My heart started beating erratically again. “Eyes on me, baby.” I tilted her chin up so she could say it again and let me look into her beautiful eyes. They fluttered open, and a serene look was on her face.
“I love you. And this is foreign to me, but this,” she placed my hand on her beating chest. “This can’t be nothing but love. This ease, I feel, can be nothing but love. You’ve become veryimportant to me, Vasiah, and admitting that without wanting to gag has to be nothing but love.”
“I love you more, Hayami.” And I meant it. I felt similar. This love growing between us was new and exciting, but also felt rooted, like our meeting wasn’t by happenstance. Who knew what the future held, but whatever it was, I hope it was by her side.
“Good. And since love has been established between us, welcome to your 360 deal, love.” She smiled sweetly, and I grinned back at her crazy ass. Whether it was a 360 deal or life with no parole, there was no chance I was coming up off her either.
22
REINA
I'm in love, I'm in love
Do you hear me?
Was so scared
Not prepared
But it just hit me
Glad it's us now, I'm good
I'm so in loveeeee
Ginuwine’s song played at ignorant levels as we drove down to McCormick Place for Comic Con. After valeting my truck, we hopped out and walked hand in hand, and immediately, I was in awe and overstimulated. There were so many damn people in the main hall, and so many interesting costumes. Never in my life would I attend something like this off my own volition, but seeing how it brought joy to my man’s face made me wanna do it. Plus, I loved a good theme and any opportunity to switch my wig. I felt super cute in my custom Sailor Moon outfit, and my man looked good as fuck in his outfit too. I wasn’t even a loctician, but I came out of retirement forhim and was glad I did. Couldn’t no hoe touch that crown but me! We walked through, stopping at different booths every so often to take pictures. Vasiah looked like a kid in a candy store. It warmed my heart to see him in his element freely.
Though guilty of this myself, I realized that we called every whimsical thing a Black boy did gay, as if it was something wrong with having niche interests. Then those same stifled boys grew up into the angriest, most boring niggas I ever met. I remember talking to a dude once, and I asked him what he liked to do besides getting money, and this nigga told me, “Think about other ways to get money.” I knew then and there that we didn’t align, so after making him send me a thousand dollars for being boring and wasting my time, I blocked him. My Nana always told me that a man had to know something about himself and have his own interests outside of his woman or job. Otherwise, he’d be stuck up your ass, and a woman of my caliber didn’t have time for that. The older I got, the more that sentiment rang true for me. Vasiah was different in every sense of the word, and I couldn’t be happier. I had my life, and he had his, but we meshed them together when need be.
“Hey, Vasiah.” I looked around, then down, seeing little Miss Fake Ass Jhené Aiko dressed in what looked like the green Powerpuff Girls dress and a stiff, blunt-cut bob wig.
“Oh… Wassup, Mykita?”
I waited for her to acknowledge me, but she was about three seconds too late.
“Is Vasiah the only one you see?”
She looked up, her facial expression slightly annoyed. “Hey,” she replied flatly. She started to say something to Vasiah again, but I cut her off.
“Mykita, do you wanna fuck my man again or something?” I looked at her down the bridge of my nose, because she literally came up to my boobs in height.
Her mouth went agape while Vasiah looked slightly mortified. I didn’t care. Things had to be established around here, or I wouldn’t hesitate to let her meet what was in my purse.
Stop always wanting to shoot people, crazy.The angel on my shoulder was talking to me, and I didn’t wanna hear her right now.
Do it, the devil on my other shoulder replied.You know Reign gon’ bail you out.
“I… what kinda question is that?”
“One I expect an honest answer to. See, I’m not well-versed in the ways of women who wish they were another woman because I don’t do lame shit like that, but it's obvious that you wish you could get another hit of that crack between his legs. Unfortunately, sis, he’s booked up for the rest of his life.”
She scoffed. I smelled the fear all over her, and rightfully so. She ain’t know that I was carrying something hot for her on me, and I liked the element of surprise, so I wasn’t telling her.
“I’m not sure what you want me to say to that. This is crazy.”
“Not crazier than me, boo. Imma say this, and then you can go on the other side of the convention and enjoy yourself. Vasiah is not on the market, nor will he be again as long as we are both breathing. The feelings you might have for him are as unrequited as a gay man’s feelings for a down-low man. Now, I know the whole spiel of ya’ll being neighbors and fucking in college, but please understand that a better woman with better pussy is here to stay. The next time you come across my man and think you’ll fix your surgically enhanced lips to greet him, think again. And if you see both of us together and you choose to dryly address me, please understand that Ion even play like that, boo. Have some fuckin’ decorum when you see me bitch and stop trynna find ways to talk to him through your parents.”
Mykita and Vasiah’s eyes stretched, and without another word, she spun on those ugly patent leather shoes and disappeared through the crowd.
