Page 11 of Breaking the Rules
“Splits you in two. I’m supposed to be a married man now. Somewhere on an island.”
“Damn. So, you’re mourning? That makes sense now,” Savanhi muttered.
“Makes sense now?” Noble questioned brows furrow.
Savanhi nodded. “Earlier, when Sincere was on the mic, you looked…distant. Appreciative but like you would rather be alone.”
Noble chuckled. “I got scared for a second.”
“Why…”
“I might’ve had a stalker or two.”
Savanhi scoffed, laughing softly. “Probably some of your own doing. But outside of this right now, I have no vested interest in who you are or what you do.”
“Straight like that?”
“Straight like that.”
“All that make sense now too,” he spoke putting his eyes back on hers. “You got a glimmer of sadness in your eyes, but you know how to turn it off like you’ve mastered it.”
Savanhi nodded. “I am the master of the mask. I’ve learned how to make people see only what I want them to see.”
“What do you want me to see?”
She shrugged. “I have no vested interest.”
“What if you did?”
Rolling her plump lips over one another, she hummed. “Probably someone whole.”
“Don’t hold back.”
She looked up at him. “In general, someone worth loving, I guess.”
“When’s the last time you had that?”
“Romantically? Never. You?”
“Thought I had it with my ex. Now that I sit back and think about it, never had it either.”
“I thought my cousin was tripping when she said I needed to feel something else to get over the sting of it.”
“I’ve heard that too. Not sure how much that works.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Savanhi softly replied, looking away.
Moving off impulse, Noble reached over and turned her face back to his, a gentle motion of his pointer finger. “Would you like to see if it does?”
Savanhi bit the softness of her lip. “No vested interest.”
“None whatsoever. Just something to take the fuckin’ edge of this shit off.”
Regardless of who he was, he’d never made a request like this. Somewhere lost in the heartbreak, embarrassment, the weed and liquor. The same for Savanhi.
“I have rules though. One rule. This is for tonight, right now in this moment. When it’s done, it’s done.”
“It’s a deal.”
