Page 130 of Falling Into Gravity

His voice broke again. “You so fuckin’ bright, baby…and I’m—” He swiped his hand down his face, almost like he was trying to erase the vulnerability. “I’m just some nigga from Crescent tryna keep his heart from bleeding out all over the sidewalk.”

That hit her in a place nothing ever had.

Aku stepped into him without thinking. She just moved. Her body already knew where it was supposed to be. Her thumb brushed his cheek where a tear had snuck down, quiet and angry.

That’s what she loved about him.

He wasn’t cold. He wasn’t numb. Hefelteverything, even when it nearly killed him.

“I don’t care where you from,” she whispered, eyes locked on his. “I care where we goin’.”

Aku didn’t just love light.

She never had.

She was raised on love that showed up. Love that hollered, and prayed, and stayed no matter what. Love that tucked you in even when it was tired. Love that made a plate and cussed you out if you forgot where you came from.

That’s how she loved now…with her whole chest, with her blood, with everything that made her woman enough to stand in the storm and still offer somebody else her umbrella.

He wasn’t just a chapter in her life. He was the plot twist, the underlined paragraph, the shit that made the story real…the italics in her head.

He was rough, yeah. Good thing her love was made to reach deep places. She could love his wounds without bleeding out herself…could hold his hurt without letting it swallow her whole.

That’s what made this time different. It wasn’t one-sided or a situation where one needed to change to fit the other. This love was falling, crashing into the dirt not giving a damn as long as the person you love fell with you. A shower never hurt nobody.

That’s what made ittheirs.

When he looked at her like he didn’t understand, how someone like her could stand by someone like him…she didn’t flinch, she stood taller.

“You’re not just some nigga from Crescent,” she murmured, pressing her forehead to his. “You’remine,and I don’t love broken pieces. I love the whole you. Give me your pain and I’ll shower you with my pleasure, Black man.”

He kissed her forehead, then her cheek. Greedy and needy - just held her there, both of them breathing in, that quiet between healing and acceptance.

“Malik?” she asked after a long pause.

“Yea?”

“How’d the meeting go?”

He laughed, bitter and dry. “It was bullshit. All they cared about was money. Wanted to change everything...didn’t feel right.”

She smirked. “I might know a guy who knows a guy.”

He raised a brow. “Who?”

“Bu,” she said, a slick grin tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Malik blinked. “Oh, word?” He sniffed.

She stepped back, slowly. “Yup. But first, you gotta answer for that fight with my Daddy.”

Before he could respond, she shoved him playfully. “I can’t believe you fought my Daddy…”

“Man, he swung first!”

“I don’t care. Now you gotta fight me.”

Malik backed up with his hands raised. “I don’t hit women.”

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