That nickname.
Every time he said it, something in me softened against my will.
I was losing myself in him.
And I knew it.
But knowing and stopping are two different things.
“Romelo—” I started.
“I already got your ticket. You’re coming.”
My mouth opened, then shut. I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him it was madness. Wanted to tell him bringing me around his girlfriend was setting the whole situation on fire.
But the words didn’t come.
Because a part of me — a selfish, traitorous part — wanted to go.
Wanted to be on that beach with him.
Wanted to pretend, even for a few days, that this was real.
Thatwewere real.
“Doesn’t she have access to a lot?” I asked instead, dodging the real conversation.
Romelo’s expression shifted. Jaw tight. Eyes sharpening.
“The fuck you mean? What type of access?”
I leaned back against the counter, folding my arms across my chest. My crop top rode up, exposing a strip of stomach. His eyes dipped for a second before lifting back to my face.
“Access to your accounts. Money. Your plug?—”
“Hells naw!” he snapped, cutting me off. “Where the fuck you getting that shit from?”
“For as long as y’all been together, she gotta know something,” I pressed. “You can’t tell me she completely in the dark.”
He dragged a hand over his waves — that frustrated habit of his.
“Her head’s been in the fucking clouds,” he said. “Trecee only cared about what the fuck I could do for her. As long as I was breaking her off some bread, she was good.”
He stepped closer, crowding me. His cologne — that woodsy, expensive scent — mixed with his cocoa butter lotion.
“If she had access like that, I’d be fucked up out here,” he continued. “She got poor money management. That’d be like giving a kid a bag of candy and expecting them not to eat it all.”
He paused, staring me down.
“Fuck I look like to you?”
I pressed my lips together. He wasn’t wrong. Trecee wasn’t exactly financially responsible. Every time she touched money,she burned through it on designer bags, bundles, bottle service — stunting for social media.
But still…
“What about you being loyal to her for saving your life?” I asked quietly.
His face darkened like a storm moving in.
