Morgan sent the picture in a text with the caption … A perfect day. Her heart pulled inside her chest as she awaited his response.
MEEKIE
Are you okay?
MORGAN
Yes
MEEKIE
Can I come?
Morgan paused. Her fingers lingered, hovering over the screen. Oh, how she wanted to say yes. She wanted him to fly up the highway and be at her door within the hour, because she knew he would, but she couldn’t. What she had begun with him had been a mistake. They couldn’t possibly have a future together. Their past alone made it impossible. Morgan couldn’t ruin her entire family. She couldn’t count on him to be more than a fling. Bash had been consistent for two years. He had stood by her through the birth of babies that didn’t belong to him, claimed them, supported them. The only time he had slipped is when her loyalty began to, granted he hadn’t known at the time that she was falling for someone else, but perhaps, subconsciously, Morgan had treated him differently, so he had begun to feel disconnected from her twins. If I let things go back to normal everything will be fine. He would have never left them backstage if I hadn’t started this with Ahmeek. Maybe he felt me pulling away, so he pulled away from them too. I have to let this go. Meek will never stick around. He will never commit to a life with a woman with two kids that aren’t his. Bash is here and willing to stay. He’s who they know as their dad.
With tears running down her face she replied.
MORGAN
No
MEEKIE
Whenever you not okay, you know to hit my line, right?
MORGAN
I know
Morgan picked herself up from the floor and wiped her eyes. She blew out a weighted breath. Just the words in her phone. Just the reassurance of his texts chased the thoughts of giving up out of her head.
MORGAN
Thank you
MEEKIE
Every time, love
He knew exactly what she was thanking him for and Morgan smiled. She hoped he would text more. He didn’t. Morgan clicked out of the screen and she wondered if Ahmeek was that good of an actor or if he could really be different for her. It was so hard to trust that he wouldn’t hurt her and because of that she let the silence linger. She let it fester and it was the loudest thing she had ever heard.
5
Aria stood in the long line of students. Her face was knitted in irritation. There were so many graduates picking up their caps and gowns that the task would take forever. She was grateful for the musical distraction in her headphones. She was already putting the eight count together in her head. Her head was bowed, eyes focused on her phone as she typed in a count, so she would remember the moves for later. Aria didn’t have time to waste. There was an audition for background dancers on a big summer tour and she had to be there. There was no doubt she’d get the gig. There was never one that she tried out for that she didn’t land. Aria secured her bag effortlessly, spending hours in the studio, dancing her life away. She made sure she was the very best. The crème de la crème. College was just a way to get more technical experience under her belt. She had breezed through the school of dance at Michigan State, perfecting the art of her body, learning more about the rigidity and fluidity of movement. It helped her to compete to be both self-taught and professionally trained. Aria was a beast. Her phone rang, and Isa’s name popped up on her screen. She smiled, hating the way that just three letters next to each other … I-S-A made her insides liquefy. She had waited all day to hear from him. Every time he spoke the name he had given her, Aria’s heart skipped beats, but she played Isa real casually. It didn’t matter that they were engaged. He was the type of man you had to keep on his toes. There would be no growing bored on her watch. No matter how pressed she was, she’d never show him. He would never know it, but she was head over heels for him.
ISA
Nigga answer yo’ MF phone.
“Nope,” Aria said to herself. His name flashed on her phone again and she buttoned him again. She decided when he had access to her and despite what he seemed to believe, it wasn’t 24/7. She had a life outside of him, and he would have to learn how to respect that. She was still in the training stage with Isa.
“You must want me to bust yo’ ass, Ali,” Isa said.
Aria never saw him coming.
“Agh! Boy!” she shouted, taken by surprise as he scooped her, making her drop her phone as he pressed her back to the wall and lifting her dress so far up that her thong showed. “Isa!”
Aria tried to climb out of his arms, but he hoisted her higher, tossing her little ass so high that she straddled his face.
Aria had never been so embarrassed.
“Isa nooooo, Isaaaa stop!” she fussed as he slid her panties to the side and ran his tongue along her lips and gave her clit a sloppy kiss.
The other students in line gawked at them.
“Baby, you got me out here looking crazy,” she groaned as he kissed her inner thigh. “Put me down.” Aria couldn’t help but twirl on his tongue for the one time as she pleaded to be released.
“When I fucking call yo’ phone you pick up for me. Every time. You put whatever lame ass nigga that’s in your face shooting his shot on hold and you pick the fuck up,” he said. He bit her thigh.
“Ow, Isa!” Aria swung, knocking him upside his head so hard he dropped her.
“I’ma fuck yo’ little ass up,” he said. He grabbed her up, tossing her over his shoulder and planting a smack to her ass so hard that her skin burned.
She hollered in laughter as he spun her in a circle and walked away from the line.
“Wait! Isa! I been in this line for forty minutes! My phone!” she protested. He paused and turned to the group of students then walked to the beginning, still carrying her over his shoulder.
“Fuck yo’ phone. You probably got hoe niggas calling that bitch anyway,” Isa said as he sank his teeth into the skin of her thigh, biting just enough to pull a yelp out of her.
“Excuse me sir, there’s a line,” the advisor, who sat behind a desk at the front of the line, said.
Isa went into his pocket and pulled out a knot of hundred-dollar bills. He didn’t even care to count it. He tossed the entire thing on the desk. “Aria Taylor,” he said. “I need that cap and gown up out you.”
The advisor eyed the money and went to retrieve it.
“Now you gon’ ride with me for a minute?” he asked.
“I have an audition,” she said. “At three.”
“I’ll get you there,” he said. He placed her on her feet when they were at his car. All white, BMW. The car he barely drove because he was an adrenaline junkie and his bike suited him better. He removed his keys from his pocket and tossed them in the air. Aria caught them.
“I’m driving?”
“I can’t play in that pussy and drive at the same time, Ali. Nigga this ain’t Driving Miss Daisy. Hop yo’ pretty ass behind the wheel,” Isa said.
Aria stopped walking, frowning. “Who you think you talking to?” she asked. “I can just go about my day. You interrupted what I had going on.”
Isa blew out a breath of frustration. “Ali, I don’t want no smoke. Can you just not give a nigga a hard time and drive?”