He stepped in closer again.
“You wasn’t feeling me back then, so I peeped it and moved on,” he said. “That’s my only regret. I put that on my mama.”
His eyes searched mine.
“I’m convinced you just like hearing yourself talk,” he added, but his voice lacked the usual bite. There was hurt there.
“You don’t get to treat me like a pet,” I said quietly.
“I never said you were.”
“Then stand on what you say.”
“You gotta trust me,” he said, softer now, tilting my chin up gently. “I know I ain’t earned it yet. But try.”
“It won’t be easy,” I whispered.
“Nothing in life is.”
We stood there, in that thick, heavy silence. My heart beating too loud. My breath uneven.
Then his phone buzzed.
He pulled it out, glanced at it, and sighed. “I gotta take this.”
He walked out of the kitchen, shoulders tense, phone already to his ear.
I stood there alone, gripping the counter, trying to calm my breathing.
And failing.
Because the truth was…
I was catching feelings.
Real ones.
And I didn’t know how to stop.
***
The private plane touched down on the tarmac with a gentle thud, the engines winding down with a low hum that vibrated through the cabin.
I’d barely slept during the flight. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt Romelo’s presence—his eyes on me from across the aisle, the weight of everything unsaid hanging in the air. Trecee had been glued to him the entire flight. Literally. Her hand on his thighs. Her head on his shoulder. Her voice, high-pitched and giggly, constantly in his ear, trying to engage him in conversation.
But Romelo had been distant.
Cold.
He’d responded to her in short, clipped sentences. One-word answers. His jaw tight, his body language reeking of annoyance that she didn’t seem to care about. Trecee kept pushing him. Kept talking. Kept trying to force affection that clearly wasn’t being reciprocated.
It was uncomfortable for me to watch. Mimi had noticed too. I caught her side-eyeing me multiple times, peeping at everything, but I ignored her. I was trying to busy myself with a book—Ethicby Ashley Antoinette.
I did care though.
More than I wanted to admit.
When he finally stepped off the plane and onto the sun-drenched tarmac, the heat hit me across the face like a slap. The weather had changed drastically. The air was thick, humid, and salty from the smell of the ocean.
