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sixty-one

. . .

“Why you touchin’ on me?” Maximus asked, giving Eden the eye.

Eden was fresh out of the shower and hydrated with her body oil he’d had to buy two replacement bottles of. “You know why I’m touchin’ on you. I’ve done this every morning since you got home. Isn’t that right, Teddy?”

The Cane Corso looked up at Eden as if they had established a secret language in his absence.

She’d gone out and bought him a bed, toys, top of the top-of-the-line dog food.

He got groomed weekly, had a babysitter to tend to him on the days she wasn’t home to do it herself.

Teddy had even gotten used to curling up at Eden’s side.

The last three days he’d been home, Maximus found himself going back and forth with a dog. Teddy only moved when Eden told him to.

“You and this dog,” Maximus grumbled. “All that screaming you did the other night, he tried to break down the damn door.”

“Max, that is literally your fault. You had him trained to only listen to me. Ain’t that right, Teddy? Hm?”

Teddy nudged her and licked her ankle.

“And he stays licking my ankle. That’s my ankle, boy,” Maximus toyed, earning him a bark.

“Alright, Teddy, that’s enough. Go lay down,” Eden spoke, and Teddy trotted away.

“You ain’t tell that nigga who the big dog is in this house?”

“I did. He told me it was him,” Eden joked, as she rubbed his shoulders and hummed.

“You gon’ tell me what you’re doing?”

Eden looked up at him and squinted. “Amen. Why must you always interrupt the prayer?”

“You got to do it when we naked? Or in the bed when your leg is on me? I don’t need God looking down at what I’m doing to you. Nah, I’m barely on the good and faithful list, and you be trying to test it.”

Eden rolled her eyes and laughed. “You get on my nerves. Would you like me to stop praying over you?”

“Nah, do your thing.”

“Thought so, crazy. You ready for today?”

He groaned. “You gon’ fill me in? How she doing?”

Eden smirked. “I would say find out for yourself, but I know how your anxiety works. Listen, go in with an open mind. But I’m going to be honest.”

“Don’t tell me no bad shit.”

She grinned. “She’s doing great, actually. She’s going to work, earning her keep. So much so, she’s graduating today.”

“Oh, this is why you got me all fresh and up early?”

“Yes, sir. She’s very excited, she’s very proud of herself, and I was thinking…”

“That always means it’s going to cost me something.”

Eden rolled her eyes and walked away from him. “Something you put up happily every time. Say you don’t.”

“Ain’t never been this happy to slide over a phone, wallet, or some keys.”

“Exactly. So, the pool house, I had it decorated…”

“For what?”

“Your mom. And listen, listen, listen, listen before you start going off on me. She has to leave today after graduation. Initially, I tried getting her an apartment, and she looked so uncertain about it. Especially in Midtown. So, I thought if she’s here for a couple of months or however long, we can get her confidence up and set her up for success.

This is like the first time in her life she has to depend solely on herself. And that’s some scary shit.”

“E,” Maximus breathed.

She turned around and touched his chest. “Tell me what you want? You want her to go out and slowly fall back into her old ways, or here, where we know who is coming in and out. Plus, I need an assistant. Staysha’s business is growing, mine is growing.”

He scratched his chin through his beard. “You got a point. I’m going to ask you to do two things for me, though.”

“Anything.”

“If we get into a disagreement, don’t get in my way. You want to check me, do that shit where she don’t hear it. If you think she slippin’, let me handle it.”

Eden held her hands up. “It’s your world. Listen, she’s trying, and that’s got to be worth something.”

“It is. Go get dressed before I cancel all this and fill you up.” He watched as Eden clenched her thighs.

“Stop talking to me like that,” she groaned, hurrying into the closet. “You get dressed first.”

“I’m finna be wearing your skin, walking around looking like that,” he grumbled.

Dressed and out the door, they rode toward the women’s center in their own worlds. Eden had a hand on the back of his neck, legs crossed, checking emails, and Maximus had his right hand between her thighs and his other navigating the vehicle.

With the final week of the tour approaching, Maximus silently sat in gratitude that he and his team had made it back to Waynesville safely.

The three final shows, all sold out, were showing him how alignment worked.

Urban View Entertainment didn’t work out, but the alignment brought a connection to opened doors he’d only dreamt about walking through.

Now he was opening doors for himself and other men and women who found themselves trying to come out of the streets and the life that wanted to swallow them in its darkness.

Even now, going to see his mother felt different. He smirked to himself, that covering. Before, seeing her in whatever state she was in brought trepidation to his spirit. However, today, he was at peace.

They arrived, parked, and walked over to the onsite theater where the women in the program would be graduating into renewed and purpose-driven lives.

Eden reached over and laced her fingers in his.

Offering her a small smile, he searched the graduates for his mother.

In the front row, she stood in a new dress, heels, and her hair was done along with her makeup.

Most importantly, she held her head up and her shoulders back.

She was proud of herself, and that gave him more ease.

“Y’all went shopping?” he asked in her ear.

“Had a whole day. Spa, shopping spree, and all. She’s so proud of herself,” Eden replied.

“I can see it. I ain’t never seen her like this. Thank you.”

“Stop,” Eden huffed. “I’d do anything for you. You know that.”

“I know. You keep proving it.”

He placed a kiss on her cheek and sat back, readying himself for the ceremony. The ceremony began with a prayer and welcome, a song, and the graduates proudly recited their creed.

“I am a woman of value. Mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. I hold titles, but I hold myself. Accountable, responsible, and with honor. I vow to place one foot in front of the other and look toward the light. God is in me, and He is with me. I will not fail.”

Eden brushed a tear from her cheek and then his. Each woman crossed the stage and stated three things they were looking forward to doing with their new lease on life. Glennette took the stage and looked up, locating her living son and his lady.

“I’m Glennette Burton, and I’m looking forward to being a mother and grandmother. Rebuilding trust and travelling through forgiveness. But more than anything, I’m looking forward to telling my baby boy that I’m sorry.”

“Ohh boy,” Eden huffed, digging through her purse for a pack of tissues. “She’s trying to kill me.”

“You?” Maximus gulped. “Trying to break me down.”

They sat through twelve more women before the graduates were released to their families. Eden was sure to record how Glennette collided with her son and held him. Maximus tucked his face in the crook of her neck and embraced her the same.

“Forgive me, Max. I am so sorry,” she sobbed, her make-up be damned.

“I already did, Ma,” Maximus sniffled. “I already did.”

“I’m going to do better. I’ve come too far to go back,” she assured, pulling away. This time, Maximus believed her. “I have one ask.”

He wiped his face. “What’s that?”

“Can you and I go to therapy? Together and separately. I know there’s years of trauma I imposed on you.”

Maximus looked over at Eden, who nodded her head. “I’ll do it for you, for her, and our child, but I’ll really see it through for me.”

“That’s all I can ask for. Just a chance,” she responded.

Eden clapped and squealed. “I love this.”

Maximus smirked. “Where’s your stuff? Let’s get it and head home. I know someone has a chef coming through.”

Eden grinned. “I definitely used your card for that.”

“Uh huh, I saw it,” he chuckled. “Let’s go home.”

Back at home and unpacked, Glennette sat at the dining room table across from Eden and pointed to her ringless finger.

“Let me get in y’all business,” she started.

“I already know where she’s about to go,” Eden chuckled, taking her last bite of cake.

“Mmhmm. Where’s her ring?”

Maximus gave both women a silly grin.

“I’m really okay without one,” Eden defended. “Like I don’t know the first thing about being a wife. My momma literally had my dad set up with me in the car.”

Glennette smirked. “You are already being a wife, keeping his house – turning it into a home, covering him, supporting, speaking life. Y’all might as well make this official.”

“I hear you,” Eden hummed, catching the shift in Maximus’ energy. “I’m going to lay down.”

“I got the dishes,” Maximus said as Eden stood. He rubbed her belly, kissed it, before she kissed the top of his head. “Love you.”

“Love you, back.”

Maximus waited until Eden was upstairs behind the door before he commented. “I got plans, ma.”

“Do you? You got her carrying your baby. Don’t have that girl be a baby momma,” she shared.

Maximus schooled his trauma and nodded. “I hear you. I’ll handle that. There’s other things you and I might need to tackle before therapy.”

“What? Augustus? We don’t need to address that. How he turned out and ended is solely on me. The beginning, at least, the end was on him. I don’t hold that against you.”

“How you know everything?”

Her eyes lifted toward the stairs. “She’s come to see me every week.

She’s held me while I cried, she prayed with me, and she donated time in my trade classes.

That woman you got…I’d do that for her, too.

I understand the position you were in. I’m one thing.

The woman you have made life with, you protect that tirelessly – you protect her with your life.

Which is why you need to marry her. Regardless of what she says.

Anything can happen to you, and you need to make sure that she and your child are in a position to win.

That’s all I’m saying. I won’t push the issue, okay? ”

“Alright.”

“Come on and do these dishes, while I finish talking your ear off.”

“You and Eden finna have me sandwiched between y’all.”

“Oh yeah, we got a watch list. How long you gon’ have her working?”

“We agreed that after the baby, she’ll take a couple of months off from filming. But she got so much to do, it’s unreal. I love it, though. She’s always been like that, though. She’s the real reason my shit blew up. I think she got a direct line to God or something.”

“I can tell you she’s definitely connected and covered.”

“For sure.”