Page 29 of Grown Folks Confessions: Black Lush

“Not here,” she said. “I’ll tell you back in the room before we check out. Long story short, a distant cousin had told me my dad had been released from prison early for good behavior.”

I nodded. “Figured it had something to do with him.”

“Yeah, I—” Layla was interrupted when she was pulled out of the seat into a hug by the couple we’d been hanging out with the most since we’d arrived at Phoenix.

“Hey, fellas, what’s happening?” I greeted, dapping fists with each of the guys. The winner of the investment, Jason, and his husband, Matt, were good guys. Everyone in attendance liked them, which was why I hadn’t been shocked when Nevaeh announced Jason as winner.

“We’re good.” Matt glanced around, lowering his voice when he asked, “Did you both hear that Nevaeh is apparently making a big announcement?”

“About what?” Layla asked.

“Not sure. But according to my sources, it’s huge news, and apparently, we’re the lucky hopefuls who get to hear the news first.”

No sooner had Matt given us the tea, than Nevaeh walked into the private meeting room we were having breakfast at.

“Good morning, everyone,” she welcomed, receiving similar sentiments back. “Usually, I would wait until you’ve filled your bellies to get down to business, but since most of you will be leaving this afternoon, how about we just share more great news right now, what do you say?”

“Whoo, yeah,” Jason yelled, placing two fingers in his mouth to whistle.

“That answers that.” Nevaeh laughed, shooting a glance over to her assistant. “Most of you assume the woman who has been by my side all weekend is my assistant, Jess. Although she once was my right-hand gal, she isn’t anymore and hasn’t been for the past year. She accepted the opportunity of a lifetime, and now, it’s finally paying off in spades.”

A few folks whispered, but Nevaeh just smiled at her prior assistant. “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a round of applause to Jess, who landed a producer job at Netflix last year and has just been green-lighted to work with a fantastic team for an interior design challenge reality show.”

Applause erupted throughout the room as a surprised Layla stood to clap, full of excitement.

“The best part about this new Netflix series is that two lucky hopefuls in my room of finalists will be given the opportunity to submit their portfolio to Jess and her team.”

Layla looked to me. “Oh my God, can you believe that?”

I smiled, soaking in her excitement.Layla’s going to be on the show.Call it lover’s intuition—because yeah, a muthafucka up and fell in love—but my gut was telling me that the production team would be blind not to see that Layla would raise the ratings for the show.

“And that’s not all,” Nevaeh continued. “The show will be filming for two months in London, all expenses paid for contestants. Originally, there were three slots for auditions. However, based off the videos and photos you submitted, one lucky finalist was chosen to automatically receive a spot on the show.” She looked to Layla. “Everyone, please join me in congratulating Layla Payne on landing a spot on Netflix’s latest competition show.”

And there it is.They had chosen my girl. It almost felt like everything was moving in slow motion as I stood from my chair and pulled Layla into my arms as Jason and Matt gleefully congratulated her.

“I’m so proud of you, beautiful,” I whispered into her ear. When I placed her back on her feet, Layla’s eyes were rimmed with unshed tears.

“I’m shocked,” she muttered. “Are they sure?” she asked me, before shouting to the stage at Nevaeh and Jess, “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” Jess answered. “We’ll talk more privately after breakfast, but I’m glad your excitement matches ours.”

“Holy shit,” Layla whispered only to me. “Is this really happening?”

“It is.” She was quickly crowded by the other finalists and spouses, everyone buzzing with excitement for the show before we were prompted to finally eat the breakfast that was getting cold.

While we ate, I soaked in all the love she was getting, knowing that she deserved every accolade that came her way. I was addicted to her energy and the way that no matter who she talked to in the room, her eyes found mine and we’d share an appreciative smile.

Throughout my entire life, there had never been a moment when I didn’t want to see Layla Payne happy. Even when she was pissing me off, I wanted to see my butterfly soar into the sky and spread her wings.

The problem was, even now, I couldn’t shake that feeling that she was too good for me, and in some way, I was going to fuck everything up between us.

After breakfast ended, we weren’t ready to check out, so we extended our stay a day, as did Jason and Matt, and we celebrated Jason’s investment win and Layla landing the role on the show.

I made love to her nice andslowwhen we got back from dinner, whispering how proud I was and how beautifully intoxicating it felt being able to call her my wife.

Mywife. The girl I’d had a crush on. The woman I’d fallen for even before now was showing me a side of myself I’d never seen before. The side that cared about someone else so fiercely, it wasn’t about my happiness at all. Only hers.

When you spend most of your life knowing that you’re not fully living, but rather, doing the bare minimum that others expected of you, it was eye-opening to see yourself from someone else’s eyes who loved you more than you loved yourself.

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