I kept scrolling, then I landed on her. Rhythm was the kind of pretty that made you slow down without meaning to. She had chocolate skin that looked smooth even through the screen. Her waist-length locs were chef’s kiss. She had eyes that held you there, like she knew you couldn’t look away.
I got stuck, staring at how beautiful she was. “How old is she?”
“Twenty-five.”
“And she does this full-time?”
“She’s a medical coder and single mother. She paints outside of work.”
I was impressed that she had a career and responsibilities and still strived to be creative when she could.
I forced myself to stop being weird, scrolled past her personal portraits, and focused on other posts of her artwork.
Aria watched me with her smile reaching her ears. “You see the vision?”
I nodded slowly. “I see it.”
“So, you’ll do it?”
I leaned back, staring at Rhythm’s page, more so the images of her, at the way she existed in the frame like she wasn’t trying to be anything other than herself. Her beauty wasn’t just surface. It sat deeper than that, like it came from somewhere quiet and sure. And the longer I looked, the more something shifted in my soul. I felt a slow pull and a strange warmth. It didn’t make sense because I didn’t know her. Yet my body reacted like it recognized her anyway.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to hand her phone back. “Alright. Bellamy Urban Development will sponsor it.”
Relieved, Aria exhaled. “Good. I want you to meet with her. You need to be the one to explain what Bellamy Urban Development is offering and the sponsorship and what it includes.”
In my line of work, I’d sat across from street niggas to politicians, and I had never been nervous. But the thought of meeting Rhythm had my stomach doing some unfamiliar shit.
It was… anticipation.
“I got you,” I told Aria, feeling my dick harden in anticipation. “Set the meeting up.”
I met up with Icon and Legend right after my meeting with Aria for cigars and drinks.
The cigar bar had a private room that the Cartier's often used. Nobody came in unless they were invited.
Legend took a pull from his cigar and shook his head. “Do you ever think about how we ended up here?” he asked his brother.
“Here where?”
“Married,” Legend said like the word tasted funny. “With kids.”
I smirked. “You say it like it just magically happened.”
“It did,” Legend said, dead serious, then pointed his cigar at the ceiling. “I swear to God, I blinked and now I got a daycare of kids and a pregnant wife.”
I laughed. “How many is that now?”
“Six,” Icon laughed. “Unless it’s twins again.”
Legend slammed his hand lightly on the armrest. “See. There you go. Don’t even play like that, bro.”
“Aria is pretty fertile. It might be twins again.”
Legend glared at me. “It better not be.”
Icon taunted him. “You cried last time.”
“I did not cry.”
