What made you buy a condo out here?” she asked, ending the silent thoughts in my head.

“I seldomly do business out this way. Got tired of living in hotels,” I half lied, half told the truth.

Adele lived in Miami. When I started moving weight for her, this was my first big purchase. She had a connect at the private air strip that allowed me to move in and out of the country under the radar when I first started transporting cocaine into the states.

The other reason was so I could be closer to her anytime I wanted to see her. When Dahlia came into the picture, my visits to Miami slowed up. I no longer had a need to be here majority of the time. It was also around that time where I found a better way of getting my shit to Atlanta. Instead of me being responsible forthe transport, Adele started having it chartered in on her father’s plane.

“What kind of business?”

“Stuff with my tech firm. For a minute there, I entertained the idea of opening a location up out here. Miami is thriving and ever since Cuba lifted their travel ban, it’s grown. For a minute, I wanted to be in the thick of things but the older I got, the more I realized I would much rather be settled.

Plus, at the time I had Dah and with her at the youth center full-time, I couldn’t fathom the thought of us being apart for an extended period of time.”

“For someone who wasn’t in love with her, you surely did change up a lot of things,” she casually remarked.

“I told you I had issues with abandonment. It didn’t start or end with my mother. Even if I refused to give her longevity, I gave her all of my available time.”

“And she still walked away?”

“What I had to offer wasn’t working for her anymore,” I responded flatly.

“What are we doing, Harvey?”

Sitting up, I gazed into her eyes. “In what context?”

Motioning with her hands she bleated, “Us. We both have issues, mine may be a little more prevalent than yours. But they do exist on both ends. We date behind closed doors.”

“At your insistence,” I retorted.

“I know. I don’t know what to refer to you as. And I don’t want to say the wrong things and scare you away.”

“I assure you, mothing you say or do will run me away from you, Talitha.”

“You say that now. But in the future, you never know, Lawton.”

“You’re questioning me about what we are… how about you answer that for yourself.”

“Law,” she groused. “Now is not the time to talk in riddles.”

“I’m not. Tell me what you want, Talitha.”

“You.”

“And you have me.”

“No Law,” she whined. “I want you. As in exclusively. I’m not ready to shout from the rooftop that we’re an item just yet, but I don’t want to continue sneaking around. If it comes out, it just does. That’s where I’m at with it.”

“Then that’s what it is. I’m yours and you’re mine. That means whatever you want it to mean.”

“Nobody else?” she asked, knowing good and fucking well I’d already told her I don’t have the time to entertain more than one woman.

If she needed me to say it again for reassurance, I would give her that. Hell, for months I’ve referred to her as my lady because I assumed she and I were on the same page. Because she had let her guard down so much, I had forgotten that Talitha needed to feel like she was in control of things.

With no other choice but to oblige I confirmed, “No one else, love. Just you and me rocking until you get tired of my ass.”

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