Page 62 of Own It

“Why?”

“Tumors can grow back, and they want me to keep getting scans every other week to keep a close watch.” He gestured toward his water bottle, so I handed it over to him.

“Damn,” I commented, a bittersweet feeling overcoming me. On one end, I just wanted my cousin to be better, but the upside was that I got to hold on to Daylin a little longer.

Speaking of her, I checked my phone to see if the pickup order I’d placed was ready yet.

“You know, the neurosurgeon that’s been performing my surgeries used to be a huge asshole, but lately, that nigga has not only been nice but on top of his shit.”

“Word?” I played the fool, eyeing the smile on Talid’s face. It felt good to see him excited about possibly continuing his life. That only let me know I was doing the right thing as bad as the shit was.

“Word, nigga.” He sipped his water while nodding. “Went from pretty much trying to tell a nigga to accept my fate to being hopeful, optimistic, and doing the fucking most to be sure I live. I had to damn near give him and his staff a PowerPoint presentation on why I should be able to go home for the moment.”

Chuckling, I said, “That’s wild but good. You think the nigga turned over a new leaf, or this is just some one-time shit?”

I was hoping for the former. Unlike Dr. Conrad, I didn’t only care about Talid and his health. I was praying Dr. Conrad’s ass would take this time as a lesson learned and apply that type of zeal to all his patients, no matter how much of a lost fucking cause he thought they were.

Shrugging, Talid replied, “Can’t really say. I can only assume he’s changing, had an epiphany or some shit, because what reason would his ass have to randomly wanna save me?”

We locked eyes, and I shrugged.

“That’s true.” I nodded, not too sure if I believed that Daylin’s father had changed.

I kicked it with Talid until Shardaya brought their dinner in, then I left, giving the married couple some privacy to eat together in the comfort of their own damn home, since their son was staying with Shardaya’s mother during this time. Khalid always stayed with his grandmother when Talid got too sick. They ain’t want their son to see his father fucked up like that.

Checking my email, I saw my order was ready, so I went to grab the few books I’d found for Daylin and then the food.

Getting to the ranch house, I plated the steak, lobster macaroni and cheese, plus the asparagus, and then put the water, silverware, and napkins on the tray. After adding the skinny vase with a single rose, I shook my head at my-fucking-self. I’d been doing well for the past five years, not getting sucked into shit, yet here I was romancing a woman a nigga had kidnapped and another muthafucka’s woman at that. Maybe I had a fucking suffering kink.

To make matters worse, I knew I wasn’t giving Daylin back to Shaun. Far as I knew, he was only her nigga in her head. She was my girl; I just had to get her on board.

I typically wasn’t the type of nigga to start staking claim on a woman that hadn’t shown true interest, but I felt drawn to Daylin. And it’d been a minute since a woman made me feel comfortable around her or wanna answer every fucking question she had. I actually gave a fuck if Daylin liked what she heard or thought about a nigga.

Picking the tray up, I scooped up the paper bag with the books I’d bought for her and made my way to the downstairs level.

Entering her room, I heard the shower going, so I knew she was doing her usual nighttime routine before bed. I was sure she wondered why she hadn’t been given dinner yet.

While she cleaned up, I set her shit up and then left to wait so I wouldn’t invade her privacy. I wasn’t sure if she dressed in or out the bathroom, but most muthafuckas who weren’t psychopaths left the bathroom to clothe themselves.

When I got an alert from the motion detector, I knew she was out of the bathroom, so I made my way down. Knocking lightly, I waited for her to grant me entry unlike any other time.

“Come in!” she shouted, and I could hear the smile she was wearing in how she spoke. “Thank you, Rah!” She shrieked, holding the books with a wild and excited look in her fucking eyes.

“Welcome.” I smirked, shutting the door as she sat on the bed, wearing only a large shirt and nothing else. Wasn’t expecting that or the way my dick started to wake up and do its morning stretches.

“Ooh, this looks good as hell.” She pulled the tray in her lap, then paused to look up at me. “Where is yours? The whole point of this meal is to have conversation with a pretty girl over food, right?”

“It’s upstairs.”

“Go get it.” She bucked her eyes at me, and I did as she said like a good fucking soldier. Returning, I trod over to sit beside her on the bed with my own tray. “Cynthia cooked this? Got damn.” She chomped down on the lobster mashed potatoes, making me snicker.

“Not unless she work in the kitchen at Fleming’s.”

“No wonder. I fucking love them and Eddie V’s.” She started to cut her steak, checking the inside and nodding. “I love them medium, but medium well is as far as I’ll go.”

“I figured medium well was a good middle ground since I ain’t know how you liked your shit.” I ate some of my own food, my stomach welcoming it. “But medium for next time. So you like steakhouses?” I wanted to remember that. I wanted to remember every-fucking-thing she told me.

“I do. I work a lot, so it’s like a little treat for me. But, I do enjoy fast food or some places in the hood too. Most hood spots have the best flavor.”