Page 52 of Mister President

“You wanna talk about it?”

He looked from me to Ryan and shook his head. “I’m good, bae. Enjoy your lunch.”

I had to force myself to look away as he walked away. My curiosity was going to have me wondering what was going on with him until we talked—if we talked. Plus, I wanted to know he was okay.

“Your whole everything just changed, sweetheart. Why don’t you go talk to him?”

I hoped shaking my head would lead to me being able to shake the worry away too.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. If it isn’t, he can talk to his girl.”

Ryan’s chuckle was not of amusement. “Y’all funny.”

Rolling my eyes, I leaned against the table and casually looked around to see if Elias was still outside.

“It’s clear you want to be with him,” Ryan continued.

No part of me felt like sparing his feelings by denying the truth. Nothing serious would come from our time together anyway. Besides, I’d been honest with him from the jump—even when I didn’t want to be. He knew all about my crazy situation with Elias just like I knew about his drama with Candice.

“Yeah, but we can’t be together.”

“Why not?”

“He’s with someone, and even if he wasn’t, I hurt him. I don’t think there’s no coming back from that.”

Ryan’s face twisted as his head shook. “That mane wants you, girl.”

“He doesn’t want me.”

“Yes, he does, Amanda.”

“He wants sex and a good coparenting relationship, but he doesn’t wantme.”

“His energy screamed you were his. I don’t know why y’all won’t just say that, but he does want you. If you didn’t see that in his eyes, you blind.”

I couldn’t stomach getting my hopes up just to be disappointed, so I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I don’t want to talk about him. We already have limited time. I don’t want to waste it talking about that.”

“What do you want to spend it talking about then?”

“Literally anything else.”

His chuckle made me laugh before he kissed me softly. Slipping his fingers through my hair, he used it to tilt my head. As he eyed every inch of my face, Ryan shook his head.

“I wish I had the time to explore every facet of you to see why he ain’t willing to let you go.”

“That would have been nice, but since we only have days our kids are at school until you deploy, I just need you to fuck me like you love me, even though you never will.”

“Oh, I can definitely do that.”

Our lips connected again, but we pulled away when our number was called. After he grabbed our food, I looked around. Sadness filled me because Elias was gone.

29

Fiona

Amanda was cute.She wasn’t posting the face of the man she’d been spending time with lately, but she didn’t mind showing his arm and chest. The video she posted about thirty minutes ago was of her against his chest. They were standing outside somewhere. He rubbed and squeezed her ass while she smiled. I had to admit, she looked happy. That gave me more confidence that my relationship with Elias would work. He’d been a bit distant lately, and I knew it was because I’d kept giving him excuses as to why we hadn’t announced our relationship to my parents yet.

It hadn’t been my intention to wait this long. A part of me thought Daddy would be open to me being with a black man if that man was Elias. His strong rejection thwarted my plan, and I’d been scrambling ever since. The little girl in me who wanted to please her parents battled with the grown woman who wanted to control her life and make her own decisions.

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