I watch as Adrienne's expression changes from fear to annoyance and then to something I can't understand.

She just stands there, staring at me.

"You did hear me say sit down right?" I say, making her scoff.

"How did you get in here?" She asks, folding her arms over her chest. She looks tired, beautiful, but tired. There's dark circles under her eyes and her hair is thrown into a ponytail that recived little effort.

I pull a key from my pocket.

"Made a copy when you first gave it to me." I say, holding it up. Adrienne sucks her teeth.

"You need to leave, I don't wanna talk about anything right-"

"I said, sit down." I repeat, my patience growing thin.

It's only been two days of us not talking, barely that, and I don't think I can deal with it for much longer, so we're gonna sit and talk whether she wants to or not.

Adrienne walks over to the bed slowly, sitting on the edge of it, as far away from me as she can get. I feel another twinge of annoyance at her action.

"What?" She questions, looking down at her feet.

There's a pause as I try to get my words together. There isn't much for me to say that she doesn't already know, but I just thought it wouldn't hurt to try to make her understand, to make her a little less mad at me.

"I'm sorry." I say.

"I know."

"Are you really scared of me?" I ask, genuinely wanting to know her answer. If she is, I understand, but she has to know I would never hurt her.

Adrienne looks up at me, her normally vibrant eyes now dull, peering a hole into my soul.

"I'm scared of losing you." She says.

"You won't-"

"I know you don't do what you do for no reason Lesane. I know there's a reason, a good one. Sadly it's probably one that I'll never be able to fully understand."

"I get it. I get that there are people that probably wanna kill you." She says, her eyes glancing down at my chest. "So I know that you have to protect yourself and that's okay."

I stare at her, "So you're not mad at me?"

There's a pause again as she looks down at her hands in her lap.

"Can you promise me that you'll only do what you need to protect yourself? Nothing more." She asks, I clear my throat.

"I promise." I say.

Adrienne gets up from the bed before speaking again.

"We should get in the shower, so I can help you clean that up." She says, her voice is still low, and she hasn't looked at me anymore since earlier.

"Igh." I say, as she walks out of the bedroom.

Adrienne

I stand in the shower, letting the water run over me. A loc falls out of my bun, making me reach up and tuck it back in.

A few minutes pass by before Tupac comes in, he steps into the shower facing me, but my eyes stay glued to my feet as he pulls the curtain closed.

He places a hand on my cheek before gently lifting my chin, that's when I see his wound. He was definitely shot, and I find myself trying not to think too hard about what happened to whoever did that to him.

Our gazes meet and my breath gets caught in my throat briefly.

"I love you." He says.

He loves me?

Is he sure?

"You put ya ass on the line for me the other day, and it made me realize that me and you, we got something special, something ion think I could live without now."

I keep silent, not knowing what to say.

"You don't have to say it back, cause I know you probably still don't fully trust me, and that's igh, I'll have to earn it back.. but I just wanted to tell you, so you know you not getting rid of me anytime soon." He says, I give him a small smile.

I know I love him, but I'm gonna wait.. I just think I should.

Lesane pulls me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me, the water still softy beating on my back, and the steam making this moment even more intimate.

I feel his dick against my leg, making me pull away from him.

"Me or you first?" I ask, pulling the washcloth off of the shower rod.

"You." He says, a smirk on his face as he takes the cloth from my hand.

I get the bar of soap from the soap dish before placing it in his hand. My eyes lustfully roam his body as he lathers the soap, all the things he could do to me right now.. or the things I could do to him.

He gives me the soap to put back in the dish before he tells me to switch places with him and turn around. I do as he says. He washes my back slowly, I bite my lip, trying to keep my composure and steady my shaky breathing.

He places his hand on my lower back, I no longer feel the washcloth.

"You're so beautiful." He says.

I turn to face him, and he presses his lips against mine. His tongue explores my mouth, and his hands roam my body.

God we're wasting so much water.

Tupac lifts me up by my thighs, my back against the shower wall as he still devours my lips hungrily, I prepare myself for our bodies to connect, something that's been long awaited between us but then he suddenly pulls away.

"I'm sorry." He says, placing me on my feet again. "We're not really okay right now, I don't want our first time to be like this, filled with confused emotions." He says.

I smile, a bit of relief flooding through me.

"Okay."

~

I listen to Tupac's snoring, but I can't sleep.

I've felt this before, this feeling of a deep connection to someone, but the fear from my last heartbreak haunts me. What if Tupac decides that I'm not enough for him?

What if he wants someone else?

What if he gets hurt.. or worse?

What if I lose him?

I get up from the bed, going into my kitchen and pouring myself a glass of wine. My mom used to talk about how wine made her sleepy, maybe it'll do the same for me.

After my third glass, Lesane comes into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes.

"You igh?"

I nod, sipping from my glass.

He stands there, unsure of what to do next, so he steps back and leans against the kitchen counter. We stand there in comfortable silence for a while, before an urge to confess something to him escapes from my throat.

"I've been engaged before... when I was 19." I say, making Tupac walk closer to me.

"What happened?"

I swallow hard, why am I even telling him about this? It was years ago.

"Someone tried to rob him at a gas station. When he wouldn't give up his money, they shot him and ran off." I say, the tension in the air thickening. I don't look at Lesane, but I know this information shocks him.

"His name was Lawrence."

Tupac wraps his arm around me, rubbing my arm as a comforting gesture.

"I think maybe.. that's why it upset me so much to find out what you were doing." I say. "I painted you to be the same as this person who took away someone I loved."

I take another sip from my glass before Tupac takes it from me and sits it on the counter behind us. He takes me by my shoulders, his eyes peering deep into mine.

"I'm gonna be better for you Dri, I swear." He says.

Tears start to well in my eyes.

Me and Lawrence had been together since highschool, my freshman year, his sophomore year. He swore he'd wait for me to graduate so we could get married, and he did.

I remember that day so clearly, he came all the way from NYU to see me, and to propose.

A part of me thinks that if I hadn't been apart of his life, he'd still be here, and he'd be one of the best doctors in New York, I just know it.

"I can't lose you. Whether it'd be prison or death, I can't lose you Tupac." I say.

"You won't." He says, placing a kiss on my forhead.

"Let's go back to bed.. you need rest." He says, pulling me by my wrist softly.

"Alright." I say, more to myself than him.

~

Tupac

I sit at my desk at Black Cotton, thinking.

There's a few things I have to do before we open tonight.

I left before Adrienne woke up, I hate seeing her so confused and conflicted. I know what she said, but I could feel that she's still upset with me.

I don't know how I'm gonna earn her trust back, what if she never trusts me again?

"You got somebody that wanna talk to you outside." One of my security guards says, before closing my office door. I furrow my eyebrows, who the hell is it?

Just as I get up from my chair, my door opens again, it's my mama.

"Son." She says, a disapproving tone in her voice.

I walk around my desk, sitting on top of it and lighting a cigarette.

"Nice of you to finally drop by." I chuckle. "I sure didn't expect you."

"Just came to see if you had made your decision about turning yourself in. You know I only want whats best for you." She says, clutching her necklace tightly as if she's uncomfortable with the environment.

"Oh you ain't heard? Ian got nothing to do with them robberies. I'm a innocent man." I chuckle again, blowing smoke into the air and watching it disappear.

"Tupac." She gives me a knowing look.

"How you like the club? Glad you came early, gets a lil outta hand at night." I say, attempting to change the subject, but my mama just shakes her head.

"I don't know where I went wrong with you." She says.

"Me either Afeni. Me either. I assume you know the way out, since we ain't got nothing else to discuss." I say, getting off my desk and walking back around it to sit down. She looks at me, and for a moment I see something in her eyes that isn't normally there.

Just as she's about to leave, my office door opens again, it's Adrienne.

Her eyes widen, and my mom glances back and forth between the both of us.

"I'm sorry, did I-?"

"Who are you?" My mama asks, disgust thick in her voice as she eyes Adrienne.

The last girlfriend my mom knew of is Kiada, and she loves that damn wanch. Even after I told her how Dada cheated on me more than once she always made an excuse for her and somehow blamed it on me.

I observe, waiting to see how Dri will handle herself in front of her.