After last night, her body was betraying her. Her mind was running on a loop and her heart did this thing where it pulsated any time the scent of him hit her nose. It was foolish actually. This entire situation. She was doing this for Ernie but her spread eagle on the cabana furniture watching Erys dig her out was not on her bingo card.
And dammit was Ernie right. The amount of control she had to hold on to so she wouldn’t become a fool for this man was ridiculous. The aftermath of being in an emotional wreckage all night was ridiculous.
“What is there to talk about?” Erys asked, hands in his pocket, looking at her full on. “That little Ford Focus you were driving has too many issues for me to confidently let you ride around Waynesville in.”
“I’ve been riding around in Waynesville for a year. It’s the one thing I own outright and I can’t afford the thought of fixing something if it goes wrong. I can’t afford to breathe in that Maybach. What’s wrong with the bus?”
“You’re not getting on the bus. Ever. Get that out your head.”
Remedy frowned and pointed at his being. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I’m trying to figure out how to make you listen,” Erys quipped back, moving closer to her.
Remedy stepped back and held her hand up. “I listen when I want and there is nothing you can do to make it happen. Don’t come any closer.”
Erys chuckled. “Take these keys before you miss your appointment because you want to be hardheaded as fuck.”
“Rem,” Ernie called from the front seat of the Mercedes parked in the drive way behind the Maybach she refused to get into. “A hardhead makes for a guts being dug out again. And Igot shit to do, I don’t have time for y’all shit. I made that boy, I know he a longtime nigga like his daddy. Get your pretty ass in the car and say thank you, damn.”
Remedy clenched her jaw and groaned. Erys held the keys out for her to snatch from his possession. “You need to pick a side, Ernie, and stay on it.”
“I’m on the side of getting my shit right so I can rub on some ass and titties tomorrow. You better bring the best girls out too,” he grumbled, rolling up the window. “Son, do a better job next time so she can listen.”
“You two are getting on my nerves,” Remedy huffed, attempting to skirt by Erys, who had the driver’s side door open. “Don’t touch me.”
In true intrusive fashion, he grabbed her by the top of her leggings and pulled her close. “Take this. Use it and don’t give me no mouth about it. For Ernie.”
“Don’t use your daddy to make me listen,” Remedy huffed again, taking the card from between his fingers.
“You seem to only listen when Ernie is talking his shit so I got to use what I got to get what I want. I’ve made myself clear, you just act like you don’t hear well. And I know that ain’t the case,” Erys released her, allowing her to slide to the car without further interruption from his need to feel her. Only if Remedy knew how she was undoing him and only if she could lean into how she was unraveling herself, the beauty of life could be more than a figment of her imagination.
“I’m in the car,” she sassed. “Happy?”
“Not even remotely. I got something for you, just wait,” he warned.
“Boy, you not going to do a damn thing,” Remedy shot back, trying to close the door quickly but Erys was faster than her.
Erys gripped the pillowiness of her thigh, grunting at the heat radiating from the apex of her thighs. His voice was low,vibrating every nerve ending as he spoke. “I am and I will. While you out, lose that little attitude or I am putting the old man to sleep so I can spend the rest of my night fucking it out of you.”
Remedy’s teeth involuntarily bit her lip. The roll of her eyes brought her sense back and she knocked his hand away from her. Lowly, she gritted. “You had your chance, you didn’t, now move.”
Erys stepped back and let a devilish smile cover the face she hated to like. The smile she hated that she liked. The curve of his lips that she loathed how they felt against her skin. Too fucking handsome and too enthralled with everything she wasn’t. He was getting too close and Remedy didn’t want any casualties.
“I’ll be seeing you, Mouth. Watch them curbs,” he directed, closing her door. “Enjoy yourself.”
Remedy put the SUV in reverse and flipped him the birdie. The moment she was out of the gate, a small smile crossed her face. She spotted him in her rearview, his tints on the windshield too dark to see his expression.
“Cut it out. He doesn’t know you and once he finds out, it’s over. Keep this shit about Ernie and leave your pussy out of it,” Remedy scolded herself. Her pussy had other plans, throbbing and twitching many hours past being rearranged to house every inch of him. “You raggedy bitch. This is your drunk ass fault.”
Remedy vigorously rubbed her forehead. “Get control back, Rem. You know how this ends. You’re barely making it now.”
The rest of the ride was silent, her overthinking playing like surround sound and warring with the radio.
“What’s going on Waynesville, it’s your midday host Monie Mon and we got some things to talk about. Our DA, Paul Chisom, has made it known that he will be cleaning up crime in Trae Way. This comes after a string of armed break-ins in a Cashmere Lake neighborhood. Sounds like he didn’t givea damn until it came to his rich ass door. But I’m just the messenger.”
Remedy hit the power button but that didn’t stop her brain from going into overdrive. She hadn’t heard that name in years and it quaked her being threatening to disrupt her epicenter. It was trigging on top of all the things she was trying to process. Anxiety at the height, she fidgeted, forgetting where she was going for a moment. She pulled in a deep breath, talking herself off the ledge for the sake of being able to function and get through this day.
As her grandmother used to say, “one step at a time and one day at a time. Yesterday has no business in today, and you have no business stressin’ about tomorrow.”
