—
I went into the office for a few hours and handled what needed to be handled. Bail review at the second location, a filing issue one of my Houston managers had flagged. I stayed focused because the work always got done. That was non negotiable. I had built everything I had from nothing and I wasn’t about to let my personal mess bleed into my business.
I handled everything that required my attention, but by early afternoon I was done. Tired behind my eyes in a way that sleep was the only answer for.
Last night I had got too wild and my energy was now depleted. Brendon wasn’t going to be home for hours so I packed up and headed out. I was going to make it home way before him and that way I would be back to my normal self by the time he arrived. I needed this alone time to clear my mind and try to get Grizzley’s ass off of it.
I pulled into the driveway and the florist van at the curb didn’t register at first. I thought maybe they were at the wrong house,but looking for the correct address. Then I saw the arrangement in the delivery driver hands, and I slowed all the way down.
Black roses. A lot of them. The delivery lady was standing there struggling with the whole thing, waiting on somebody to come claim them.
I got out. She confirmed my name and transferred the whole arrangement into my arms and handed me the card. I was still standing in my driveway when I opened it.
I read it once.
Read it again.
Black roses to symbolize the end of your engagement. Consider it over. Your life with me starts now. I’ll see you soon. -Your Bear.
The whole arrangement hit my driveway concrete before I registered that I had dropped it. Roses scattered everywhere around my feet and I just stood there looking down at them.
Two things hit me at the exact same time and neither one of them made sense next to the other.
The first was straight fear. He knew where I lived. Knew about Brendon. Knew my address without me giving him a single thing to work with. I had powered my phone down and handed it to him myself, stole my phone back out of his pockets, slipped out before the sun came up, left nothing behind but a note and no number. And this man had still found me at my home before I even made it through a full workday.
The second thing I wasn’t ready to name yet. But it was there. Sitting right underneath the fear, warm and stubborn, not going anywhere no matter how hard I tried to push it down.
He had called himself Bear. I had given him that name when we were twelve years old and I hadn’t thought about it in years,or at least I had told myself I hadn’t. Seeing it written in ink on a florist card in my own driveway broke something loose in my chest that I needed to stay exactly where it was. I was only supposed to love the man that I promised to marry.
I picked the flowers up and got in the house fast.
Stood in my kitchen and looked at them.
Then I took every single stem outside to the trash bin at the side of the house and buried them at the bottom where they wouldn’t be visible. Came back in, tore the card into pieces small enough to be nothing, threw those away too.
Washed my hands. Stood at the sink.
Now this crazy ass nigga knew where I slept. Knew I had a man. Had sent five dozen black roses to my house in broad daylight like he was making a point and didn’t care who heard it.
I turned the water off and stood in the quiet of my kitchen and tried to convince myself that what I was feeling was just fear.
But I grew up in the hood. I knew the difference between a nigga who talked and a nigga who moved. I had seen both my whole life and I had never once confused them.
Griz wasn’t just talking.
And the most messed up part of all of it, the part I couldn’t logic my way out of it, no matter how long I stood at that sink. Underneath all the fear and the shock and the very real understanding that this man had just reached his hand directly into my life without asking—
A part of me wasn’t mad about it.
And that part scared me more than any of the rest of it combined. Now, I was curious to see what he would pull next, and all this did was turn me on even more. Griz.. my Griz.
As scared as I was of his next move, I was also anxious to see what he’d pull next. This shit was risky, and dangerous. Hell, even toxic. But for some reason, I liked this shit. What woman didn’t want a man to show her that he wasn’t going to play about her? My only dilemma was that I belonged to someone else.
Marco pulled up to my car and put his in park without saying anything for a second. We’d dropped off the others, now it was time for me to make my brother face the music. I’d Marco to take me to my car and let me handle my brother from there. He knew a little bit of our relationship, but not too much. I never fully told all of my family business.
Then he looked at me from the driver seat and I already knew what was coming.
“You sure you don’t want me to ride with you?” he asked.
