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Aku huffed, still walking on air to Zaire’s trailer. “I don’t know him…why can’t a bad bitch talk to people without you assuming it’s more than that?”

“Ummm probably because you came back like you took a smoke break with glossy eyes and a carefree spirit. My bad...” Niah knew they weren’t friends.

Aku made that clear when she hired her, but over the last year or so, they’d started to blur the lines on what a professional relationship should look like.

However, there were always small moments like this one that reminded Niah to mind her business and keep it cute.

Aku was sweaty and tired.

After dropping Niah off at her car, she stopped by a little wing spot to grab food before heading home herself. Her body was done for, but the silence waiting at the beach house pulled at her more than sleep did.

Technically, it wasn’t her house, but it felt close enough.

When Noodle moved in with Bu, Aku started leaving little pieces of herself behind.

A silk bonnet in the guest room, her favorite hot sauce in the cabinet, and a pair of fuzzy slides by the door.

She never made a formal decision to stay. She just… didn’t leave.

The condo in Madison Heights was still hers - still top-floor, still pretty, and still paid for by her own checks.

But lately, that place felt too quiet in all the wrong ways, like it echoed back at her, reminding her she didn’t have nobody to come home to but that damn expensive ass couch everyone clowned her over.

Pulling up to the house, she grabbed her food and her purse, making her way inside. The ocean breeze licked her face as she made her way up the steps. The neighborhood was so still, she could hear the waves crashing like they were doing it just for her. Bu had done good with this place…real good.

As soon as she got in the house and sat at the island to eat, her phone rang.

It was Devin and no matter how much her pussy jumped thinking about him, she ignored the call.

Even after everything, her body betrayed her.

That little pull in her stomach…that twitch between her thighs…

that whisper in her chest that remembered what it felt like to have him pressed against her at 3 a.m. with that deep voice.

His name flashed across her phone again.

She just let it ring.

A few months ago, that would’ve hurt, would’ve sent her down a rabbit hole of doubt,

wondering what was wrong with her, what she could fix, and what she could give up to make him change his mind.

Now? She just felt tired and fully understood that changing him, meant getting a version of him she didn’t even know. Plus, it was her asking too much of him after she felt he was wrong for asking her to bend on what she wanted.

So, no matter how much she loved the way Devin folded her up in bed, she knew she had to draw the line and stay on the side she chose. She was tired of that aftermath feeling. The one when you had to clean up the mess the earthquake left behind.

Tired of trying to shrink herself into someone who could be loved halfway, tired of confusing sexual chemistry with reconciliation, tired of waking up after the fourth round wondering why she still felt so empty and why her heart didn’t feel the same for him.

Her phone went dark.

She sighed and looked around the kitchen, the living room…at everything. The house was beautiful. Clean lines, soft furniture, expensive candles with wood wicks that cracked when they burned. And yet still, it felt like somebody else’s peace, like a vacation from her real life.

She wanted something to feel like hers - not borrowed…not part-time…not temporary.

She wanted love that wasn’t loud online, yet firm in the quiet. Love that stayed when she was sick, when she was bloated, when she was bare-faced and raw. Love that didn’t need coaxing or convincing.

Not attention…not lust… love.

Her food was getting cold.

She pushed the box away, her appetite fading, even though her stomach still rumbled from hunger.

That’s when her phone buzzed again—this time it was a notification.

Thanks for using Plugged In. Your guest order has been completed. Create a profile to leave a rating for: Key.

Aku blinked. Then read it twice.

Guest order?

She fumbled to click in the app she’d clowned Zaire about to create a profile.

Once her profile was created, she uploaded a profile picture and clicked around to see what it was about. The interface was smooth, dark and clean. The kind of sleek you didn’t expect from a hood-coded platform. She scrolled for a minute, genuinely impressed.

Then she saw the profile.

Key. CEO. Verified vendor. 5 stars. Trusted in Crescent Park.

There was a note under his name. “On time or it’s free. I don’t miss. King of dominoes.”

Aku smiled to herself. “Of course that’s what his ass would say.”

She didn’t favorite him.

Didn’t rate him either, even though she talked shit to him earlier. Then it dawned on her that Malik must’ve been the one to add her to the system when he demanded her phone.

She closed the app just a little slower than she meant to, as his ruggedly handsome face popped into her head.

Aku made plans to scroll the app just to see what all was on there because she was nosy and intrigued but first, she needed to eat a little something in order to toss back a few shots while coaching herself not to reach out to Devin.