Page 11 of Jaeda

Shar scoffed and turned to the side so I could see my nephew’s cute little face.

“Marino, ask your auntie why she’s bringing up old shit?”

“Old but relevant. You two are the horniest couple I’ve ever met.”

“How horny did you get when I kissed you?” she shot back.

My mouth dropped. “Sharina!”

“Wait!” Mia exclaimed. “You two kissed! Does Maceo know that!”

“It wasn’t like that,” I protested. “We were talking, and I let it slip that I hadn’t been kissed?—”

“You’ve never been kissed!” Romi and Mia exclaimed.

“Say it a little louder, why don’t you? I don’t think the rest of the compound heard you.”

Mia slapped her forehead. “Jaeda, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Nobody is that damn conservative.”

I covered her mouth. “Shhhh! You’re gonna wake the baby up.”

Shar waved me off. “Girl, this boy listened to me and his daddy blast Megan Thee Stallion, Glorilla, Lil Wayne, J. Cole, and so much other music my entire pregnancy. He’s used to niggas being loud.”

Romi giggled as she rubbed her belly. “I fear these two are gonna be the same way. Once we got acclimated to living with Devin, out came the loud music. When it’s just us, it’s trap music. When the kids are there, they are turning up toGracie’s CornerandDoggyland.”

Mia waved her hands. “Uh, hello! Can we stay on topic? Back to this kiss. Was it tongue involved?”

I shook my head. “No, Mia. Just a peck on the lips.”

She looked at Salima who sat there grinning. “You knew about this?”

“Shar told me,” she confirmed.

“Oh! So you bitches are just keeping secrets from me. See if I tell you anything else.”

Salima rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to tell us anything. We can hear you and Titan arguing from our house.”

That made Romi, Shar, and me laugh. Mia crossed her arms.

“Whatever. I don’t wanna talk about that bastard. I’m over him.”

“Sure you are,” I said sarcastically.

I tuned her out as she told Shar and Salima all about their latest drama. I’d allowed them to distract me long enough. When they asked me about hanging out earlier, I told them I was busy working. They took that as an open invitation to come over to my place.

Their chatter fell on deaf ears, as I was hyper focused on the task at hand. I’d gotten past all but one encryption, and the last one was kicking my ass. Whoever was on the other end was doing a hell of a job blocking me at every turn. It had been an all-out war going on between us for hours now.

I clicked away on my keyboard until finally that IP address popped up.

“Gotcha!” I quickly recorded the address.

Just as I wrote the last number, the entire system went black.

“Son of a bitch!” I groaned as I tried to turn everything back on.

“What happened?” Mia asked.

“They shut my system down.”

---