Three Weeks Later. . .
I stayed holed up in our new home for the first two weeks after the photo scandal. I was embarrassed and humiliated and just wanted to disappear. I never thought I’d be a victim of such a thing, but lo and behold, I was one of ninety-nine other women who had gotten their body parts exposed on the internet. The first week after it happened, I kept getting tags, mentions, and compliments that I didn’t give a damn about.
The photos were sexy, my body was in top shape, and it did look like a spread in a Playboy magazine, but none of that shit mattered to me. I wasn’t that kind of girl who could overlook shit like this, but unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about it.
Since I had blocked Akeem from every social site and even my phone, Jessie and Junie came over the next day after it happened and showed me the live video he’d made to apologize to me, with Rueben Studdard playing in the background. I was disgusted just from looking at his pitiful ass, and I could tell by his lip that he had gotten punched in it.
I knew it was Zion who did it.
I also knew he wasn’t going to let what Akeem did go, so I was sure he did it or had Rahmeek or Kasey do it. Either way, it had Zion’s name all over it. When Zion came home that day, he handed me some papers and told me I had nothing else to worry about. From what he knew, the photos had been deleted, but he couldn’t guarantee that people didn’t save the photos on their phones. I appreciated my baby for what he made happen for me. I submitted the contract to my lawyer and made sure he kept up with Akeem’s shenanigans. I was happy to be free of that stupid contract and hoped Akeem would never speak my name again.
For the past three weeks, Zion had been spoiling me and trying to distract me from thinking about what happened. It worked, for the most part, but I was reminded of it by a few people on the streets, with their long stares and stupid smiles.
We were currently in his dispensary, The Reef, in the back room, trying out a new strain he had just come in with. I was skeptical because, who wanted to smoke something calledAirhead?
His manager, Finesse, had brought it out a few minutes ago, and Zion rolled it up, and I sat next to him, debating if I wanted to take part in the act.
“It’s only right that you do it with me. You used to smoke with me back in the day,” he said, smiling that cute-ass smile.
I shook my head. “Barely. And the weed back then was regular. This new stuff will have you trippin’ out.”
“This is a sativa. The most it will do is give you lots of energy,” Finesse said. Zion shrugged and lit the tip of the blunt. He puffed it a few times before handing it over to me.
I giggled. “Not you peer pressuring me.”
“Just want you to loosen up and try out our product. I don’t want to put shit on the shelf that’s gon’ fuck people up in a bad way.”
“So what about us? What if it messes us up in a bad way?”
“Then we’ll come haunt this nigga in the afterlife,” he said, pointing to Finesse as we laughed. I took a deep breath, then puffed it twice and handed it to Finesse. We only passed it around twice before Zion put it out.
“What do you think?” Finesse asked.
Zion nodded. “It’s good. Since it’s new, we’ll price it at five for samples, just to see if it moves. If people like it, then we can price it by the gram.”
Finesse nodded. “A’ight, cool.” The bell chimed in the front, and Finesse stood to take care of the customers.
My eyes closed, and I was bobbing my head to Lil’ Kim's verse in my head.
“You good, baby?” Zion asked. My eyes slowly opened, and I smiled at him.
Damn, my man was fine.
I rapped the lyrics to Lil’ Kim’s verse on “All About the Benjamins”, twisting some of the words while Zion laughed.
“Yeah, you on one. When you start rapping Lil’ Kim, I know you feeling yourself.”
I smiled and stared at him for a moment, still not believing he was here with me. “Can I lick you?” I asked.
He laughed. “Yooo, bae, what?”
I could tell I caught him off guard and straddled his lap. “You’re just so chocolate. I want to lick you.” I licked his lips, and he grabbed my hips as I humped him.
He bit his bottom lip as his eyes lowered. “I’m about to take you home.”
“You gon’ let me Chris Brown you?”
He frowned. “Chris Brown me?”