Snatched Up By A Bad Boy

by Prenisha Aja

  I didn’t even respond to his foolishness. Instead, I continued to stand in the corner until I heard the front door close. Relief washed over me, and I quickly scurried to the front door, locked it and found my way over to my couch.

  Sitting down, I slouched and sulked in my misery for a second. It was crazy how even though I knew I had made the right decision for myself, I still found myself wondering what if. What if he really changed and I had just jumped to conclusions?

  Sighing, I got up and headed back to my room, so that I could shower and get dressed. I needed to head out for my morning run. That always helped me see a clear view of things and to relieve some stress.

  Breathing heavily, I stopped running and bent over as I tried to catch my breath. The thirty-minute run though the park was just what I needed. The fresh air, the vitamin D and even the sounds of families and children playing, all seemed to bring me solace.

  “Damn,” I heard a deep tone say, which caused me to pop up and turn around with a scowl on my face.

  “Fuck,” he said again as he continued to jog in place as he lustfully eyed me from head to toe.

  “You know that is disrespectful, right?”

  “I mean, you out there in this bright ass biker shorts, bent over, with all that ass, and you just wanted me to keep running past you, like that shit didn’t blind me?” He chuckled. “My name is Grey by the way.” He stretched his hand out and I couldn’t help but to shake it.

  Grey was fine as fuck and I could have sworn I had seen him somewhere before, but I couldn’t put my finger on where exactly.

  However, he stood in front of me looking like a tall glass of chocolate milk. He had a sexy ass man bun and thick ass beard. His skin was blemish free and his broad shoulders and muscled arms let me know he did more than run. But why had I never seen him before? I ran this same trail, every day at the same time and never had I ever seen him.

  “Hi Grey, I’m Merci. Why haven’t I ever met your rude ass on this trail before?” I quizzed.

  “Because I just moved in a neighborhood not too far from here. Anything else you would like to know, Detective?” he asked, as he looked down at his black Apple watch.

  “You got jokes.” I smiled.

  “And you got a sexy ass smile,” he complimented, which caused me to blush.

  This man was sexy, and he had charm, which only meant one thing; he was trouble. He was most likely another Nix and I just couldn’t afford that type of disturbance.

  “Well Grey, it was nice meeting you.” I decided to cut our little meeting short and scram before he asked for my number or continued to flirt with me.

  “Nice meeting you too, Sunshine,” he let his words flow from his mouth so suave, as he did this little thing with his eyebrows. He was really smooth with the shit and it was actually cute, not to mention he had a nice ass smile too.

  “Alright, catch you around.” I waved goodbye as I began jogging.

  “Aye Sunshine, don’t think that you’ll get away that easily the next time we bump into each other. Same time, same place.” Grey winked, he then turned and jogged in the other direction.

  Same time, same place, I repeated in my mind as I found myself with the silliest smile on my face. Shaking my head, I put Mr. Grey in the back of my head and finished my jog. I still had a lot to handle today, especially after what had happened last night.

  10

  Brynlee

  It had been three weeks since I had been back in Texas. Three freaking weeks, and I was just now sending in my resume to that company that my old boss had informed me about.

  I figured it was about time that I started working because I needed money and plus, if I did decide to stay, I couldn’t see myself living in my parents’ home. I was way too old for that and there was nothing like having your very own shit.

  While I laid across my old bed, a number that I didn’t recognize popped up on the screen. I figured that it was the job that I had applied for already calling so I answered it, with a little bit of excitement in my voice.

  “Hello,” I answered, now sitting straight up as my leg shook anxiously.

  “Brynlee,” his voice flowed through the phone and caused my skin to crawl.

  I hadn’t talked to Troy since I had left New York. I wasn’t over what he had said to me. That shit hurt. He knew that was and would always be a sensitive matter to me and for him to throw some shit about me not being able to have kids in my face and the rest of the dumb shit he said, stung.

  “Bye Tr—”

  “No Brynlee, please hear me out. Baby, please,” he begged on the end of the phone.

  “What Troy? What?”

  “Baby, come back home. I miss you. I’m sorry for the shit that I said, and I am sorry for putting my hands on you. I need you to just come back home. Shit’s not the same without you here,” he whined in the phone, and it was like my heart sank.

  I began to feel bad. I began to crave the good part of me and Troy’s relationship. The memories we had created during the years that weren’t bad, there was many good ones. Despite how crazy things began to get with each miscarriage that I had, the love we shared was there. He and I were just in too much pain. Hurt people indeed did hurt people. We were living proof.

  “Troy, I don’t know… I’m not going to lie and say I don’t miss you but, the pain. The pain is still there, and I know if I come home, that isn’t going to fix anything,” I told him.

  Even if I did come home, that wasn’t going to fix anything at all. Who’s to say that me being gone would? I just felt like this was what I needed. I needed space.

  “Well where are you? I’ll come to you,” he offered, and I sighed.

  “No, Troy. I’m not telling you—”

  “Hey honey, there’s some man at the door for you.” My mother came in my room after knocking lightly on the door.

  I looked up at her with my brows scrunched up. I was confused. Who could have been at the front door for me? Hell, I hadn’t been at home long enough for someone to be knocking on the door.

  Muffling the phone, I spoke to her. “Ok, I’ll be down in a minute. Did they say a name?”

  “No, they didn’t, but good Lord.” She fanned herself and winked at me.

  Shaking my head and laughing, I knew right then who it was.

  “Hey, I have to talk to you later,” I told Troy.

  “Are you back in Texas?” he quickly asked, but instead of answering, I just hung up in his face.

  I got up from the bed and before I went down to see who was waiting on me, I had to check myself out in the mirror.

  I wasn’t dressed up or anything. Matter fact, today was a lazy day. I had been in bed all day, searching for jobs and sending out my resume. I only made sure that my hair wasn’t scattered all over my head. The too big shirt and shorts that I had on would have to work, because I wasn’t changing clothes.

  I grabbed the wire brush off of my dresser and ran it through my hair a couple of times, then slipped my feet into my black slides.

  I was now on my way down the stairs. I was a little nervous to see who was waiting for me. Stopping when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I could hear my mother laughing and then I heard his voice.

  What is he doing here? I wondered. I hadn’t seen or talked to him since the night at the club. I honestly thought that he might have forgotten about me, even though I hadn’t forgot his ass.

  “Brynlee,” my mother called my name, putting me on the spot.

  “Yes Mom.” I walked off of the last step.

  I had to around the corner a little and then I was greeted by Sawyer. He was sitting on our sofa with a white binder that contained all of my old pictures. That book contained some of my most embarrassing moments. Also, let’s just say the glow up was real.

  “Oh my god, Mom, you didn’t!” I was so embarrassed right now as Sawyer flipped through the book and a smile crept on his face at a picture I hated.

  I was around seven years old and my mom had given me three plait
s. Well the one plait that she had put in the middle of my head was sticking straight up. How it got that way, I didn’t remember, but I was always hard on my hair when I was little. My mother would send me to school looking one way and when I got home, my hair or clothes were never the same.

  “Dang ma, this can’t be the same chick I’m looking at now.” He looked up from the picture and looked at me.

  Sawyer’s hooded eyes caused me to become speechless and not have a comeback. He licked his lips and winked, like he knew what was going through my head. He was fine, yes. However, he was trouble. He had been that since I had seen him in the mall and unlike other girls, I didn’t need something to hit me time after time in order for me to get it.

  I had left Troy who I was engaged to because I didn’t need for him to say more hurtful shit for me to understand. My mom always told me, a mad motherfucka, always speaks the truth. Just how a drunk speaks a sober mind. I believed that shit.

  Clearing my throat, I looked at him as if his presence annoyed me. “What are you doing here?”

  “Don’t be rude,” my mother spat, who I could tell was a fan of Sawyer.

  “Really Mom? Where is Dad?” I darted my eyes over at her.

  “Minding his business, but let me go mind mine. Don’t be being mean to this young man.” She looked at me and scrunched her eyebrows up and down as if Sawyer wasn’t in the same room as us.

  Palming my face, I watched through my fingers as my mom waltzed her way out of the living room, leaving me and Sawyer alone.

  “You heard what ya moms said. Don’t be rude.” He stood up and chuckled.

  His extra tall, lanky ass walked over to me, and his expensive cologne tickled my nose and made my damn heart speed up as if I had just gotten high off the purest dope around.

  “Sawyer, what do you want?” I quizzed.

  “Truthfully, a nigga want yo’ ass.” His bluntness startled me. I was pretty sure it was also written all over my face.

  “Which we already know that, but I feel like you deserve a real date with me so that you can see that I ain’t with all that drama shit,” he let me know.

  “Drama?” I raised my brow because his baby mama drama was a small matter compared to the shootout.

  “Uhmm, fuck your baby mama. What about the shooting and shit? That’s a big fucking deal breaker,” I let him know.

  My ass was not trying to be riding next to him and then the next thing I knew, his car would be getting shot up. I knew exactly how shit went down in the hood, celebrity or not.

  Sawyer began laughing in my face. “Say, ma. That only happened because we were in the club. Ain’t no nigga in his right mind ever gonna step to me on no shit like that. Trust, once I find out who did the shit, it’s on site,” he boasted as he grabbed the crotch of his pants.

  “Big balls, baby. No lie.” He gestured, gripping his balls through his pants. “Please believe all that I am saying,” he continued.

  “Big balls and big dead if a bullet hit yo’ ass. Niggas don’t care who you are,” I let him know.

  Sawyer gripped my cheeks and stared at me intensely. “I ain’t them other niggas.”

  “Once you realize that, then you’ll understand. If a nigga wanted me dead, I would be. God ain’t ready for me yet. I still got some unfinished business out here. One being you.” He winked, and I felt like putty in his hands.

  Sawyer’s words were real, and my knees began to feel like they were going to give out on me. I had to go sit down.

  “Brynlee…” he called my name. “So, can I get that date or what?” he asked again.

  I sat there and debated. It was crazy how I had said one thing but the way my heart was skipping a beat, let me know that I wanted to do another.

  “Under one condition.”

  “And what is that?” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

  “We don’t do no ratchet, hood ass shit,” I let him know which caused him to double over in laughter.

  The fuck? I thought. I was puzzled as to what was so fucking funny. The way he was standing in the middle of the living room, tickled as if I had just done standup comedy, had lowkey offended me.

  “What’s so damn funny?”

  “You bruh. I need you to stop playing with me and be ready when I tell yo’ ass to be. I swear, if you keep fucking with me, you’ll see. You must be used to them square ass, lame ass niggas.” He flicked the top of his slim nose.

  “Excuse me.” I jerked my head back.

  “You heard me. Like I said, be ready. But check it, I got to go to the studio and shit. I’ll hit you up when I finish.” He looked down at this Apple watch then at me.

  Sawyer fingered for me to get up and it was like my body had a mind of its own. I got up without even thinking twice about it.

  “Good girl. You’ll get with the program sooner than you think.” He winked.

  Sawyer then left out the house, leaving me standing there. Smirking to myself, I felt like I had just gotten checked.

  Seconds later, my mother walked into the living room as if she had been around the corner listening to us all along.

  “What Mom?” I asked her.

  She had this worried expression on her face which confused me, because I thought that she liked Sawyer.

  “I hope you know what you are doing. What about Troy? I think Sawyer really likes you, so either let him know now that you are not looking for a relationship or just let him know about your situation. Whatever you do, tell him.” My mother sat down, and I did the same.

  “Mom, it isn’t too soon though? And tell me why Troy called me.” I sighed as I thought about what Troy was saying to me on the phone.

  “And…” She looked at me, waiting for me to tell her more.

  “He was saying that he missed me and how I needed to come home,” I expressed as I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and stared off at the TV, that was actually on mute.

  “How did that make you feel? I totally understand if you want to go back to him Brynlee. Y’all were engaged and due to get married soon. It can be hard to throw away that many years. I want you to know that each relationship has problems. You have to choose what you want to deal with and what you don’t. Also know that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side,” she spoke and got back up.

  She left me sitting there, thinking about what I should do. If I wanted to go back home and work things out with Troy or to see what Sawyer was about. The decision making wasn’t an easy one, so I was just going to go with the flow of things.

  11

  Troy

  “Fuck,” I yelled as I sat on the end of the bed that I once shared with Brynlee and looked at a picture we had taken.

  She was the prettiest girl that I had ever been with and I regretted letting those hurtful words leave me mouth. Not to mention, I regretted having a baby on her, but my child was here and there was nothing that I could do about it.

  I wanted her back something serious, but I knew that once she found out that would be something that would break her down, and I could lose her forever. But that wasn’t an option. I had to think of something.

  I had to get my future wife back and figure out a way for her to accept my son.

  Sighing deeply, I got off of the bed, making sure to grab the bottle of liquor off of the floor. I had been drinking so much, that I could barely stand. I was even going to work drunk. A few times, my students would call my ass out but none of them had ratted me out.

  Hearing my phone ring, I turned around and snatched it off of the bed and answered it.

  It was Jadoré. I hadn’t been talking to her since Brynlee left. I hadn’t gone to see my son or none of that. I knew it was fucked up of me, but I was battling with some inner shit and I didn’t know how to handle it. I wanted Brynlee back, nothing else, nothing more. She had me out here feeling weak and I was perfectly ok with that. If she wanted me to kiss the ground she walked on, I would. Hell, if she wanted me to spread her ass cheeks apart and kiss the center of
her ass for the rest of my life, her wish would be my command.

  “What Jadoré?” I said in annoyance when I answered.

  “So, it’s just fuck your son?” she said in aggravation.

  “Man, you know I got some other shit going on. I’ll be over there later. Fuck...” I told her, which I was lying.

  I had no intentions of going over there. I had booked a flight to Texas. I was about to pack a few things and head out there in the morning. I had already let the university know that I wouldn’t be there Monday morning.

  “Stop fucking lying Troy. I’m not asking you to be there for me. I already know what it is between the two of us but your son, don’t do him like that.” Jadoré had tried to make me feel bad and I did.

  However, I had to go get my fiancée. Jadoré and TJ would be here when I got back.

  “Since when do you be trippin’ like this?” I hissed as I raised the bottle to my lips and took a gulp.

  I squinted my eyes as my throat burned from the strong taste of Jack Daniel’s.

  “Since you started acting like a deadbeat. The shit is not you and I don’t like it. Come see your son today or Ms. Brynlee will be hearing from me,” she spat and hung up the phone in my face.

  Pissed, I threw the bottle of Jack Daniel’s across the room. It hit the white walls, leaving a dent and a brown stain. The bottle hit the floor and broke, causing the remainder of the liquor to stain the white carpet.

  Now I stood here, trying to decide if I should go see Jadoré so she would shut the fuck up, or get my things and just leave out.

  After debating, I was grabbing my keys off of the bar and making my way out of the front door. I couldn’t let Jadoré ruin my chance of getting Brynlee back before I even tried.

  Staggering to my car, I opened the door and tumbled back a little before I gathered my composure and fell into my car. Sticking the keys into my ignition, I closed the door and began to back out of the driveway.