************

*Two Weeks Later*

"Do you have to leave? Why can't we just lay in bed all day?" I whined while watching my boyfriend of a year, KeVon Simmons, walk out of my bathroom freshly showered. "You literally just got here."

"Quit it. I came here right after the bruh's party last night." He said going through his bag to get his clothes out.

"At almost two in the morning!" I reminded him. "I swear it feels like we rarely see each other anymore."

"I told you, with graduation coming I have been taking on more clients." He told me. "My business is finally taking off and I can't start slacking off now, no matter how much I wanna lay in bed with my sexy-ass girlfriend." And just like that he had me blushing.

KeVon attended Norfolk State which was about twenty minutes away from where I attended school at Hampton University. He was set to graduate in December with a degree in Physical Education and Exercise Science. He had already teamed up with another soon-to-be graduate to open up their own private gym.

"Then I'll never see you, " I said with exasperation rolling over on my back dramatically.

"I already told you, you need to get back in the gym with me so I can work you out some more." He smiled while putting lotion on his body. "Then you can see me as much as you want."

"I hate the gym." I told him. "And I don't wanna lose any more weight. I love the size I'm at."

"I agree that it looks good on you baby." He said sitting down on the bed next to me. "But a size fourteen is not a healthy size for you. You need to lose at least another twenty pounds to get to your healthy target weight."

"My Doctor is happy with where I am." I pointed out now sitting up in my bed to face him.

"He's just happy that you aren't a size twenty anymore knocking on death's door." He commented standing back up to finish getting dressed.

I had met KeVon my freshman year at a frat party when I was much bigger and before the health scare that almost cost me my life. In the middle of class my sophomore year I had to be rushed to the ER after I started bleeding uncontrollably from my nose and mouth. Once there, I found out that my blood pressure had reached 220/170. Had my professor not called the ambulance when she did, I would have died.

What caused my pressure to spike? I had stopped taking my blood pressure medications because I hated the side effects of them, not realizing that those pills were keeping me alive! My doctor told me that if I didn't start taking better care of myself, better that I would die in a few years if not sooner. I was only twenty-one at the time. Talk about a wake-up call!

I started working out, but then found out that same summer that I had a tumor in my stomach the size of a seven-month-old baby and that it had its own blood supply. It had been a result of severe hypertension. I had to have two major surgeries to remove the tumor. From then on, I began to take my health more seriously.

KeVon, who already had his own personal training business by then, volunteered to help me get in shape and it was during this time that we got closer and started dating. One of the issues between us now was the amount of time he spent at the gym. In only his boxer briefs walking around my room, he looked as if he was modeling for a Calvin Klein ad. Standing at 6'2 and dripping like a dark chocolate Hershey bar, KeVon was the epitome of Man Crush Monday. The problem was that he knew it too and I actually loved that about him.

However, his words stung. Even if they were technically true. No girl wanted to hear her boyfriend tell her that she needed to lose twenty pounds! I groaned loudly and slid off the bed and strolled to my bathroom, leaving KeVon to debate about my dress size with himself. I wasn't in the mood to think about it and unlike him I wasn't obsessed talking about my body all the time. To me, my weight just meant that there was more of me to love. I had never dated a guy who didn't love my size. KeVon was different than the others, in that he truly cared about me and my health.

"Tima, don't be like that." KeVon said coming up behind me and wrapping his muscular arms around my waist. "I want you to be healthy." He mumbled in the crook of my neck. "You know how much I love you...and I'm not tryna lose you."

"Mhm." I began to brush my teeth. I looked in the mirror at my reflection. Guys had always considered me pretty no matter what size I was. From my skin that was the color of brown sugar to my almond-shaped eyes and high cheekbones. I had always received comments on my pretty face.

I moved from the mirror and leaned on the doorframe to watch Kevon as he moved around the room. He looked so different from when we met as freshmen. He went from being skinny to being built like a football player. We had hit it off as friends right away. It was when I started losing the weight and he started gaining muscle that all of the physical chemistry between us started in our junior year.

"What you got going on today?" He asked pulling his black tank over his head.

"I'm going to Cracker Barrel with Autumn-"

"Fatima." KeVon chastised me with his eyes.

"What? I can't enjoy some comfort food every now and then?"

"That stuff's not good for you."

"A lot of stuff is not good for me." I countered. "It's been a long time and that's where my girl wants to eat at." He began to pull on his sweats while continuing to listen but the disapproving look was all over his face.

"Then we're going to Deja's to get our hair did." I said with a grin while patting the tracks I had just sweat out in my marathon session of love-making with him.

"You going out tonight?" He asked while pulling his cap over his head. He really wasn't interested in listening as he typed away on his phone. "I gotta go, my client is waiting for me." He gave me a peck and rushed out the door. As soon as he was gone I reached for my laptop and began to work on another chapter for my book.

**********

After Autumn and I ate at Cracker Barrel, we went to the hair store to buy new hair for our girl Deja to hook us up. Deja Roane was from Portsmouth and had started at Hampton with us. By sophomore year, she dropped out to go to beauty school and was also only a few months away from getting her license. In the meantime, she was doing hair out of her apartment transforming her second bedroom into a makeshift salon.

Deja had the typical tiny waist and big butt of any Instagram model. Her various shades of beige blonde hair complimented her hazelnut skin and bright brown eyes.

She was very different than my best friend, Autumn Allen, who hailed from North Philly. We lived side by side in the same apartment building and like me, Autumn was curvy and proud. She just happened to carry all of her weight in her butt. Her cinnamon-colored brown skin was flawless and she had a smile that lit up any room she was in.

"Alright, alright." Deja said inspecting the new hair. "I'm about to hook you up and you need to tell that man of yours not to sweat this one out." She said digging through my freshly washed and dried hair. "How are you two doing anyway?" She asked while parting my hair.

"He's been busy getting his business up and running." I said while going through my phone.

When she stepped away to go check her phone, I took that quick moment to read my new notifications on WriteNow. Along with hundreds of new comments and votes, I realized that I had five new followers:

WriteNow was an online writing community where writers could go and write stories without having to go through an editor or publisher. You could publish whenever you wanted and your feedback came instantly and directly from your reading audience. No one in my life knew that I was a popular writer on WriteNow with over 30,000 followers. Some of my friends followed me and read my books without even knowing that @YaraTheWriter was actually me. I think that validation from my friends was the biggest compliment of my work.

I looked over the chapter of my book, Jericho's Heart, that I had typed up that morning after KeVon left and then clicked on the publish button. I placed my phone back in my lap as Deja came back to start braiding my hair. I could tell by the smile on Autumn's face that she was hype about the update and watched as she waved her phone at me.

"My girl updated her book," she said proudly as if she knew it was me. "I'm telling you Tima, you need to read this girl's work and take a break from those science books your nose is always buried in."

"I have to read those science books if I wanna graduate and go to medical school." I reminded her. I had very strict parents who put a lot of pressure on me to become a Pediatric Doctor with my own practice. They didn't believe in creative jobs, not feeling that those jobs were important. I didn't want to disappoint them so I locked my little secret up and was able to explore my passion while also earning my degree in medicine.

"But you don't have to read them all the time. You just don't know what you're missing out on." She said going back to her phone.

"I've missed the last three updates myself." Deja mumbled while working on my next braid. "Autumn, don't you come over here spoiling nothing either." Deja yelled at Autumn over the loud dryer.

"Girl, why these sex scenes gotta be so good!" Chanel Henderson, our other homegirl, said literally coming up from air. "And why Jericho gotta be so fine!"

"That man can get it anywhere, any position, and anytime!" Autumn chimed in. "And I read your little nasty comment, Chanel."

"I wish Jericho would read my comments." Chanel countered. "I want him to know all of the things I wanna do to him."

I loved writing about Jericho! Not only was he a successful rapper, but he was a 6'6 tatted up double shot of Hennessy. When some women talked about wanting to find a sexy hood nigga, he was the definition of that and so much more. Jericho wasn't just a gorgeous face either. Out the gate, his first album was already considered a classic. If you combined the smoothness of Drake, the lyrical genius of Kendrick, the consciousness of J. Cole, and the uniqueness of Chance the Rapper, you actually made yourself a dose of Jericho! He was also the guy that everyone was writing about and out of all the fanfics on WriteNow. Mine was the most popular so far.

"You know what you sound like right now don't you?" I asked Chanel with amusement.

"Mhm. A woman who knows exactly what she wants and I don't care about what anyone else thinks about it." Chanel said holding her head proudly.

"You talking all that mess, but if Jericho was standing in front of you right now you wouldn't know what to do." Autumn joked causing us all to laugh.

Hailing from Chicago, when we first met Chanel as a Freshmen, she was as shy as they came, only we got to see this other out-going side of her. As the years went on she grew out of that, but was still very private when it came to her personal life. When you looked at Chanel's French Vanilla skin, you would think she was mixed with something but she would only claim to be black. She was one of the most fun people to be around. And you put Chanel and Autumn together, it was a comedy show all in itself.

"Y'all some freaks," I commented turning my head to the side for Deja to move on to the next braid. "I'm gonna start recording these conversations."

"As long as you're sending it to Jaren Young. I don't care!" Autumn said with a sneaky grin. "And you know good and well that Brandy don't know what to do with all of that."

"She's pretty though." I said defending the famous actress.

Brandy Moore was Hollywood's new it black girl after starring in a movie that Denzel Washington had produced two year before. We were all surprised to find out that Jericho was dating her because she didn't even seem like his type at all.

"That girl is working on that movie with Michael B. Jordan and Chris Evans and then gets to take her ass home to Jericho!" Chanel said shaking her head. "That's the life I'm talking about. Let me kiss Michael all day on set then go home and get sexed by Jericho at night."

"I'm tryna do a lot more than just kiss Michael now." Deja chimed in. "We would be having the trailer rocking." We all began to agree with her through nods and mumbles.

"How is your boo doing?" I asked Deja as the other two girls went back to reading on their phones.

"Not a damn thang, " Deja said while moving to the last braid. "There ain't nothing worse than a fine man with no job or no drive to do anything with his life."

"I know that's right." I commented. There were a lot of those types driving around the 757 acting like they were ballers when they really just had a bunch of girls taking care of them.

"Tima, you're lucky your man has his shit together. You better hold on to that one because you ain't gonna find nothing better around here." She finished my braid before continuing. "I'll be right back. I need to rinse Autumn out real quick."

I thought about Deja's words as she walked away, but was distracted with a new message that I got from one of my new followers.

Me: Look who's on his arm now! Even though this is a fiction story, I try to stay true to the personality of the person that I am using.

Me: Not necessarily, but if he had a choice between the two women I see him choosing the prettier one just because he can.

Me: Like I said, it's my interpretation of who I think he is. Neither of us personally know him to know otherwise.

Me: Thank you for reading my story though!

I waited a few seconds and when I didn't receive a response I quickly closed the app so that Deja wouldn't catch what I was doing. I loved interacting with my readers and helping them to understand my process so I didn't mind the short debate with a new reader.