Page 44 of Stand on That

Darius knew my favorite perfumes. He even knew my favorite coffee brand. I didn’t tell him those things. He paid attention and observed them on his own. Being that seen felt amazing. It made me intentional about being the same way for him.

“We have to do a couple’s trip soon,” I lifted my brows at her. “Since you and Azarius started in Vegas, we gotta keep the group trips going.”

“You know I’m always down to hop on a flight. Where should we go?”

“Good question,” I pondered while staring out of the window. In prison, I made a list of places that I wanted to visit, but I didn’t bring the notebook home with me. I didn’t want to bring home anything from that place. I remembered most of the places, however.

“I definitely want to go to Africa, maybe Morocco or Kenya. Egypt. Dubai.”

“Those all sound lit. I’m kind of scared to turn up in Dubai though. Be done messed around and went to jail messing with them folks.”

Hailey and I were so engrossed in talking about a couple’s trip that I didn’t even realize until the car stopped that we weren’t at the restaurant. We were at a shopping plaza and since it was a little after seven, a lot of the places were closed or beginning to close. Hailey didn’t seem concerned, so I just went with the flow. The driver opened the doors for us, and I looked around at each shop. My brows dipped when I saw a red bow stuck on one of the suite doors.

“Where we at mane?” I asked Hailey as she stood beside me looking like nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

“I’m not the person to ask.”

Staring at Hailey, I tried to think of a response. Just as I parted my lips, a light came on inside the suite, and the door opened. Standing there dressed in all black like he wore at least once a week was Darius. My man looked so damn good, I almost forgot to ask him what was going on.

“You look good,” his eyes trailed my body

“Thank you.” I moved toward him. “Is there where dinner is?”

“Kind of.”

I heard music and when I peeked into the room, I saw people. My family, his, and the few friends that I had.

“I figured why keep paying suite rent to braid hair in when you could have your own shop.”

“Darius!” I squealed. “You for real?” I stepped over the threshold and took in the sleek white, marble receptionist counter. The beautiful décor and the luxury feel of it all. “This is mine?”

“Yeap. All five rooms. You can rent four of them out.”

I was speechless. Especially seeing the way my parents and siblings were smiling. I hugged Darius and tried hard not to cry. It was too early in the night for my makeup to be ruined. There were a few tables set up with food and a three-tier cake. Darius had once again proven my claim that he gave the best gifts and surprises. And for him to have everyone in on it and I didn’t suspect a thing was top tier. Intentional. My man didn’t play about me, and I loved it.

It was still sinking in that I had my own salon as I moved around the room and greeted and hugged everyone. By the time I turned around, Darius was in the middle of the room, down on one knee, and three of the servers dressed in all black stood behind him each one holding a bouquet of red roses. My jaw slacked, and I lost the battle with trying not to ruin my makeup ‘cus oh, I was about to cry. Like boo hoo snot.

“I have a dozen roses for every year you did in prison. I’m sorry I didn’t visit, and we both know why. But my absence made you feel unsupported, and I’ll spend the rest of my life making that up to you if you let me. Will you be Mrs. Darius Artis?”

My throat felt like it was closing up, so all I could do was nod. That was enough for clapping and cheering to break out around me as Darius lifted the lid of a small ring box. The pear shaped, princess cut diamond tucked inside the box was absolutely stunning. My hand was trembling as I held it out so Darius could slide the ring on. A lot had happened, and I was trying to digest it all. Once the ring was secured on my finger, he stood and wrapped me in his massive frame.

I posed for a million pictures then took shots and turned up before eating. After about an hour and a half, Darius stepped outside to take a call and when he came back in, I could tell by the tightness of his jaw that he was pissed. He gave Azarius a slight head nod, and they stepped back outside. I wasn’t too drunk to know that some shit had gone down. My heart rate increased as I tried to continue to act normal.

With the way he made money, it was hard to get comfortable. Even when I didn’t realize it, it was like I was always waiting for something to go wrong. My biggest fear was him going to prison just like I had. Thankfully, I wasn’t riding with enough drugs to get a super long sentence, but Darius was a bigger hustler than my cousin had ever been. The thought of him being sentence to double digit numbers in prison made my gut churn.

I eased over to the open bar to get a drink. My nerves were shot, and I didn’t want to automatically assume the worst. Once the drink had been consumed, Azarius and Darius were still outside, and my anxiety wasn’t going to allow me to keep waiting. When I stepped out onto the sidewalk, Darius was pacing with a deep frown contorting his face. Azarius had both hands in his pockets, and he was patiently waiting for whatever Darius came up with.

Both turned to look at me, and Darius sighed. I was sure he didn’t want to stress me, worry me, or make me mad, but he should have known I was coming. Azarius made his way back inside, and Darius stopped pacing.

“What’s wrong? And please don’t say nothing.” My tone was gentle. Clearly, he was upset, and I wasn’t trying to make it worse.

“Man,” Darius inhaled deeply through his nose before sucking his teeth. His jaw muscle flexed and his lip twitched. He was pissed. “For years, even before I met you, I’ve been keeping my dope at this broad Mya’s crib. I’ve never had an issue. Not one, now this bitch is telling me her house was broken into, and I’m out of five bricks. That’s $105,000. And that’s not what I was gon’ make off the shit. That’s what I paid for the shit.”

I couldn’t fathom taking that kind of loss. But in true woman fashion, I wanted to know who the fuck this Mya chick was. I knew Darius was already heated, and I knew I should tread lightly, but this was news to me. She’d been around for four years or more, and I had never once heard of her? There was something really fishy about that. I’d be a fool to just say nah, my man isn’t, hasn’t been, or has never cheated on me.

Darius and I had a brief stare down. Finally, he inhaled another breath. “I stopped fucking her when I met you. Mya is green. At least I thought her ass was green. She works, single, doesn’t have kids, doesn’t have men at her crib like that. I only kept my dope there because I’d never keep it where I rest my head, and you damn sure weren’t keeping it where you rest yours.”

I could kind of understand that, but he still had frequent interactions with a woman that I knew nothing about, and that was very sneaky to me. Still, it had been a beautiful night, and he was clearly already upset. I didn’t want to make it worse, but holding my tongue was feeling like an Olympic sport that I wasn’t adequately trained for.