“You will always be Moochie. I don’t care how tall, or what kind of leader you are for the Gods… when you come through this door, you hang that vest up and you’re Moochie. I used to tell your daddy the same thing.”

“I hear you, Gams.” I held my hand out, and my mother accepted it and clung onto my arm as I helped her outside to get into the car.

Once we were all loaded up, Gams set the security and grabbed more cookies for the ride, and we were heading out. I was used to my car and bike, so whipping this big ass truck had me feeling like Johnson Family Vacation or some shit.

Berkeley: Hey stranger.

The message popped up on the truck’s screen and I smirked to myself. I knew after running into her, it was only a matter of time before she would reach out to me. It’d been a little minute since I ran into Berkeley.

We went to school together, she was a grade or two behind me, and for a little minute, we had something. She moved to California to attend college, and we kept in touch for a while before I ended up getting with Cherie. We lost touch because I was the kind of nigga that didn’t keep loose ends around when I had a woman. I tied that shit up, so no woman was coming tomywoman like a woman.

Berkeley eventually moved back to New York, and we ran into each other a time or two. The last time being two years ago. I was out with Havoc and Yasin, and she was in the club with her girls. She was dancing on me hard, and I knew she wanted to go home with me.

I had a few drinks and under normal circumstances I probably would have turned her down. Instead of taking her home, I got us a hotel in the city, and I had all intentions on fucking the shit out of her, which I did. I had her screaming and clawing at the hotel sheets as I fucked my frustrations out that had been building. Berkeley was a freak, and the way she sucked my dick still sent chills down my back if it crossed my mind.

After I took her to the king, her ass was whipped. I could tell by the way she kept staring at me while we were chilling that I had started some shit with her that I didn’t have the energy or mental capacity to deal with.

While she slept, I kissed her on the head and dipped out. Neither of us reached out to the other and kept it pushing with life. That’s when she popped up at the block party, flirting with me heavily.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw Anjo shooting daggers in the side of my face. She was over there pouting and mad like this dick wasn’t hers. I wasn’t giving this shit to nobody but her, I just needed to stop playing fucking games.

“Girlfriend?”

“Gams, you nosey.”

“Your father has taught me and your mother to be aware of our surroundings. All I’m doing,” she pulled out her crochet needles, and started to crochet what looked like a bathing suit.

“You have plans on wearing that?”

“Not me… Suga pie saw some girl on that Pick Pocket app, and she was charging an arm and leg. I told her I could do her one better and would make it for Bali.”

“TikTok, Gams… it’s TikTok,” I chuckled.

“Boy hush… I just need to prepare myself to do dances with Ryder when she comes. You know she called me last week to tell me to put my cream on so I can move more.”

I chuckled loud because Ryder didn’t play about her damn dances that Blaze never uploaded. Eventually, he was going to have to tell her that her videos were private. Knowing my brother, his ass would hire someone to make some shit that looked like she was viral on social media.

I made a mental note to remember to hit Berkeley back when I made it to the lake house. When we saw each other, she asked me if I had a girlfriend, and I was honest and told her I was married.

With the way she laughed at me and gave me a slight shove, she didn’t believe shit I had said to her.

In my head, Blair was my wife.

I just needed my heart and mind to get on one accord and cooperate.

Blair

“Your assistant is real nice…offered me espresso in a glass mug,” I teased Zoya, as I sauntered into her corner office with views of the Freedom Tower, and the entire Manhattan skyline of skyscrapers.

She looked up from her computer and smiled. “Well, don’t you look beautiful. At least one of us is enjoying this beautiful weather.”

“You can take the time away from work… you just won’t.” I clocked her tea, and she smiled while cutting her eyes at me.

She closed her laptop and focused all her attention on me. “This case has me working around the clock. Doesn’t help that the Amantés are very close to my family… don’t know how, but he was able to get Kora as the presiding judge on the case.”

Zoya’s family was powerful.

Powerful was an understatement. Menace Caselli could make mountains move with a blink of an eye. I learned in Monaco just how powerful that man was, and how much power his name and influence held. He was someone you wanted to keep on your good side. Just from his quirky little habits, I would hate to be on his bad side.