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I was in the studio with Beanie Siegal, my engineer Brendan, Richie Beats and a few of the homies. My phone kept going off as we worked and I knew it was more people wanting to ask me about all the blog gossip about Brandy and Michael B. Jordan. Unlike other people I didn't like to talk about who I was messing with, especially to the media. To me, it was nobody's business. It wasn't like they really cared anyways. How many public celebrity couples did they build up just to tear down later?

Brandy called me the minute the post went up and social media started going crazy. I asked her if any of it was true. She told me no. I believed her because I trusted people's word until they showed me otherwise. She also told me that after she finished shooting her scenes for the day that she was coming to New York to spend a few days with me. I didn't need her to do all that, but she said she needed to see me because all the rumors were stressing her out.

I wasn't an insecure lame-ass nigga who needed to be up under my girl all the time. And I believed that if somebody was going to cheat, they were going to do it whether they were 5 miles away or 5,000. I wasn't naive, my ears were always to the streets and my eyes were wide open. No matter what rumors were out there about somebody, I still gave people the benefit of the doubt.

For the next few hours, I focused on finishing the Beanie Siegal track. I loved working with hip hop legends. It always pushed me to give my best in the studio to impress them. After we finished the song, Beanie left and my boys sat around talking about where they wanted to go for the night. I took out a blunt and started smoking as they made plans.

"You rolling?" Richie asked.

"Naw, I'm gonna take my ass home." I told him blowing smoke.

"This nigga over here in love." One of my boys said causing everybody else to laugh.

"A nigga just tryna lay low. At least until the album drops." I replied.

"Is that what your girl is doing?" My boy TK asked with amusement.

I could see that he was trying to be funny, but he should've known by now that I was a genius with the pen

"You still a bitch I see." I mumbled after I finished taking another puff. His words didn't bother me, I was secure in my shit.

"How am I a bitch? My girl ain't out here fucking nobody else." He returned.

"Only bitches believe everything they read." I answered for him getting up from the table I was sitting on. "If I was to tell you everything I heard about your girl, you might off yourself. Remember who the fuck you talking to." I began to dap up my other boys. "I'm out. I'll see y'all two niggas tomorrow." I pointed at Brendan and Richie.

"Man fuck you Jaren, you ain't heard shit bout my girl." TK followed-up.

"Stay up." I laughed while leaving them in the studio.

I thought about the situation for only a minute on the drive home. I had been in the game a long time. People always had shit to say about what was going on in somebody else's life.

The minute I walked through the door the scent of something sweet hit my nose. I looked around expecting to see Courtney because she sometimes liked to burn candles in the guest room, but she was nowhere in sight. I assumed that after she let Brandy in she left.

I climbed the stairs until I reached my master bedroom where I found Brandy dressed in a sexy white lingerie number knocked out across my bed. A few fruity scented candles were burning, illuminating my gray and black decorated room.I walked over to the king-sized bed and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead and she began to stir awake.

"You're home." She said rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?"

"Almost two." I said looking down at her as she stretched her arms.

"I'm sorry baby, I tried to wait up for you." She said sitting up to caress the side of my face.

"I told you that you didn't need to make the trip. I am busy tryna wrap this album up."

Brandy moved to her knees on the bed. "I needed to make sure that we were okay." She wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Once you told me you weren't sleeping with ole boy, I told you I was good."

"Baby, I would never do that to you." She said both of her hands now holding my face. "Chris rented out a restaurant for the cast and we all went out to eat. I'm not sure why someone would report that Michael and I were sleeping together, but we aren't! We just work together, that's it."

"Then we straight." I told her. "I know you. I don't know all these people writing all these stories." I paused and searched her face. "But if I ever find out-"

"Baby, I love you too much to do anything to hurt you." She said then she began to kiss me on the lips.

I didn't say the words back because I had love for her, but I wasn't sure if what we had was love yet. I believed that love came with time and the longer you saw someone in different situations. That was the number one thing I learned growing up with a single mother who suffered many heartbreaks.

Brandy and I had been dating for about six months. When I first met her at an industry party I thought she was just another airhead actress looking for a come-up from my sudden fame. She was on all of the up-and-coming actress lists and I had assumed from what I read about her that she was exactly Black America's new sweetheart.

She was anything but that. She reminded me of a younger version of Vanessa Williams with her gray eyes, honey-coated skin, and light brown hair. She was a down-to-earth Detroit girl who was not only beautiful, but she was also smart and driven, all qualities that I loved in women. We had been keeping everything between us on the low until TMZ leaked video of her leaving my condo in the middle of the night. And even though the public knew that we were together, I didn't publicize our relationship.

For the next hour, Brandy sexed me down to make up for all the time we had missed out on while she was shooting this movie. She was pulling out all kinds of freaky tricks. She wasn't a night owl like me, so she went straight to sleep right afterwards. I however, rolled over on my back and picked up my phone.

I scrolled through and answered some new messages from my manager, read some comments on my social media pages, and checked the schedule that Courtney emailed me for that next week. My album was pretty much complete and the execs wanted to hear it.

Then I went to WriteNow to catch up on the last chapter I hadn't read from Yara's book. She posted it a few days ago, I just hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. When I read that Jericho found out that Porsha had been cheating with her agent, it bothered me that Yara would listen to what she read in the media and add that cheating aspect to her book. Up until that point I thought she was a brilliant, original writer and now it seemed like she was recycling the most obvious storyline. I went to my messages and noticed that she had also written me a new message.

Me: I think it was lazy.

I was about to exit thinking she was sleep when she surprised me and responded right back.

Me: you using shit you read in blogs to come up with stuff for your story.

Me: not takin nothing personal. You a good writer, you don't need to read gossip to get ideas.

Me: do you know her

Me: then why would you assume you know who she's sleeping with

That shit threw me off because I looked directly in Brandy's eyes when she told me that she wasn't stepping out in me. What did Yara see that I didn't?

Me: what happens next

Me: I was talking about your story, not his real life

Me: you think Jericho would drop his girl over some blogs

Me: where is your man at

Me: next to me

Me: I'm talking to another writer

Me: poetry

Me: maybe later

Me: you funny

Me: we don't even know each other

Me: why is that

I paused and read her words again because as much as I hated to admit it, I liked being able to chat with someone who wasn't just trying to tell me what I wanted to hear. Yara was just cool in general and I could tell that she needed these talks as much as I did.

Me: you not curious about who I am?

Me: what's wrong with that

Me: is your real name even Yara

There was a long paused before she answered.

Me: I didn't ask for it and you still didn't answer my other question

Me: where is your man? Shouldn't he be there with you?

Me: you seem to do that a lot lately

Me: want some advice

Me: from a man

Me: I'm a man tho and I'm telling you a man who is always picking fights is not happy with what he has

There was a pause.

Me: your right

Me: I hope it's better than this one

Me: that's truth

I placed my phone on the nightstand and rolled over to try and get some sleep. I had to go back into the studio to go over my entire album with my producer and engineer and we were going to clean up any tracks that didn't sound right.

I hoped to have the entire thing ready for the executives so that I could start living a normal life again. For the past few months I had turned into a hermit separating myself from distractions. The sacrifice was worth it though, I felt like I had another classic on my hands.