Page 153 of Tangled Hearts
“You ain’t lyin’,” Knycole laughed. “She already got his location and logins.”
“Damn, Rocky smooth with it,” Noir laughed while wiping her face.
Noir reached for the necklace. A simple heart with iced out diamonds that shined in the dark.
“He wasn’t perfect,” she whispered. “But he loved me in the ways I needed back then.”
Nakorea walked in. “And you loved him. But baby, love is not a pause button. It’s not meant to keep you stuck.”
“I feel stuck.”
“That’s ‘cause you grieving. And grief gon’ make you think stillness is forever. But it’s just a season, baby. It’ll pass. The same way joy did when it left—it’ll come back too.”
Noir took a deep breath.
Her mama walked over and kissed her forehead. “You gon’ be okay.”
“Even if I don’t know what that looks like?”
“Especiallythen.”
They sat like that for a while. All of them. Family. Grief stretching its long arms around the room but not swallowing them whole.
Noir’s heart was tangled, not broken—still beating between the knots made from love and grief.
A week later
The house was dark, but he knew she was up.
Nakorea had told him Noir was restless but stayed in that bed… didn’t leave the room for anything. Everyone made it their business to cater to her and she usually only talked to Hov. Probably because his grief felt real like hers.
Cash stood in the doorway with one hand on the frame just watching her— trying to be understanding to what she was going through. He hated pulling up unannounced, but something in his spirit told him to show up.
He texted her twice that morning.
$: You eat?
$: I’m in town. You good?
No reply.
So he showed up.
He’d already ran the play down to Nakorea, so she’d left the front door open for him. Everyone else was either gone or sleep in one of the many bedrooms Christian and Noir had in the home. They were supposed to raise a family in this house— create the best life in this house.
That reality had Cash rethinking his every move.
Him and Christian weren’t friends, never had a friendly conversation but respect among Black men was a thing and Christian was respected. All of that made Cash feel out of placefor even stepping into that man’s house. Still, if Noir was there, he wanted to be there too.
Just standing in the door, between the room and the hall, Christina’s scent clung in the air and stuck to the floor. Looking around their bedroom, Cash could see the two of them tangled in the sheets once upon a time.
Noir was in the bed on her side, an oversized tee swallowing her slim frame. It was one of Christian’s. Of course it was. Her hair was wild, and her body rose and fell slowly. She looked too exhausted to even more. She sniffled a little, the pain almost too much to bear.
Cash didn’t say anything. Only stepped in, shutting the door behind him, before sitting on the edge of the bed. The bed dipped.
She looked at him with red eyes and a red nose. Seeing him there, her heart skipped a beat.
“I was gon’ wait until you hit me back,” he spoke in a hushed tone. “But it’s been three days, and I ain’t built like that. You don’t gotta talk, but I needed to see you. Needed to make sure you were good, pretty girl.”
