Page 13 of Captivated By Danger

“Quinci is… different. We are a few weeks shy of our first year of marriage and I still wake up, scared that she might leave me, even though I knew I hadn’t done anything. Being with someone who doesn’t give a damn about my money is hard because you really have to be a decent human being. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t flirt or nothing because a bag or a trip couldn’t fix it. Never thought that I’d be with a woman, and not even think about being with another woman. This shit feels good.”

That made me grin because I remembered when my little brother was against marriage. Swore that he’d never settle down, or he wouldn’t settle down until he was like fifty. Talking about he loved being alone. He had a long spiel every time we talked about it, and to look at him doing the complete opposite, made me happy. It’s crazy that he was so against it, and he was the first of us to get married.

I nodded my head. “That sounds good. I’m happy for you.”

He eyed me for a moment before grinning. “You asking me about it, you must be thinking about settling down or something?”

I raised my eyebrows in response. “You know I told you that I wouldn’t mind having a lifelong partner, but I’m not looking for that right now.”

“Well, you don’t know what you’re missing.”

That made me laugh. “Nigga been in a relationship for all of two minutes and now I don’t know what I’m missing.” I laughed even harder. “You bugging.”

He laughed before raising his hands in surrender. “Look, I’m just saying. Don’t fight me.”

“I’m not. I told you that I’m not against it, I’m just not looking.”

He rubbed his chin. “I’m trying to think of what kind of woman you’d want for real and not the type of subs you go for.”

“Go for it.”

Over the last couple years, my brother and I have grown closer. After hearing in detail about everything he was dealing with internally, regarding our family, I’d stopped being so hard on him. I always thought he was just being a spoiled bratty asshole, but our parents really fucked him up. We’d always been close, but we were able to bond differently after that.

“Alright. I got it, bro. You would want a woman that is just as career-driven as you, so y’all would work all the time, barely seeing each other. Only have a scheduled dinner once, maybe twice a week. Probably have an appointment at Chokers twice a month. You have about two subs that you’ll want to maintain, promising to never embarrass her with a scandal like your father had. What else? Of course, she’ll be able to do whatever she wants. Basically, you want a boring ass, statistical ass marriage like your parents.”

When I shrugged my shoulder, he sat back in his seat and laughed.

There wasn’t anything that I could say because that was true. For a man like me, relationships were hard to maintain, realistically. It would be hard to come home for dinner at six when I had to manage the numbers for a company that’s worth over a hundred million dollars. Money was the one thing that was never constant. I watched our numbers like the Wall Street niggas watched the stock market. The moment one hotel dipped below the number I’d set for it, I’m immediately in the system, trying to figure out what happened and what we could do to get it back where it needed to be.

Because my life never stopped, it would be hard to have a relationship, especially with a woman whose love language was affection or quality time. I would need to have a woman whose love language was gifts. I could buy a woman a private island if she wanted, but time would be hard to give. And that’s just for the woman. I couldn’t imagine if the woman wanted a child. In this moment, being a father was the furthest thing from my mind because kids needed more love and affection than an adult needed, plus I didn’t even know what kind of father I’d be.

For the first time, I’d been in deep thought about it.

“Yo, you feel like going out tonight. Quinci talking about she wants to go have some jerk chicken wings at some hole in the wall.”

I reclined my seat. “She wasn’t asking. One thing I learned about your wife is whatever she wants, she gets. So, of course, I would love to go out and have chicken wings.”

He laughed because he knew his wife too.

After the aggravating morning I’d had, a few drinks and wings wouldn’t be so bad.

THREE

GREYSEN

May 1st, 2018

I was in the middle of watching The Price is Right when I’d suddenly got a weird feeling in my stomach, making me adjust in the bed. Being nine months pregnant, every way I slept was uncomfortable. My due date was two days ago, but I’d been downright miserable for the last four weeks. I’d gained nearly thirty pounds. The doctor had to put me on bedrest because my blood pressure was sky high. Over the last few weeks, it had been hard to manage my stress. He did that so I wouldn’t go into labor early, and here it was, I was two days past due.

After I’d gotten comfortable again, I’d gotten a sharp pain in my stomach, making me sit up, and clutch my side. Immediately, I grabbed the phone, calling Kyle. After a few rings, it went to voicemail. I called right back.

“Pick up. Pick up. Pick up,” I muttered.

It went to voicemail again. I can admit that I hadn’t been easy to get along with since I been on bed rest, but he wasn’t making it easy for me either. I’d been super scared and stressed out about being a first-time mom, so I was always freaking out. I was hoping that he was just super busy at work and not blatantly ignoring me. I knew that I’d cried wolf several times, but this time it felt weirder than anything I’d felt before. The baby was coming this time.

He finally picked up on the fourth call.

“Greysen, I am working,” he snapped.

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