Page 106 of Love me Like XO

“I hope not. I’m barely making it as it is.”

She had pure amusement in her eyes as the laughter spilled from her eyes. “I’m kind of tired of being so far away.”

“What are you saying, Ash?”

“I’m saying, I’ve been looking for a job that way. I think the kids and I are going to return to Chicago.”

I stared at her for a moment in attempt to gauge where her head was. Asha didn’t say things unless she was absolutely sure. She was an overthinker, shit cautions if anything.

“There is nothing left for me here. People who aren’t my family and a man who slept with my sister.”

“What man? The fuck you talking about, Asha?”

“My husband slept with my sister. Of course he didn’t intend to tell me, except Amia needs money to get out of town and called his stupid ass. Blackmail, the only thing is she didn’t expect for him to confess.” She looked like she wanted to cry, but she held that shit in well. She knew I’d be on the first thing smoking out there.

This was so fucked up, and nothing in me knew what to say to her. As a matter of fact I knew what to say, but it would all come out like, “You want me to kill him or see ‘bout him?” Nothing I’d say would lessen her pain, because she’d spare him every time, She didn’t have the heart to let me put my hands on him, and so what if he was my nieces father. He was foul.

“I really thought I met my person, you know?” My sister wasn’t her normal self right now and I didn’t like that.

“You gonna have plenty of time to find your person because that nigga wasn’t him. However, you can and will have the time to run across that person. Come on home, baby girl.”

She smiled. “You always make things feel so minimal when I overthink them.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

Chapter 19

1+1

REE

His lips on my chest was forever how I wanted to exist. Loved and in his embrace while he told me how much he wanted to give me the world.What world? This one. The one we walk every day.I can’t believe I went this long without the love he gave, the feeling his hands against my flesh gave. Malik gave me an intimacy that I didn’t know existed, the type that kept my ass suspended no matter how much my past trauma tried to ground me.

“When all of this is over I wanna wake up on a different continent.” Then he pecked my chest again.

“Meaning you wanna take a vacation.”

“We need one, right?” those words were accompanied by a kiss between each word.

“I guess I could take one. Only wear skimpy bathing suits for about a week, huh?”

“Or nothing at fucking all. Let a nigga’s eyes be gifted with the gift of no clothes on my favorite thing of all.”

I laughed at his stupid corny ass because if no one else knew, I knew how serious he was. “Malik!”

“What?”

“You know what. Don’t you have somewhere to be while you’re holding me hostage in this damn bed?”

“I do, but this body baby. It’s sick and I need my fill of it. I need my fill of you.”

“Let you tell it you can’t get enough.”

“I’m with you when you right. I swear I can’t wait for everything to slow down. So I can get into a groove. Grind some and d?—”

“Open your shop. Home in on your craft and make your girlfriend proud.”

He chuckled. “On some real shit I get uneasy ‘bout that type of shit. The legit side of dealing with the public.”

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