Page 92 of Love me Like XO

“Nope. I’m scared.”

Laughter spilled from his lips. “Don’t be. I got you.”

“Then what?“

And there was that smirk. The one that told me that I was gonna regret asking him what he needed from me. It grew when he noticed the look on my face.

“My Junior.”

I exhaled loudly before pushing my face into my hands. “How does a baby add to your business, Malik?”

“It does. Adds to a lot. You know like what I come home to. My support system. My bu?—”

I had the youlyin’face already peering. Lips twisted and my arms folded across my chest. This nigga wasn’t finna let this baby talk die. Like what the hell was it with hood niggas andbabies? Like umm what? They wanted a bitch pregnant three weeks into the relationship. That’s why it was so many single mothers and hood niggas in Burberry button-ups. No wonder dollar tree never had no damn balloons. “Now Malik.”

“I want what I want, Ree. That, you, and everything it entails. You want me to do the legit thing, and I want everything. What you scared of?” he asked using his hand to lift my face so that I was looking at him.

“Shit, everything. You seen my sister? My father who got what five baby mama’s that we know of and my mama who regrets my entire fucking existence.”

He looked at me for a while, likely thinking about what he would say before he said it. “This between me and you ain’t just some spark that’ll turn on and off. This ain’t yo’ parents shit because you ain’t all I see. This is me, you and our story that’ll fuck around and outlive us. Ain’t no ending for us, it’s only a million beginnings.”

I couldn’t hold back the smile that trespassed onto my features because one thing this nigga had, was a way with his words. A way to make it all sound so good, and my goofy in love ass to agree.

“Then if we need to you could for sure accompany a nigga to the courthouse and we get all the logistics done. I tol’ you what was up with us in the beginning and I meant that shit. So you tell me when you want my last name, because on my life it’s yours.”

I leaned forward and pecked his lips. “Fine, Malik. But you can’t be out here with everything going on and stressing me out. Get your streets shit in order because I heard what that bitch said to my sister.”

“Bet.”

MALIK

It was odd as fuck not sleeping in my bed last night, but Ree was serious about her sister and I couldn’t do nothing but respect that. Too bad I couldn’t get nothing cracking before Zero and I left, because I surly wanted to. The thing is I had too much on my mental and this situation has been dangling in the wind for too long. It was time to get what we needed and handle the problems. So in the spirit of that me and my boy cut out early this morning, headed to the spot. I had a feeling that after lulling over it for a while old boy would flip on whomever his brother was. If not Gram had also come across his phone. If he didn’t flip we’d still find out who bro was. It was completely inevitable and he wasn’t good at his job. Had he been good at his job I would’ve been delivering fucked up news to Empress last night.

“Look, I know you wanna get this shit handled. Shit you need to get it handled, but we can’t be taking unnecessary risks. Last night was a risk we didn’t have to take. Had that nigga been a pro, you wou?—”

He nodded, “I know. I put you in a fucked-up position.”

“Won’t be the last time, but let’s keep this shit to a minimum. I can’t be around he fucking up my nerves.” Nervous laughter escaped my lips following that statement.

“Bet.”

When we pulled up to the spot, Gram was standing outside with his phone to his ear with a tense expression.

I approached him first. “What’s the problem.”

“No problem at all. Old boy wouldn’t talk, but his phone did. Few hours ago he got a message and an address. Nigga named Rik told him to meet him there once he was done. Then when he didn’t get a response, he asked him if he was good. To keep itcool I responded. Nothing major, but the location is a bar a few minutes outside of the city.”

“Then what the fuck we standing here for?” Zero’s impatient ass asked from behind.

I needed to keep my eyes on this nigga, because he was on that not thinking energy. I was used to that being me, but my boy had other plans. Shit, if he had plans at all.

“Gotta practice some fucking finesses.” I cut my eyes in his direction.

He chuckled but didn’t disagree. Bro ass knew he’d been the loose cannon these days. Somehow we swapped roles and I wasn’t feeling that shit at all. It required too much thinking.

For a while we conversed back and forth until the decision were made. We were going to that fucking bar and meeting whomever this nigga’s brother was.

What should’ve been an hour and something ride was chopped into forty-five minutes, because we had a certain time to be there. Plus Zero’s heavy foot ass had become comfortable on the gas while I gripped the seatbelt fearing for my fucking life.

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