I looked over at her and shook my head. “I need more.”
“You need more what?”
“Time with you. That’s the only reason I be fuckin up. You think I would be in business this long if this was the way I operated with everybody? Fuck no.” I moved up a little, getting closer to the desk. “Let me take you out.”
She went quiet for a moment, rubbing her lips together. Then that hand went to the back of her neck. She stared off into the distance for a second before finally giving me her attention again. With a deep breath she shook her head. “Crescent.”
“What? Tell me you don’t want more.”
Mahogany looked away at her laptop screen and then back up at me. “Can we just focus on work? I have vendors waiting for finalizations and?—
“I hear you,” I uncomfortably said before nodding. “We can focus on work. My bad.”
A niggas ego was a little bruised. I couldn’t lie. I said I wouldn’t chase her ass and I meant it. I mean, I tried to mean it. Mahogany made it hard for me. The constant confusion, the staring off, thinking too much and shit was starting to really get to a nigga. Why though? I knew my position. I was on the outside. She had a whole ass husband. Didn’t matter that they were going through what they were going through. Didn’t matter that he’d caught me fucking her. She was married, still, with that one foot planted.
Fuck was I even doing though? This wasn’t me. I didn’t operate like this. Fuck had she done to me? It was something in the air every time we were in the same room. A longing. A deep desire. My heart raced every single time we were together. I couldn’t help but want more. She felt the same way. I could senseit. The way I felt… it wasn’t just one sided. Mahogany was just… she was making it hard for a nigga.
I clenched down on my teeth and grabbed my phone from my pocket to check the email so we could get to work.
An hourand a half passed before we were done. The rest of our meeting was spent with me all in, listening. I was in a mood. I wasn’t a fan of rejection. Not at all. Especially not when it came from her. Fuck did I expect though, right?
She grabbed her things, put her laptop in its bag and I led her out of the office. She had to know I was in a fucked up mood after she shut me down because she hadn’t said anything outside of business-related stuff since then. I needed to chill but could you blame me? I asked to take her out and she brushed over it like it was nothing.
When we made it to the front door, she lingered a little. Pulled her lips into her mouth and looked off before finally looking back at me. She wanted to say something. That beautiful, confused mind of hers was swimming with thoughts. Any time we were together I wished I could read her mind. She was so got damn complicated it didn’t make any sense.
“Umm,” she hummed.
“Wassup, Mo?”
She scratched her head. “We haven’t talked about what happened.”
“What we need to talk about it for?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “What happened, happened. Dawg walked in on us, we scrapped and that was it. What more needs to be said?”
She frowned. “A lotneedsto be said.”
“For what? Will it change the situation?”
“No,” she paused. “But it’ll helpexplainthis one.”
“What you mean?”
“My husband caught me cheating on him.”
I snorted. “The husband you’re unhappy with?”
“It don’t matter if I’m happy or not, Crescent. I have to live with that man.”
I’d been so wrapped up in what I wanted with her that I didn’t consider how hard it might’ve been for her, living with that nigga after he caught her cheating. She’d been in contact since everything, shooting me texts every now and then, so I was content with knowing she was breathing. However, I didn’t consider what he could have been doing around the crib.
I uncrossed my arms and ran my hand over the top of my head. Damn. Had I been in my right mind, not consumed with everything going on around me, I would have been a little more present. But all I’d wanted during this whole thing was an escape and the comfort being with her gave me. That escape. I was a glutton for it, not looking at the full board. I said we didn’t need to talk about what happened but… we did. I was bugging.
“He put hands on you?” I asked with raised brows.
She shook her head. “No. Not like that. I mean, he did choke me when he woke up?—”
“You sayin it like that’s normal. Fuck?”
“It’s not normal but he did walk in on me having sex with another man, Crescent. I don’t want anything to come out of what we did. That’s part of the reason I didn’t want to meet in person today. He was talking crazy, saying he’d kill you if?—”
