Page 19 of Rose
“How many clients you got today?”
“Three by appointment,” she answered, voice calm, steady. “But I’m staying until close. Might be a few walk-ins too.”
She tossed the bleach wipe in the trash, drying the surface like this was any other day.
“It’s not a day you should be here, Zii.” His voice dropped, gentle but firm. “Not today.”
She didn’t even flinch. Didn’t argue, didn’t snap.
She knew he was worried. He always was. But sitting at home would crush her.
“I’m good, Maz.”
The lie rolled off her tongue smooth as breath.
He didn’t push, just sat there watching her like he always did, feeling everything she tried to hide.
“Did you go see them?”
She nodded, pulling out a blunt and sparking it with a quiet inhale.
The weed dulled the ache, kept the tears buried deep, numbed the hollow space inside her chest. She kept herself together—clean, sharp, put-together—so no one could see how much she was still breaking.
“Yeah... I broke down.” Her voice cracked a little, but she pushed through it. “I just feel guilty for the shit.”
If there was one person she could be honest with, it was him. Her twin. Her reflection. He felt what she felt. Maybe it was a twin thing, maybe it was just them, but they were connected on a level no one else understood.
She couldn’t fake it with him.
“You gotta stop blaming yourself, Shug.” His voice was low but steady. “Them niggas tried to rob y’all. That didn’t have shit to do with you.”
She inhaled deep, letting the smoke fill her lungs before blowing it out slow, watching it curl in the air like a ghost she couldn’t chase away.
The guilt had lived with her since that night.
She knew it wasn’t her fault. But knowing didn’t change how itfelt.
She didn’t respond. Just passed the blunt to A’Mazi, the silence between them saying what words couldn’t.
“Ma called. Tried calling you first but figured you were at the gravesite,” A’Mazi said, his voice calm but watching her closely.
Ahzii nodded, already knowing. “I’ll call her back later.”
Bianca meant well, but today, Ahzii didn’t have the strength for the kind of love that made herfeel. Her mother would pull every buried emotion to the surface, and right now, all she wanted was silence.
Another knock broke the quiet as Kyre stepped in, still in her sharp courtroom attire, her heels clicking softly against the floor. After the gravesite, she had rushed straight to court for a case, but here she was, still showing up.
She crossed the room and hugged Ahzii tight before A’Mazi caught her attention. Without missing a beat, she walked over and kissed him softly, a couple of times, before settling beside him on the couch.
A year later, and they finally got it right.
It took damn near pulling teeth—and Ahzii cussing them both out while half-drugged in a hospital bed after surgery—for them to stop dancing around each other. Now, they were in love. Really in love. And Ahzii loved that for them.
Her love story might’ve died in the flames, but it made her heart a little lighter knowing her best friend and her twin finally found the kind of happiness she once had.
“Failed, huh?” Kyre teased, glancing at A’Mazi.
“Hell yeah. You know her ass stubborn, Sweet,” he replied, chuckling as Ahzii shot them both a look.
